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Monday, June 16, 2008

Village Voice on the Brink of Strike

posted by on June 16 at 16:57 PM

The first strike in The Village Voice’s 53-year history seems a distinct possibility. Contract talks between the Voice’s employees and its owner, Village Voice Media, center on proposed cuts in health care coverage in the latest contract offer from management, which the union considers unacceptable.

The potential strike* comes one week after Village Voice Media (formerly New Times), which also owns Seattle Weekly, was ordered to pay nearly $16 million to the San Francisco Bay Guardian in a predatory-pricing case involving VVM’s SF Weekly and its lone San Francisco rival. It also comes on the heels of a series of shakeups at the Voice and throughout the 17-paper chain. According to the New York Press:

In the last three years, the Voice has gone through five editors-in-chief: Donald Forst, the paper’s editor-in-chief during the New Times merger, left shortly after the merger; his replacement, Doug Simmons, was fired after an internal scandal involving fabrications in reporting. Next, Erik Wemple from Washington City Paper was brought on, but quit within days of being hired in June 2006. David Blum served as editor-in-chief from September of 2006 until he was fired in March of 2007. (Blum is now the editor-in-chief of the New York Press.) Tony Ortega, previously an editor-in-chief of VVM papers in Kansas City and in Florida, has been the paper’s editor-in-chief since March of 2007, and has presided over much of the cutbacks.

* Although I think it’s great that VVM is unionized—they’re one of the only alt-weeklies in the country that is—I’m not sure they’re picking their battles wisely here. Health-care costs are rising nationwide thanks to the for-profit US health care system, not greedy employers. Fix the system, and you’ll fix the problem. Maybe I’m wrong in this case—hell, I love to think of the greedy New Times overlords rolling in piles of cash in their gold-plated mansions outside Phoenix—but I also know that my premiums, deductibles, and copays have gone up every single year at every single place I’ve worked. Is that all the work of greedy employers? I don’t think so. And, as Gawker points out, strikes haven’t gone so well for employees of “shaky print outlets” in the past.

[This post has been changed from its original form—the first quote from the New York Press has been properly formatted to reflect the fact that it is a quote, and the attribution has been changed to the Press to correct an earlier misattribution to the Voice.]

RSS icon Comments

1

Why don't you organize at the Stranger?

Posted by norma rae | June 16, 2008 5:34 PM
2

Kelly O and Ari Spool give Erica C. Barnett can of Rize, Erica C. Barnett drink Rize, freak out, Hulk out, ERICA C. BARNETT BECOME HULK!

HULK WILL SMASH SEXIST OBAMA!

And no, I don't feel like letting it go.

Posted by The Incredible Sulk | June 16, 2008 6:28 PM
3

I love all the equivicating after the asterisk! Congratulations on discovering that unions are not striving to implement a progressive adgenda. They are striving to redistribute wealth to insiders from outsiders, and don't give a flying fuck whether the outsiders are rich or poor, consumers or shareholders, children or adults, left-wing or right-wing. And because they can legally exercise a monopoly power that a business cannot, they can do so without actually creating any incremental value for others.

So good luck with your yes-to-strikes-but-only-against-evil-right-wing-corporations strategy.

Posted by David Wright | June 16, 2008 6:37 PM
4

Erica,
It's always so pathetic when you gleefully report this stuff. It was on Gawker this morning and I was 100% sure you would post it.

The troubles at the Voice and elsewhere have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the chain and you know it. The Seattle Weekly is obviously very much alive and well, so you'd better get back to work.

How's the Stranger doing? Last couple of issues were pretty thin.

Posted by Whatever | June 16, 2008 6:40 PM
5

Seattle Weekly employee @4: Of course VVM's financial problems affect the whole chain - duh. You're kidding yourself if you think SF Weekly is going to absorb a $16 million loss alone, or that the financial problems at the Village Voice are unrelated to the rest of the company. It's the biggest alt-weekly chain in the country, with a local link, which makes it absolutely worth reporting on.

Posted by ECB | June 16, 2008 6:51 PM
6

First, if the VV workers were going to go on strike, they should have done it when the political purges began, not after.

Second, I guess the fact that the Stranger doesn't provide health care means that other workers at alt weeklies shouldn't strike for health benefits? Cause, you know, if they're not getting it now, it must mean that their employers can't afford it. Cause the Stranger would provide its workers health care benefits if it could afford it, right? Right?...

Posted by Trevor | June 16, 2008 6:57 PM
7

Nevermind. Maybe I should read before I post...

Posted by Trevor | June 16, 2008 6:59 PM
8

Ha! You can set your watch by this - Erica, why in the world do you think @4 is a Seattle Weekly employee? Don't flatter yourself, toots, there are media watchers all over this town. And we know this: Stranger, spiteful and bush league; Weekly, trustworthy, yet not original; Times, dead-accurate, but perhaps a bit big biz and agenda-driven; PI, friend of the peeps, but a WAY too sloppy to be trusted.

Posted by Sh'Nayniquawanda | June 16, 2008 7:11 PM
9

Of course any criticism of the Stranger must come from a Weekly employee, right Erica? Is that the kind of investigative reporting that allows you to earn less than your cross -town rivals at the Weekly/Times/PI?

The stranger is doing great, right? Ad revenue in print is down. Print readership is dwindling. Online ad revenue is non-existent. Yet somehow the Stranger is going to avoid the pratfalls that lay ahead for all the other print media outlets in town.

Keep telling yourself that kitten.

Posted by I'm a Nuclear Bomb | June 16, 2008 7:31 PM
10

"Toots"? "Kitten"? Blech. I think I'm feeling ill.

Posted by Julie | June 16, 2008 7:41 PM
11

@8 No.

Posted by elenchos | June 16, 2008 7:47 PM
12

Sounds like ECB is management now. Or maybe not. She is of course correct in stating that the answer is to fix the system, but in the meantime, workers have a right to negotiate what is in their best interest.

Management will always try to look out for their bottom line, and sometimes the workers are not part of those conversations.

At the very least, the union gives you a place at the table. Theyre not perfect, but it is certainly better than not being at the table.

I beleive there are other alt weeklies that are unionized, as a matter of fact, Im sure of it.

Thats too bad that the Stranger makes you guys pay out of pocket for health care. From the look of the amount and size of the ads, Im sure they can afford a better benefits package.

Posted by SeMe | June 16, 2008 10:54 PM
13

@11 Yr doin it rong

Posted by Matt Z. | June 17, 2008 3:46 AM
14

As a point of fact, The Stranger does offer health-care benefits.

Posted by Tim Keck | June 17, 2008 9:16 AM
15

uh, ECB probably has administrative access to Slog and might be able to see Whatever's email address...

also, that post SOUNDS like it came from a Weakly person.

Hey, y'all, if the Stranger sucks so much, why the fuck are you on here reading it?

Posted by michael strangeways | June 17, 2008 9:20 AM
16

The Weakly is trustworthy?

The Times is dead accurate?

The PI is the friend of the peeps?

Really?

Posted by michael strangeways | June 17, 2008 9:24 AM
17

So let me get this straight: Weekly employees are biased in commenting on stories related to the VV lawsuit and strike, but Erica is completley fair and objective when she inserts her opinion into stories about her rivals and main competition?

Nice.

Posted by Times' Employee | June 17, 2008 9:48 AM
18

I don't work at the Weekly, Strangeways. And I don't have to work at the rival paper to dislike the Stranger's concept of "media reporting".

Posted by Whatever | June 17, 2008 10:22 AM

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