Comments on Village Voice on the Brink of Strike

Why don't you organize at the Stranger?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?...

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

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.

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.

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

@8 No.

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.

@11 Yr doin it rong

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

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?

The Weakly is trustworthy?

The Times is dead accurate?

The PI is the friend of the peeps?

Really?

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.

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".