Two-newspaper group retains union backing

Union members from Seattle's two feuding daily newspapers voted yesterday to retain their local's association with a citizens' group that is seeking to thwart moves by The Seattle Times that could lead to a shutdown of its rival, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The 62-43 vote came after a heated two-hour meeting, with employees from both papers arguing over whether the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild should break its ties with the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town.

The union has been the largest financial contributor to the ad hoc citizens' group, which was formed in July last year. A King County Superior Court judge has let the group intervene in the long-running lawsuit that has pitted The Times against The Hearst Corp., which owns the P-I.

The committee has sided with Hearst on some issues and has filed its own legal briefs, which experts say could force the legal battle to drag on for additional months.

"There's been an honest discussion and a lot of issues raised," Susan Kelleher, a Times investigative reporter who made the motion to break with the committee, said after yesterday's meeting.

The vote involved only union members who attended the closed general-membership meeting. Kelleher said the split vote appeared to reflect the feelings of employees from each paper who attended, with Times employees leaning toward a break from the committee and P-I employees voting to maintain union backing.

The union represents about 700 editorial and other employees at The Times and 150 at the P-I.

Kelleher and other Times employees said in interviews that interest in dissolving the connection with the committee has been brewing at the paper for several months. She said the move began after the union sent out an e-mail in September deriding an essay by Times Publisher Frank Blethen outlining his company's position in the newspaper fight.

She did not indicate after yesterday's vote whether Times employees would attempt to take other action.

Blethen has been meeting with some union members at the paper, seeking to gather support for The Times Co.'s position. And in e-mails to national union officials last week, Blethen warned of "deep cuts" contemplated at The Times if the unions didn't pressure their local chapter to support The Times.

In an e-mail Tuesday to Mort Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America, the parent group of the Guild, Blethen said the paper was struggling with continuing losses in advertising revenue and urged Bahr to put pressure on the local union, as well as on Hearst and city, state and national officials.

The Times, Blethen's e-mail said, needed "a demonstration to the family that the community and our employees want the family to prevail."

The Blethen family owns 50.5 percent of The Times' voting stock and controls the operation of the paper. The remainder is owned by Knight Ridder, a San Jose, Calif.-based media conglomerate.

A spokeswoman for Bahr said she was not aware of the e-mail. Linda Foley, president of The Newspaper Guild in Washington, D.C., who got a similar e-mail from Blethen, declined to comment.

Phil Talmadge, a co-chairman of the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, said after the vote that the committee and the Guild "share the same objective — keeping two papers alive in Seattle." Talmadge said the committee has about $10,000 in the bank and ample volunteer help, "whatever the Guild decides to do."

"What is interesting," he said, "is that Frank Blethen seems to think if the Guild withdraws its support, the committee will disappear. That simply won't happen."

While the papers have been battling in court, yesterday's vote reflected a more personal concern by union members for their jobs. Hearst has said The Times is seeking to shut down the P-I.

In April of last year, Blethen notified Hearst that The Times had lost money for three consecutive years under the papers' joint-operating agreement (JOA). The notification triggered a JOA provision requiring negotiations that could lead either to a shutdown of the P-I or an end to the JOA, in which case Hearst said it would close the P-I.

Blethen has said Hearst is seeking to "bleed" Times assets through JOA losses. He accuses the New York-based media company of wanting to force The Times Co. to sell its Seattle paper to Hearst, which he says would then shut the P-I.

Izidor Zuberman, a Times district circulation manager, said employees in his department are concerned about their jobs. He said The Times cut more than 30 jobs in his department in February.

"If there's going to be one paper in town, I want Frank to be running it," Zuberman said.

Nonetheless, Zuberman said he voted yesterday to retain ties between the union and the committee. "It seems it could help to have a voice in there," he said.

P-I sports reporter Angelo Bruscas said he voted to keep the union's support of the committee because "we have no other recourse as employees of either The Times or the P-I in legal proceedings that could affect our jobs.

"It would be ridiculous to turn away from that."

Bill Richards is a freelance writer hired on a special contract by The Seattle Times to cover events involving the joint-operating agreement with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

He can be reached at brichards@seattletimes.com.