Union reaffirms support for 2-newspaper group

The union representing employees at The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reaffirmed its support yesterday of an ad hoc citizens group that has been backing the P-I's owner, The Hearst Corp., in the legal fight over the papers' joint-operating agreement (JOA).

Members of The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild voted 84 to 65 to continue supporting the legal stance of the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, which opposes efforts by The Times that could end the JOA, shut down the P-I, or both.

The union represents more than 850 employees at both papers. Yesterday's vote was taken at a general union membership meeting.

In a handout, union members at the meeting were presented with some details of a Times plan to cut the positions of as many as 55 Guild-represented employees. The cuts, which would include union workers in both news and nonnews departments at The Times, are part of a broader plan by the paper to cut up to 110 union and nonunion jobs to make The Times profitable.

Times officials are in negotiations with the union over details of the plan. The ultimate size of the reduction, they said, would depend in part on whether the union grants a request by The Times for additional flexibility in choosing who will be laid off. The company is offering enhanced severance packages in return for the flexibility

"We're not trying to undermine seniority," said Times spokeswoman Kerry Coughlin. The company already has the right under the Guild contract to lay off employees in 39 newsroom classifications by seniority, she said. The company is seeking to add four more classifications, which Coughlin said would let the company be more flexible in the cuts.

Union officials yesterday expressed some opposition to the Times proposal, particularly to the one-year window for flexibility the company is seeking.

Times officials say the paper's accounting shows a loss for the last five years, with more than $12 million in losses last year. They blame the losses on a persistent slump in Seattle's economy since the end of the dot-com boom, news-industry changes and the P-I's dwindling circulation under the JOA.

The Times' loss accounting does not include $30 million the paper received from real-estate sales last year. According to federal filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Knight Ridder, which owns 49.5 percent of The Times Co., accounting for the gain was deferred because of "unresolved contingencies," and the money was used to pay down Times Co. long-term debt.

In April 2003, Times Publisher Frank Blethen notified Hearst The Times lost money under the JOA in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The loss notification triggered a JOA provision requiring negotiations that could lead to a shutdown of the P-I or an end to the JOA.

A lawsuit, filed by Hearst to block The Times, is scheduled to be argued before the state Supreme Court Feb. 15.

Yesterday's union vote won't affect the court case. The union has been the main provider of financial and legal help to the committee, although some Guild members object to the committee's backing of Hearst's position in the lawsuit.

Times reporter Steve Miletich, who proposed that the union urge the committee to withdraw its support of a key element of Hearst's case, called the proposal "a symbolic gesture."

"We wanted to show that although we agree with the goal of the committee, we don't agree with some of its methods," said Miletich, who is vice president of the guild.

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.