Guild members and their allies will gather Thursday outside the Chronicle building in downtown San Francisco to protest the New York-based Hearst Corp.’s attack on quality health care at the newspaper. Detailed flyer here. It will be one of the first public demonstrations by San Francisco media workers since the newspaper business began its long economic slide […]
Read MoreFormer Chronicle reporter reflects on Distilled Spirits
Back in the day, before I came to accept my powerlessness over certain substances, there would have been a tear in my beer while chugging through Don Lattin’s new book, “Distilled Spirits: “Getting High, Then Sober, With a Famous Writer, A Forgotten Philosopher And a Hopeless Drunk.” It’s a memoir of sorts by the San […]
Read MoreChronicle Guild members resist Hearst stall tactics
A video tour of the fabulous Hearst Corp. headquarters in New York shows a company that treats some of its workers to subsidized sushi. In San Francisco Chronicle labor negotiations, we see another side of the media giant. Video by Cubes. Bargaining Bulletin #11 San Francisco Chronicle Unit Hearst Corp. skipped negotiations again Wednesday, the […]
Read MoreGuild proposes to make employees whole after years of concessions
Bargaining Bulletin #10 San Francisco Chronicle Unit In light of the Hearst Corp.’s continued stalling and inadequate offers, the Guild bargaining committee expanded its list of demands Monday during the latest round of contract talks. The Guild had hoped to reach a quick settlement on a short list of economic proposals focusing on a need […]
Read MoreWhy are you withdrawing your proposal?
Bargaining Bulletin #9 San Francisco Chronicle Unit Hearst Corp’s pay proposal turned out to have the shelf life of a flounder on a sidewalk on a sunny day in San Jose. On Thursday, Hearst lawyers offered a pay raise of 1.5% in each year of a three-year contract, effective July 1, 2012, 2013 and 2014. […]
Read MoreHearst offers next to nothing in Chronicle talks
Bargaining Bulletin #8 San Francisco Chronicle Unit Hearst Corp. finally offered its first detailed contract proposal Thursday, four months after bargaining started, suggesting all we need is a 1.5 percent pay raise in each of the next three years to solve all our problems. The proposed 1.5 percent annual pay raises would generate about $800,000 […]
Read MoreRube clowns around at the barbecue
Offer journalists a free cheeseburger and a beer and they’ll show up, which is what happened at Lake Temescal in Oakland for the annual Chronicle barbecue, presided over by soulmates Boswick the Clown and Carl T. Hall. Hall denied that the T. stands for “tartare” even though he somehow forgot that charcoal works better when […]
Read MoreHearst shifts to an even slower gear — reverse — in talks Thursday
Bargaining Bulletin #7 San Francisco Chronicle Unit Guild negotiators offered Hearst Corp. a new proposal Thursday to resolve our controversy over health care financing. We said we would simply agree to lock in the current contract commitment and shift further debate about health care to where it belongs: our jointly run health plan board of […]
Read MoreChronicle unit members share a cup of solidarity before bargaining
Bargaining Bulletin #6 San Francisco Chronicle Unit NY Hearst reps travel light Representatives of the Hearst Corp., which owns the San Francisco Chronicle, met with the Chronicle Guild bargaining committee today, rejected almost all aspects of the Guild’s proposal for a new labor agreement, and did not present a counter-offer. Guild members expressed disapproval and […]
Read MoreChronicle Guild Unit protests Hearst stalling
Bargaining Bulletin #5 San Francisco Chronicle Unit The Guild filed an unfair labor practice charge Wednesday against the Hearst Corp. after its negotiators again delayed meeting with our bargaining committee. We consider Hearst’s repeated delays and cancelations over the past five months as acts of bad faith. Our health plan, governed by a joint management-Guild […]
Read MoreHealth care questions dominate Guild contract talks at SF Chronicle
Bargaining Update August 2, 2012 Members of the San Francisco Chronicle Unit met Wednesday to hear the latest word — none too encouraging — from the bargaining front. No decisions were made or votes taken at the meeting. Members raised many questions, and discussed a written set of answers distributed by union officers. The […]
Read MoreGUILD VOICES: Chronicle should end deal with Journatic
by Kat Anderson, Director, Bay News Rising July 18, 2012 Investigations, both internal and outside, have revealed that content outsourcer Journatic supplied fake bylines to its publishing customers which include the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, GateHouse Media and Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle. Journatic’s head of editorial production, Mike Fourcher resigned over the […]
Read MorePhony bylines by publishers including SF Chronicle raise ethical concerns
It took real journalists to reveal last week that some publishers, including the Hearst Corp.’s San Francisco Chronicle, have been using outsourced content under made-up bylines — a disservice to readers that damages the credibility of good journalists everywhere. Our parent union, The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, has issued a statement condemning this practice, […]
Read MoreSan Francisco Chronicle Bulletin #2
Health care funding discussed in second round of Chronicle negotiations Negotiations on a new Guild contract at The Chronicle continued Tuesday with a discussion of health care issues for more than an hour in The Guild conference room. Executive Officer Carl Hall re-established Guild concerns with new legal representation present for Hearst. Efforts are under […]
Read More