Jersey Journal Employees Demand Fair Contract & Salary Increase
The
writers, editors, reporters, videographers, and photo journalists represented by the N.Y. Newspaper Guild that
produce the Journal’s content haven’t had a raise in 5 years
Secaucus, New Jersey-
Employees of the Jersey Journal, owned by billionaire Donald Newhouse, protested Monday outside of
the paper’s new office building during its grand opening in Secaucus
and demanded executives negotiate a fair contract that will raise wages
and provide reasonable benefits. The Journal has been in a contract
dispute with its employees and their union, the
Newspaper Guild of New York, CWA Local 31003, since January 2013.
 |
| N.Y. Newspaper Guild President, Bill O'Meara; Local Guild Rep, Bob Daraio protest outside Jersey Journal offices |
The
writers, editors, reporters, videographers, and photo journalists that
produce The Jersey Journal’s content haven’t had a raise in 5 years and
executives are refusing to bargain over reasonable wage increases.
Over the
same period, the news stand price of the paper has increased 100% and
the paper’s headquarters was sold for $2.8 million.
"Readers
of the Jersey Journal pay more for the paper now than they did five
years ago, and its owners just made $2.8 million selling its longtime
headquarters in Journal Square,"
said Terrence T. McDonald, Local Newspaper Guild Unit Chair at The Jersey Journal.
"Yet our members, who continue to be asked to take on more
responsibilities, have gone nearly five years without an increase in
pay. This is unacceptable. Without us, there would be no paper, only white
space."
A union member told Capital reporter, Joe Pompeo, that starting salaries in the roughly
two-dozen-person newsroom have been lower than $50,000 a year since at
least 2008 and that reporters and photographers are increasingly
expected to do more with less.
"All we're looking for is for our management to sit down with us and negotiate," Jersey Journal reporter Terrence T. McDonald told Capital.
The unrest at the Journal
adds to a larger climate of anxiety at Advance's Jersey publishing
stable, which includes 10 other newspapers and the web portal www.nj.com.
Advance's crown jewel in the Garden State, The Star-Ledger, was brought to the brink of closure last fall as its trade unions battled over concessions with publisher Richard Vezza.
Throughout the chain, journalists are on edge
over a recent announcement that Advance is looking at ways to
consolidate its Jersey titles. Fears abound of massive downsizing such
as that which has occurred at other Advance newspapers over the past few
years, most notably The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
The Jersey Journal is
a six-day tabloid that has fallen far from its glory years as a
well-respected broadsheet. These days it focuses mostly on pithy bursts
of crime and municipal news. But it remains the major news source for an
area that is booming with development and small-business growth as New
Yorkers migrate west in search of more affordable housing.
According
to the Alliance for Audited Media, average weekday circulation for the
six months that ended Sept. 30 was down to a little over 14,000 from
16,500 during the same period in 2012.
The paper recently vacated a
historic building that gave Jersey City's Journal Square neighborhood
its name. A big fat cigar-smoking pig was inflated outside the new
offices in nearby Secaucus ahead of this afternoon's union action.
Instead
of negotiating in good faith, the Journal has refused to entertain any
proposal that increases their operating costs and refuses to open their
books
to show financial need. The employees at the Journal are asking for a
raise in order to support their families.
*Photos Courtesy of the Newspaper Guild*
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