More than 50 picketers showed up on Monday, Oct. 27, during the lunch hour outside the State Journal-Register to demand a contract that includes raises for editorial employees. Two city cops, both amiable sorts, also stopped by to lay out the rules for waving signs and chanting while walking back and forth on the sidewalk. Don’t block people from entering and leaving the building, the cops told Dean Olsen, health reporter and unit chairman of the United Media Guild that represents newsroom workers, and don’t be unruly. “What’s unruly?” Olsen asked, looking a tad concerned. Throwing things at people, fighting, assault, battery – that kind of thing, a sergeant explained. “You guys are fine,” the officer said. At least four elected officials – Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson, Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman, Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner and Springfield school board member Scott McFarland – showed up to lend support. Cahnman said that he couldn’t think of a position that the city could officially take in the matter given that the SJ-R is a private enterprise, but he questioned the fairness of GateHouse, the newspaper’s parent company, not giving raises to rank-and-file employees for seven years while top corporate executives have received six-figure bonuses. “If everybody had a pay freeze, OK, I can understand that,” Cahnman said. Meanwhile, publisher Clarissa Williams emailed a statement to Illinois Times, saying that the company is negotiating in good faith. “Our intention is to look out for all 141employees’ best interest,” she wrote. Wait a minute – there were more than 300 employees at the SJ-R when GateHouse bought the newspaper in 2007. Ouch.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2014.
