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Guild Files Complaint Against Eastside J-A

Troubles at the Bellevue-based Journal-American newspaper have resulted in an unfair labor practice complaint being filed against the paper with the National Labor Relations Board. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild filed the complaint after negotiations for a new five-year contract fell through in late May.

Both guild and management spokespersons confirmed to the Free Press that a handshake agreement was reached May 20. However, management negotiator Nick Chernick, the J-A's vice president of human resources, said the guild's wage proposals were complex and that "we misunderstood what [the guild] viewed as a settlement." Management rescinded the agreement three days later.

Liz Brown, a J-A staffer and the guild's unit chair, viewed the union's proposals as careful and clear. She said the wage increases that management disagrees with "do not even equal the expected rise in the cost of living."

The NLRB's Seattle office is investigating the complaint and a ruling is expected soon. J-A management could be found guilty of failure to bargain in good faith.

The newspaper union represents 95 employees who work in the J-A's news, circulation, advertising and mail departments.

For now, guild members at The Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer are secure in the middle of five-year contracts. The guild at the Tacoma Morning News Tribune, however, was decertified (discontinued) by an employee vote in 1991 after the collapse of bitter contract negotiations during which employee wages were frozen for many months.

Brown discounted the possibility of decertification at the J-A, citing strong union support among employees.


This story was updated in the September 1993 edition of Spike.
Please see "J-A Ducks NLRB Bullet"



Greens Pick Up Where Catalyst Left Off

With the demise in May of the Seattle Community Catalyst, the Capitol Hill Greens have picked up the torch to serve as a voice and organizing tool for the area's activist community.

The first issue of Seattle Voices, a photocopied, two-page newsletter appeared in early June, featuring progressive-minded articles and a calendar of political meetings and cultural events similar to those printed in the Catalyst. Its July issue, a four-pager, was produced on newsprint and featured more of what was in the first issue.

Colin Wright, a Green, says the group wants to form a collective with a five- or six-person coordinating committee and volunteers to help produce and distribute the newsletter. The Greens printed 1,000 copies in June and 2,500 in July. Expenses are being paid with advertising revenue and donations.

Placing calendar listings in Voices is free. The Capitol Hill Greens can be reached at 726-0300, or by writing to 2253-B E. Roanoke, Seattle, 98112.



KUOW Cranks up the News

KUOW listeners tuned into a station with a different personality the morning of Monday, June 28.

Pulling the plug on five hours of classical music a day, the station met KPLU's daily complement of news coverage and upped the ante. The station, at 94.9 FM, added 2-1/2 hours of BBC programming a day, along with the first editions of National Public Radio's Fresh Air and All Things Considered. Also new is a show called Weekday that features local news, public affairs and culture. Running twice a day, it replaces Ross Reynolds' Seattle After Noon at 4 p.m.

"We have the very best coverage of the world that is available in the area," said Reynolds, the station's program director. "People are being flooded by infotainment. We're looking for listeners who are interested in the world."

Reynolds said response to the new format, which was anticipated with much concern by listeners, has been mixed.

Here's a rundown of the UW-based station's new (summer 1993) weekday schedule:

4:00 a.m.NPR's Morning Edition
9:00KUOW's Weekday
10:00BBC's Outlook
10:30Documentaries and music
11:00NPR's Talk of the Nation
1:00 p.m.NPR's Fresh Air
2:00NPR's All Things Considered
2:30NPR's Marketplace
3:00BBC's News Hour
4:00KUOW's Weekday (repeated)
5:00NPR's All Things Considered
6:30NPR's Marketplace (repeated)
7:00Classical music
9:00Readings and radio drama
10:00BBC's News Hour (repeated)
11:00-4 a.m.Classical music


Please see a reader response to this article.




Times' New Format Bad for Content?

There is no denying that the spruced-up Seattle Times, having borrowed design techniques from the St. Petersburg Times, Los Angeles Times and other big-city dailies, looks like a paper belonging in the latter half of the 20th century, instead of the 1930s. The lighter-looking type, thin black rules, italicized headlines and grayed-out graphics are reminiscent of many well-designed magazines. Most readers seem to like it.

But it's mainly a visual makeover, despite the Times' best efforts to tell readers that it has made substantive editorial improvements. If anything, it has stepped backwards in this regard. By increasing the use of "digests" and snippets that are little more than expanded headlines, the Times in fact may be reducing its commitment to in-depth coverage.

The packaging of stories, albeit more attractive, seems to have taken precedence over their content. Such a shift doubtlessly will suck energy away from journalistic integrity and redirect it into the paper's image. (Can you say USA Today? )

Times editors know they are competing more and more with non-print providers of news and entertainment, so their televisionization of the paper makes perfect market sense. But this does not mean that content has to suffer; longer, in-depth stories can be visually appealing as well.



Carlson's Counterpoint Counterproductive

Pitched as a journal of media criticism, John Carlson's new Counterpoint newsletter is little more than another ideological branch of his conservative Washington Institute for Policy Studies. With Carlson's garlic-breath subtlety, Counterpoint is an embarrassingly unveiled carrier of the Bellevue think tank's right-wing agenda.

Though eloquent in justifying the need for more media analysis, Carlson uses Counterpoint to discredit fears of a depleted ozone layer, attack progressive health-care and education reforms, justify the Strategic Defense Initiative, and skewer or glorify media practices as needed to comply with his Company Line.

What Carlson apparently does not realize is that, if indeed the media in general do have a liberal slant, the most effective way to expose this is not to douse his media analysis with conservative dressing.



Active Press




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Widows and Orphans

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Contents on this page were published in the July/August, 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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