Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Some Guy Mouths Off.

Hey Gang,

Greg Hernandez called to my attention this story posted on Romanesko: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001097271 . "I bet it'll really make your blood boil," he said, which of course made me quite interested in what it had to say. Give it a read yourself and if you've got the time, ponder what Mr. Fiedler's yakking about.

Normally, I'd say it's not worth wasting more than about three seconds of your precious time, but I did think it set up some interesting contrasts to the Daily News and what we've managed to put together. Fiedler just canned a well-regarded employee under dubious circumstances, now his employees realize that they need some protection. And so, naturally, they're looking to The Newspaper Guild, part of our CWA umbrella.

So Fiedler has taken this opportunity to run his mouth about how unions ensure a mediocre workplace and promote laziness. They drag out the same tired arguments and promote the out-and-out lies about unions preventing companies from rewarding hard work and paying bonuses.

Well, if they can't think of a place where having a union's made the paper better, they can look here at the Daily News as their first example. As a result of this group that we've worked so hard to put together, we're paid better, treated better and enjoy a stronger relationship with our coworkers and managers than we have for years. The union's successfully been able to create a culture that makes the Daily News more than just a place to draw a paycheck, but one where we have a sense of common goals and interests. Through our open dialogue with managers, we've worked hard to make this place run more smoothly and efficiently, resulting in as good a paper as we've ever put out.

As far as this nonsense about unions preventing companies from paying bonuses or rewarding good performance, that's hogwash. I've seen plenty of people who are members of this union get both merit pay and bonuses. Sure, it's not a huge payout, but it's certainly not the union that's holding that money back. We applaud every time the company recognizes hard work and encourage them to do so richly. Regardless of what Mr. Diaz suggests, a good union will never stand in the way of workers' rewards.

So perhaps Mr. Fiedler would like to have a look at what all we've accomplished here, then re-think his jackass comments about what a union can do for both workers and a company. And if he's still looking for a few of the crummy outfits that stoop so low as to let the guild into their workplace, he can check out places like the New York Times and Washington Post. If only the union weren't holding them back, those places could really make something of themselves.

Alright, that's enough of getting riled up for one evening. Thanks for listening and hope to see y'all at happy hour.

-Brent

3 Comments:

Blogger Steven Rosenberg said...

You can make that Web address linkable with this coding: Guild Talk At 'Miami Herald' Sparks Management Opposition

4:31 PM  
Blogger Oxnard St. said...

I haven't figured out the ins and outs of the tagging yet... what do I enter to hyperlink text?

5:31 PM  
Blogger Steven Rosenberg said...

I suggest you use the Firefox browser ... then you highlight your text, click on the little "chain" thingy and then drop in the link. Or code it manually -- in Explorer, for instance, under the View menu, click on Source to see the raw code, then just copy it and change the Web address.

2:14 PM  

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