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Job Cuts To Save The Chronicle
Source Bruce Carlton, Pressmen ret.
Date 09/05/07/11:21

Job Cuts To Save The Chronicle: the Rome Aloise Deal

Recently Rome Aloise Secretary Treasurer Of Teamster Local 853 and San Francisco I.B.T. Joint Council No. 7 Recording Secretary got the best deal of all the remaining Unions at the San Francisco Chronicle. Agreeing to 100 job cuts compared to the Guilds 150. Members did not have to take any pay cuts, he got a one time special contribution to the Teamster Benefit Trust in the amount of $800,000, an extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement from December 31, 2010 to December 31, 2015. It was pay back time from his friend Frank Vega a.k.a. Darth Vega the infamous leader of the Detroit Free Press Strike. Aloise broke up the Conference of Newspaper Unions in 2005 by signing a contract before any of the other Unions had a chance at sitting down at the bargaining table. He signed a NO STRIKE CLAUSE! Virtually agreeing to deliver the paper no matter what the other Unions did! But he did get close to 4 million dollars put into the Teamster Trust! The Guild membership at that time was forced into taking one of the worst contracts in their history. With a NO STRIKE CLAUSE! Except for the latest one, 2009. San Francisco Web Pressmen & Prepress Workers’ Union 4N was the last hold out! Since the Graphic Communications International Union merged with the International Brotherhood Of Teamsters it has been all down hill for Local 4N! We could not get any backing from the International in our 2006 struggle. A contract with drastic consequences was forced upon us. A No Strike Clause, 100 job guarantee gone, successors and assigns gone, closing contract meaning no jobs in 3 to 4 years, no supplemental workers compensation/state disability sick pay, overtime only after 8 hours instead of 7, no employer increase into health & welfare contributions, members would have to pay with future raises, no retro pay for the 16 months negotiating a contract. Our Union was denied money from the International to help pay for our rallies in front of 5th and mission. We hosted the 50th Annual North American Newspaper Conference from August 10, 2006 to August 12, 2006. Not one representative from the International would speak at the rally. We had to ask our retirees for contributions to help with expenses. The International Union would not grant us strike sanction. Although Graphics Communication Conference President George Tedeschi flew into San Francisco from Washington D.C. to promote this closing contract. He said Vega was ready to post conditions and we could not get strike sanction, he would get us jobs at the new Transcontinental Printing Plan in Fremont. As of this date over 100 pressmen have applied for jobs and not one has been hired and all the Union officials can say is that they are monitoring the situation! I can see it now. Six months from the time the new printing plant starts production there will be a front page picture of Hoffa, Tedeschi and Rome Aloise with their clinched fists in the air bragging about how they organized the Transcontinental Printing Plant. What they wont tell you is that they were picking up and delivering the paper from a non Union shop while Union pressmen and mailers were put out on the street! They will be SCABS paying dues. At $16.00 an hour with minimal healthcare coverage. Over 200 Union Pressmen and over 100 mailers will be on unemployment. We were put in a box. And Union officials wonder why only 7% of Americans belong to a Union! Why pay dues if you have to work 2 Union jobs to make what Union members use to make at one! Make sure your wife is working, if you do not have one you had better get married to make ends meet! So much for Family Values! And if you are non Union you get to work 4 jobs. Wake up America! This is a race to the bottom line!

Bruce Carlton
Retired Local 4N Pressman

P.S. Old enough to know how
it use to be and should be.

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