MEDIA

Press Herald labor woes continue

By Noah Bruce

On Friday, March 16, roughly one hundred Portland Press Herald employees marched down Congress Street in yet another “informational picket.” The employees, who have not received a pay raise in three years, staged such a picket six Wednesdays in a row last September and October. The march on March 16 coincided with a labor meeting between the Portland Newspaper Guild, representing the employees, and the Portland Newspapers, owned by the Seattle Times.

According to the Guild’s website, Guild negotiators “expressed our outrage over the substantial dilutions in members’ rights that the company expects us to swallow. We told the company that in light of its backtracking, we are considering pulling back the tentative agreements on online and new business ventures that we reached in January.”

Recently the Phoenix became aware that Portland City Councilor, Peter O’ Donnell is refusing any interviews with the Press Herald in a show of support for the staff. He reasons that if other elected officials did likewise, it would force Blethen to a compromise. “It’s a principal thing, ” says O’ Donnell. “If all of us who are elected in the City of Portland stop talking to the Herald for one month, this thing would be resolved.”

City beat reporter Mark Shanahan, is not overly thankful. “I’m a member of the union and feel that we need and deserve a new contract,” he says. “But, I’m not sure a city counselor, at this point, taking this kind of position, helps me all that much. . . Who is he punishing the big people or is he punishing the guy on the beat?”

Last summer, Shanahan learned of O’Donnell’s decision when he attempted to interview him for a story. When Shanahan wrote that O’Donnell refused the interview as a protest against Blethen, his editor cut this explanation out of the piece. Shanahan claims the editor felt it was “nonsense and self-promotion” on O’Donnell’s part. For his part, Shanahan is taking middle ground in the decision to cut the reference. “I don’t disagree [with the decision] . . . The fact that I wrote says I don’t completely agree,” he says.