THE MEDIA

Byline strike continues against writers’ will

By Noah Bruce

You’ve heard of punishing kids who get caught smoking cigarettes by making them smoke a whole pack, hoping the experience will sicken them on tobacco? That’s not too far from the way management at the Portland Press Herald is treating its writers on a byline strike.

Though the Portland Newspaper Guild strike, begun July 14, was scheduled to run through July 20, management has continued to print stories written by the mysterious “from staff reports.” Managing editor Jeannine Guttman threatened and justified the action in a July 12 memo sent to newspaper staff.

“The company cannot be in the position of not knowing, week to week, whether another byline strike will be attempted,” the memo reads. “To bring stability, the company will exercise its rights to determine if and when the bylines will be returned.”

However, David Connerty-Marin, staff writer at the Herald and guild communications manager, feels that the continued withholding of the byline is vindictive. He says if management had kept “low key,” the strike would have been over and done with by now. Instead, “they decided to make a huge deal out of it,” and “to ratchet it up to another level . . . They say it’s not to be vindictive, it’s to bring stability to the newsroom because they figured we could do [a byline strike] anytime and it’s created such turmoil. Of course, it would not have created such turmoil if they had just let us do it.”

Marin is referring not only to management’s continued withholding of the byline, but also to management’s reaction to the strike in the first place. When the writers first told their editors that they did not want their names used, management responded by saying that they must make the request in writing two days in advance. The writers complied with the request, though they felt it constituted a breach of contract.

According to Ed Murphy, staff writer and guild vice president, the guild has filed a grievance with the labor board concerning the perceived breach of contract. At the same time, management has filed a grievance against the guild for what it feels is an improper use of byline withholding.

These developments are the latest in the continuing saga of contract negotiations between the guild and Blethen Newspapers, the Seattle-based company that owns the Press Herald. Guildmembers are angry that they have been without a contract for three years and without a raise for four.