The Other Side of the Story
The Los Angeles Times press operators have been represented by a union, the Graphics Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 140, since January 2007. Lee Carey is a press operator who has worked for The Times since 1981. As Carey shared during a recorded interview, the vote on Jan. 6, 2007 was close. The union won the election to represent the 288 employees in the bargaining unit with 140 votes.
“Half the people wanted the union, basically, and half the people didn’t want the union,” said Carey. “So, it created a divided workforce from the outset.”
Carey recalled that the union organizers had made a variety of promises about what a union could do for them. “They were going to safeguard jobs, they were going to get us better benefits, better pay, a voice at the table,” Carey said of the promises made by union organizers. “Every problem, they could help fix.”
Prior to the contract negotiation, according to Carey, the union representatives assured the members that they wouldn’t have to settle for anything less than they’d had before the union was elected. But when the union representatives negotiated the first contract, in 2008, Carey remembered that they prioritized two things: “The first two things was the dues check off, which allows them to take dues directly out of your paycheck. And the other one was the union security clause, which makes paying dues a condition of employment.”
“They ratified a contract that was less than what we had,” he said, “And from that point, we’ve lost a lot of money.”
Noting that several of his co-workers have not joined a union he continued, “We work side by side with people that are non-union, and so I have eight years’ of experience comparing non-union versus union, and we’ve lost a lot more than what the non-union employees have.”
The members of the pressroom union did receive a one-time $1,000 signing bonus in 2014, but they have lost out on wage increases and on the company’s 401k matching benefit – and they’ve paid approximately $700 each year in dues. If you add up what an average pressroom employee could’ve contributed to a 401k, 6% of a $65,000 annual salary, with approximately $2,600 per year from the company in matching contributions, that’s a loss of about $3,300 per year. Over the eight-year period that the union has represented the pressroom, an average employee potentially lost $25,400: -$3,300 x 8 years = -$26,400 + $1,000 signing bonus = -$25,400.
The union was able to negotiate for a seniority-based system, but the union could not and did not prevent layoffs. Carey, along with a number of his fellow union members who are not satisfied with the union’s representation, has worked through the National Labor Relations Board to decertify the union. The most recent vote was 50 to 35, in favor of keeping the union.
“Once the union is in, it’s really hard to get them out because they’re very, very good at playing on people’s fears,” said Carey. “The only thing that keeps them in is fear.”
Looks like I left the Times just in time to miss all the wonderful benefits that the Union blessed the pressroom with. I have missed working with some of the old timers that have retired or passed on but I have never regretted leaving. I did work in a union before I started at the paper with Southern Railway. Yep, talk about a monster of a union, they had one.......but look at the railroads now. Went on strike twice, both times sent back to work with no contract. The railroad unions are basically worthless now. I see the Times withering away to a puny tabloid pretending it is as important as it used to be. Good luck to you guys, I hope you prove me wrong.
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