Let’s take our country back. No, I don’t mean stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tea Partiers who are oh so angry at the wrong people (mostly the skinny black guy on Pennsylvania Avenue).

No, we need to take it back from those who deny reality in order to serve their corporate masters. They could be Republicans (OK, they are Republicans), or Conservadems (hello, Ben Nelson) or even the so-called Democrats who enable them. You know the ones, the wholly owned two-legged subsidiaries of Big Oil, Big Banks, etc. The ones who make villains out of the victims.

Unions are to blame, they say. Unions must face the new reality, they say — meaning accept lower wages, benefits and security as the new normal as they line their pockets at our expense. But at the Boston Globe, the Guild accepted cuts of $20 million — and then watched ever penny of that money handed to the top two executives of the New York Times Co.

People without jobs are to blame, they say. If we give them unemployment benefits, they’ll be happy to sit on the couch chugging PBR and won’t have incentive to look for a job.

“Entitlements” are to blame. Simply raising the payroll cap on the Social Security tax fixes the system. But if the conservatives and corporate enablers take over Congress in the fall, Job No. 1 will be impeaching Obama. Job No. 2 will be killing Social Security and Medicare and funneling that wealth to Wall Street.

Homeowners are to blame for taking mortgages they “knew” they couldn’t afford — after generations of being told that home ownership is the key to the American Dream. (By the way, The New York Times reported July 8 that one in seven rich folks are mortgage delinquents, compared with one in 12 of the rest of us. Wonder how many of them will lose their homes.)

From the birthers to the Bush tax cut crowd (the tax cuts did not rob the Treasury of revenue!!) to the climate change deniers — the assault on reality is relentless. We need to fight back, as a union and as individuals. We will never solve our problems if we don’t.

(This post was written March 26, 2009; we apologize for the delay in publishing it — admin)

I was called in to HR on 2/27/09 to be told that I was amongst several being laid off that day at the Journals.  I was not allowed to return to my desk to gather my personal belongings….it was done FOR me and placed in a box and I was escorted out of the building.  I was told during my “exit” interview that it was me this time around…based on my numbers…sales.

It is easier for Lee Enterprises to lay off the Journals employees because they are NOT Union – I wish we had been.  The Union had approached the Journals at West County only to be told to vacate the premises….WE were told that if we valued our jobs we would NOT talk to the Union at all!  There is a person who is leaving my old department now – has taken a position at the Post-Dispatch and do you believe this?  There is a help wanted ad to replace her in my old department?!  Is this even legal if there was a layoff?  Aren’t companies supposed to CALL BACK employees that have been laid off?

I was so distraught that day over the complete shock of losing my job that I signed an agreement with the HR Director.  It was a termination agreement with a severance offer.  Mind you – our “severance” packages are equal to two weeks pay per year.  I was let go on 2/27 and my two years would have been on 3/1/09.  Therefore I only got 1 year severance – in which was taxed at a higher bonus rate to boot!  Over $400 in taxes was taken out of my check!   I am not sure if LEE got one over on me or not in my “lay off”….however….I really need to know from someone if they can re-hire in my department without calling back employees first?!  Or is Lee actually going to get away with it because the Journals are NOT Union.  That is the way LEE likes it…NO UNIONS!

Someone please advise me on this one because I am not only confused but livid at this point and want to make my point CLEAR when I call tomorrow!

Thanks to Suzanne Thomas, senior PR coordinator of eHealth Inc., who submitted this information to one of our memebers.

Here are some tips to ride out unemployment while keeping your health insurance:

• First, check to see if you can get on your spouse’s employer plan. Learn how much, if any, the employee share of the premium would increase if you join the plan.

• If you have either lost or left your job and are offered COBRA continuation coverage (the same plan you had with your employer, but now you pay both the employer and employee contributions), learn exactly how much your COBRA premiums will cost each month, and exactly what the benefits are. COBRA often provides very comprehensive benefits to satisfy a broad audience, so think about which benefits you really need. Note that COBRA can provide important protection for people who have pre-existing medical conditions that may prevent them from getting approved for a new health insurance plan on their own. Read the rest of this entry »

“I wanted to protest,” Sinclair said. “I don’t want to pay them money to send jobs to India and make it impossible for the people in this town to buy an automobile.”

Read the story here.

I realize how important it is for solidarity and as I walked around asking who could be on the committee for negotiation, due to my circumstances will not allow; I couldn’t find anyone to step up to the plate. I just hope we are not fighting a war with a few good people. I would like to say if the company want to freeze our wages for a year, I will agree as long as they freeze theirs as well. I believe the most important factor is the job security.

A limited number of issues will be brought the negotiating table by Shannon and our team when the Post-Dispatch unit begins early and expedited bargaining with Lee.

Via surveys and other communications, members have identified job security as issue No. 1 facing the PD unit.

What does that mean to you? What’s most important to you? Outsourcing protection? Layoff protection?

Weigh in below in the comments section.

A limited number of issues will be brought the negotiating table by Shannon and our team when the Post-Dispatch unit begins early and expedited bargaining with Lee.

Via surveys and other communications, members have identified health care as issue No. 2 facing the PD.

What does that mean to you? How do you feel about the cost of health care: Would you be willing to pay a bigger share? What’s a fair share? How do the plans work now?

Weigh in below in the comments section.

A limited number of issues will be brought the negotiating table by Shannon and our team when the Post-Dispatch unit begins early and expedited bargaining with Lee.

Via surveys and other communications, members have identified wages as issue No. 3 facing the PD.

What does that mean to you? How much of a raise should we seek? Would we trade money in our paychecks for a break in health care costs?

Weigh in below in the comments section.

We can do better than “Member Blog”! So let’s come up with a new name.

Use the comment button for this post to suggest a name or names. Keep in mind that this is a Guild local blog but it is public; that our local includes members from other units, including KSDK and the St. Louis Review, as well as the P-D; and that our brothers and sisters work in departments other than newsrooms.

Here are a few names to get you started:

Press Gang, Paper Place, Paper Cut, Taking the Lede, The Nut Graph, The Lede Graph, Type Casting and The Final Word.

Some extra incentive: The member whose suggestion is chosen as the new blog name will win a prize at the Guild Blog Party. So sign your comment.

Party you say? Yes, Sept. 18 from 5-8 p.m. at the Dubliner. We’ll have door prizes, food and drink, and laptops to help register folks to use the blog.

Need help registering? Here’s a link to our BLOG REGISTRATION FLIER!

Let’s see those names!

The New York Times reports the results of a Pew Research Center study of space devoted to foreign news in U.S. papers:

Sixty-four percent of the newspapers reported cutting the space given to foreign news over three years, making that the area that has suffered at the most papers as the business contracts. Only 10 percent of the editors said they considered foreign news “very essential” to their papers.

“It’s really concerning when we have two wars overseas, our economy is more global, we’re competing with economies that are growing faster than ours, and our dependence on foreign oil is one of the biggest stories,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Read the full story here.