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At the same time the owners of The Buffalo News pushed to have every member of the Buffalo Newspaper Guild take two weeks of furlough, newsroom management found one way to cover for having fewer workers around.

They got some freelancers to do more.

While Guild members were forced to stay home from work and give up paychecks, at least two digital freelancers increased how much they wrote for the News, according to the Guild’s research.

This is occurring even though Guild leaders shared concerns with management, just prior to the scheduling of furloughs, about the increased use of freelancers during this difficult time. In response, management assured us they did not intend to expand the use of freelancers and were looking to scale back freelance usage during the furlough period.

Yet what some freelancers have written has steadily continued to encroach on the type of work Guild members have done or are doing.

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Guild members in the Typographical Unit representing Prepress employees at The Buffalo News voted unanimously Friday in favor of a tentative agreement that will allow Buffalo News management to furlough most members for up to five weeks.

The agreement enables Prepress members to not only gain financially, in most cases, due to New York’s enhanced unemployment benefits, but it also saves the company about $45,000 above and beyond the two-week furlough directive laid out by Lee Enterprises.

“This agreement saves the company and Lee more than twice what the company originally demanded in furlough savings, and it still protects and benefits the Prepress Guild members at The News,” Guild President Sandy Tan said. “That’s the best possible outcome.”

The Executive Committee approved the tentative agreement Thursday night, followed by two membership meetings for Prepress members in Composing, Ad Services and Advertising Operations on Friday.

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Buffalo Newspaper Guild members voted 65-2 Friday in favor of a tentative agreement that will allow Buffalo News management to furlough Guild members across the board, for the first time.

The approval of the agreement reflects member support for a plan the Guild bargaining team devised, which mitigates financial losses to members with little-to-no cost to the company. It also reflects the mutual concern of both management and the Guild about the paper’s financial state.

“This is a sad time for the Guild,” said President Sandy Tan. “This agreement will help protect our members financially, but the furloughs will do nothing but damage the paper’s ability to continue producing outstanding, critical, and even life-saving journalism at a time when it’s needed most.”

In exchange for The News meeting the Guild bargaining team’s requirements that it mitigate financial hardship for members, we met our commitment to engage in intense-but-swift negotiations. The bargaining team and Executive Committee brought forward the tentative agreement for a membership vote quickly enough to enable the company to begin scheduling furloughs next week.

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The Buffalo Newspaper Guild has never been prouder of the outstanding journalism produced by our members than during this Covid-19 public health crisis.

Unfortunately, we received word that, as a Lee Enterprises paper, The Buffalo News plans to subject our members to furloughs over the next three months. This directive comes at a time when our public work has never been more important to this community.

As a union, our members are protected by existing contract language. But in recognition of The Buffalo News’ financial circumstances as a result of lost revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have begun discussing the best path forward to safeguard our members’ future. Our hard work on behalf of this community is undermined by an economic model that seeks to destroy the critically important work that newspapers play in keeping the public informed, protected and safe.

The Guild will do its part to ensure the best possible outcome for our members. We hope the company will work with us in good faith. And above all, we hope the public will support our work and mission.

Guild takes action after sale of The News to Lee Enterprises

By Sandy Tan

It seems nearly incomprehensible that after decades of being owned by the Butler family, and then by the stable and hands-off Warren Buffett/Berkshire Hathaway, The Buffalo News will now be owned by a corporate media company for the first time in history.

Our time as an independently run city newspaper is over.

Publisher Warren Colville announced the change in the early morning hours of Jan. 29. In a few short weeks, Lee Enterprises will become only the third owner that our paper has ever had.

Our ties to Berkshire Hathaway are not completely severed, however, since Berkshire Hathaway is now the sole lender for all of Lee Enterprises’ debt.

There is still a lot we don’t know, but more answers are rolling out in the coming days as the transfer of ownership marches toward completion in mid-March. But despite all the uncertainty, there is one thing that we already know. And that is, there are far worse corporate owners than Lee.

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Read the winter 2019/2020 Frontier Reporter below:

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