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Trouble on our doorstep. Read all about it in the summer/fall edition of The Frontier Reporter
We had some political mayhem and the close of Lee Enterprises’ fiscal year, all of which has spelled trouble for the Guild. Check out new features and all the Guild news you may have from the summer and fall in the latest edition of The Frontier Reporter newsletter.
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Guild combines treasurer, secretary roles into one job
In a move that saves money for the union at a time when our membership continues to shrink, the Buffalo Newspaper Guild’s Executive Committee has voted to combine the secretary and treasurer positions.
The treasurer role has been vacant since the departure of Alva Hill, whose job in Accounting, Bookkeeping and Credit was outsourced at the end of August.
In September, the Guild emailed members soliciting interest in the treasurer’s position, but received no response.
Mike McAndrew of Editorial, the Guild’s secretary, is becoming the union’s secretary-treasurer.
McAndrew will receive the treasurer’s stipend and the secretary’s stipend will be eliminated.
The Guild’s Executive Committee approved the moves, which include amending the union’s bylaws, during a meeting Monday, Oct. 9.
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Protected: Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: Aug. 29, 2023
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Protected: Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: Aug. 24, 2023
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Protected: Local Meeting Minutes: Aug. 16, 2023
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Protected: Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: Aug. 14, 2023
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Guild sends support for Maui local, bargaining scholarship
The Buffalo Newspaper Guild has provided financial support for fellow Guild members covering the devastating wildfires in Hawaii.
The Guild’s Executive Committee earlier this month approved a $200 donation to Local 39521, Pacific Media Workers, at The Maui News, who are covering the disaster on the ground.
Some members of the local have been personally affected by the fires.
The Executive Committee also approved a $500 donation to the new Bruce Nelson Collective Bargaining Scholarship, which will provide training for NewsGuild leaders.
The scholarship was created in memory of Bruce R. Nelson, a NewsGuild staff representative for three decades who died Jan 10. Nelson was a dues-paying union member for more than five decades, including twice in the Albany Guild.
Nelson was known for, among other things, playing a key role in a training program for newly elected local Guild officers. His family committed $10,000 to start the scholarship.
Training will be conducted through the Cornell Industrial and Labor Relations school.
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Protected: Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: June 13, 2023
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The spring/summer edition of the Frontier Reporter is here! Get the latest on outsourcing, company finances and more.
This spring/summer edition of the Frontier Reporter offers the latest on the outsourcing of Buffalo News printing to Cleveland, as well as a full recap on all Guild news that has transpired since February. Hear the perspective from one of our own Prepress members. Gain a clear overview of company finances and our outreach efforts to the community as we marked the transfer of page design to the Lee Enterprises design hub.
View and download the spring/summer 2023 edition below or click here.
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Outsourcing of local design desk is latest way Lee Enterprises has hurt The Buffalo News
This week, the Buffalo Newspaper Guild joined other unions at newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises in a public awareness campaign. #LeeUnionsRaisingAwareness
Lee Enterprises, in its latest move to drain resources from one of its properties, has gotten rid of our award-winning news design desk at The Buffalo News. You may have noticed if you’ve seen the pages of the newspaper lately.
The last of the local workers whose job was to create gorgeous, eye-catching newspaper pages lost their jobs as of two weeks ago.
Lee took their work and moved it to a corporate hub.Because of this cutback on local jobs, The News’ pages are put together for “efficiency” by workers who do the same work for multiple other publications at the same time. So our readers are left with the boring, plain and uninspired pages we see today.
This change is NOT because the actual printing of the paper has moved — at least not yet. Lee wants to move the printing of The News three hours away to Cleveland. The company plans to shift printing to Cleveland by Oct. 1, putting 128 employees out of work.
These aren’t the only ways Lee has disinvested in operations in Buffalo and Western New York, moves that hurt News readers and subscribers, the community and its own workforce.
Lee previously outsourced customer service work from Buffalo. Two photojournalist positions were cut last year. In February, in response to imposed cuts in the newsroom, three veteran Guild journalists took buyouts in order to spare others from losing their jobs. The News will soon be outsourcing its accounting, bookkeeping and credit department.
We stand in solidarity with the Unions of Lee Enterprises as we highlight the destructive actions of our owner.
Since Lee bought the News, the message has been clear. We’re left to wonder how much cutting will be enough for Lee.
We want them to invest in The Buffalo News. To invest in Buffalo. To invest in us.
We shared this message on Twitter and Facebook. Please consider sharing our posts.
We also heard from subscribers and readers asking what they can do.
Let Lee Enterprises know how you feel.
- Kevin Mowbray, president and CEO, kevin.mowbray@lee.net
- Jason Adrians, VP/local news, JAdrians@madison.com
- Nathan Bekke, VP/audience strategy, Nathan.Bekke@lee.net
- Paige Mudd, East region news director, PMudd@timesdispatch.com
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Protected: Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: May 8, 2023
Buffalo Newspaper Guild CWA Local 31026 