Herald Examiner Workers Authorize Possible Strike

Employees at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner have authorized their union to strike at midnight tonight if it cannot agree with management on a new contract, the paper said Tuesday, but both sides say they consider a strike unlikely.

The biggest remaining issue is money, with management offering a 4% pay increase over three years--including a zero raise the first year--and the union, News Media and Graphics Communications Local 773, asking for 26% over three years.

“The strike vote was a routine thing to give the union some leverage,” said one union member, who asked for anonymity. “Nobody wanted to tell them we would accept zero the first year.”

No One Wants Strike

“These things (contract talks) by their nature tend to go down to the wire,” said John McCabe, chief operating executive at the Herald. “The union doesn’t want a strike and management doesn’t want one.”

A federal mediator is handling the talks, which are expected to continue today.

Union members voted 131 to 74 Monday night to authorize the strike after hearing the offer from the Herald, which is owned by Hearst Corp.

One sign that management is expecting a settlement was its decision to resist typical strike preparations, such as bringing in cots for managers to sleep on.

“Both sides have indicated they would be willing to move on the money issue,” McCabe said.

Several union members also said that they are sensitive to the charge that a strike might fatally harm the paper, which management has said continues to lose money.

Still Recovering

The paper was devastated by a strike of nearly nine years between 1967 and 1975. Executives say the paper is still trying to recover.

But employees also describe morale at the paper now as extremely low, particularly in light of resignations in the last year by key personnel, including the publisher, editor, executive editor and editorial page editor.

Said one news room employee ruefully, “The rudder is broken and the mast is down.”