Bankruptcy looking to lead to new employment terms for Freeman workers

A Guild press release, which characterized JRC’s financial reshuffling an abuse of the bankruptcy process, described the company’s contract demands. They included a broad no-strike provision, rollbacks in job-security language and the unilateral right to cut pay rates in the advertising department and make changes to work schedules. Other demands, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, would place strict limits on the union’s ability to advocate for members through public criticism of company policy.

“The things they’re looking for have no economic value, it’s a control issue,” said Schick. “They’re provisions that would eliminate our rights under the National Labor Relations Act.”

Either way, less employment

Despite the apparent rejection of the company’s demand for concessions, both Schick and Doxsey said they remained hopeful that a new contract could be hammered out before the layoffs and the new labor agreements go into effect in April. Meanwhile, sources at the paper say that, regardless of the outcome of the contract talks, the post-bankruptcy Freeman will be a leaner operation. Doxsey said that the new owners of the company had already announced plans to eliminate 11 positions including four copy editors, four clerks and three district circulation managers. Doxsey added that the plan also called for shutting down the printing press at the Troy Record (which has printed the Freeman since 2010) and outsourcing the work to the Albany Times Union.

The larger, and for now unanswered, question is whether the Freeman will continue as a daily newspaper or follow the example of a number of dailies — most notably New Orleans’ Times-Picayune — and cut editions. JRC CEO Paton has long preached the need to “slay the production god” by slashing the cost of printing and distributing newspapers while emphasizing online content. In a September interview with the Poynter Institute, Paton hinted that at least some of JRC’s 20 dailies could become something less than daily following the bankruptcy reorganization.

“I would consider and am considering a reduction in print frequency in some markets,” Paton is quoted in an e-mail interview with reporter Rick Edmonds. “[Which ones] to be determined.”