With landslide vote, Lakeland Ledger reporters, staff approve union

unionization (Large)

The reporters, photographers and copy editors of The Lakeland Ledger overwhelmingly voted Thursday to be represented by the News Guild-CWA, Communications Workers of America, in contract negotiations with the paper’s owners, GateHouse Media.

The vote, supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, was 23 for union representation and 3 against, setting off rumors of other newspapers’ news personnel ready to request their own union votes in the state.

The Ledger newsroom is now the first union newsroom in Florida, but likely not the last.

Organizers of the union vote stressed that it was GateHouse and not management of The Ledger that was responsible for their seeking union representation.

“It is important to stress that this is not about Lenore (Devore, the editor) or about Kevin (Drake, the publisher),” said John Chambliss, a senior reporter at the paper and one of the organizers.

“It is about GateHouse,” Chambliss said. “They have made large profits, enough to give investors and corporate managers large pay increases, but there have been no raises for us in years and we have the uncertainty of more layoffs.

“Our work contributes to their ability to give those increases to others,” he said.

The Ledger, owned for decades by the New York Times Company, was sold to Halifax Media in 2011 and then sold to GateHouse Media in 2015. The parent company of GateHouse is New Media Investment Group, which is managed by the private equity firm Fortress Investment Group.

Print newspapers have been hit hard with economic woes, but ad revenue from their online versions are on the rise. The Ledger, as have many newsrooms in the country, has faced layoffs with little warning or time to for journalists to seek other jobs and the salaries are stagnant.

Ledger union organizers said their association with News Guild will give some protection against the spontaneous layoffs and allow journalists to have a say in and contribute ideas for improving the paper.

“We are looking forward to negotiating with GateHouse and to helping improve both of our interests in The Ledger,” Chambliss said.

Bill Rufty

Former Ledger of Lakeland columnist Bill Rufty is Central Florida political correspondent for SaintPetersBlog and Florida Politics. Rufty had been with the Ledger from 1985-2015, where, as political editor, he covered a wide range of beats, including local and state politics, the Lakeland City Commission, and the Florida Legislature. Ledger editor Lenore Devore said about Rufty’s 30-year career: “[He is] a man full of knowledge, a polling expert and a war history buff … who has a steel trap in his brain, remembering details most of us have long since forgotten.”



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, William March, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Jesse Scheckner, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704