A Message for Tribune (non-management) Employees

With all the whispering going on at the top of the Tribune Company, no one seems to be asking you — the very ones who produce its products — what vision YOU have for where you work. With more empty desks around and the need to work more hours of unpaid overtime to prop up sagging company profit margins, you haven't even had time to take stock of your work life and how impending changes will impact it. I'm guessing nobody in a position of power has asked you, or is even interested in your ideas.

Here's your chance to speak out.

Our goal is to organize Guild units at Tribune properties. There are 30,000 Guild members and 600,000 CWA members who are willing to have some of their dues money go towards organizing new units because they know it strengthens the union and gives others a voice in the workplace.

So explore the links here and on TribuneWatch. Read the posts; get a feel for what The Newspaper Guild members think. And speak up: ask questions, offer comments. Sign your name if you like. Let us know what Tribune publication/product you work for if you want. Drop me a note offline if you care to.

The Guild gives you and your co-workers a chance to negotiate as a group the things that affect your work life. Talk to each other here. That is the essence of unions — an organization that allows employees to choose issues that are important to them and negotiate with management. Companies like to say unions have no power but they work hard to keep us out for some reason. You won't have to take my word for it: you'll hear from Guild members on this blog.

So, tell us — what would you do to save the Tribune Company? Or, what changes would you make where you work to improve things?

Eric D. Geist