Guild members rally for respect, protections as talks begin with Pioneer Press

June 9, 2026 by

Guild members rally before bargaining at the Pioneer Press.

Union members at the Pioneer Press today opened negotiations with the newspaper’s hedge-fund ownership intent on bargaining a contract that respects their work, protects their safety and delivers wage and benefit gains.

After a brief rally outside the newspaper’s offices on Water Street, about two dozen members of the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild walked into bargaining together, hoping to show Alden Global Capital the faces behind the numbers on its balance sheets.

The Guild represents over 50 newsroom and advertising employees at the Pioneer Press, and they have given over 600 years of combined service to the company. That’s worth fighting for, unit vice chair Jared Kaufman said.

“This contract negotiation, this thing we do every three years or so — this is our one chance to fight for the really big stuff,” he said. “That’s why this matters. The gates are open for us all to make the changes we want to see.”

In bargaining, the Guild will look to hold the line against potential use of generative artificial intelligence in place of union members’ work.

Members also want the employer to invest in the Pioneer Press — in workers’ wages and benefits, but also in their physical safety, whether it’s protections against repetitive motion injuries for workers at video editing terminals or personal protective equipment for journalists covering civil unrest.

“We deserve a company that gives us the support and resources we need to do our jobs,” reporter Imani Cruzen said during the rally. “I hope in bargaining we can ask, what does Alden bring to the table for us?”

But since it acquired the Pioneer Press as part of a larger deal that took MediaNews Group out of bankruptcy in 2010, Alden has slashed jobs both locally and in newsrooms across the country. At the time of the sale, the St. Paul paper employed over 100 journalists.

A recent Guild survey suggests the cuts have come at a cost to workplace morale. But Kaufman, a food and features reporter, said the bargaining team is energized to fight for a contract that reflects Guild members’ value to both the company and the community.

“Look around,” he told members gathered in a circle at the rally. “We’re a catch. They should be fighting to keep us, not squeezing us until we can’t handle it anymore.”

Cruzen has seen what can happen when there’s no organized effort to fight for local media. Staffing in the newsroom where she worked before joining the Pioneer Press is down to just one reporter, who works remotely.

“I don’t want that future for us,” she said.

— Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Pioneer Press workers join nationwide contract campaign, win first raise in seven years

August 16, 2016 by

newsmattersAfter banding together with workers at 11 other newspapers owned by the same hedge fund, union members at the St. Paul Pioneer Press won their first wage increase in seven years, part of a new three-year contract they voted to ratify Aug. 9.

Members of the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild will receive 3-percent raises Jan. 1, 2017, according to terms of the new agreement, which also calls for “wage reopeners” – negotiations that could lead to additional raises – in the contract’s second and third years.

As they did this summer, Pioneer Press workers will participate in any additional bargaining jointly with other members of Guild locals employed by Digital First Media, a newspaper group owned by Alden Global Capital.

In an innovative and historic contract campaign, Pioneer Press workers joined forces with fellow Guild members at publications across the country, including The Denver Post, The Mercury News, The Trentonian and eight others.

Together, they launched the “#NewsMatters” campaign more than seven moths ago, using social media, member mobilization and an online petition drive to put the heat on management. More than 11,000 people nationwide joined in calling on Digital First to support quality journalism by negotiating fairly with the workers who make it possible.

Last month, the campaign delivered results at the bargaining table, as Digital First workers leveraged their collective weight to win across-the-board raises at all 12 newspapers, including some that hadn’t seen increases in 10 years.

But the company refused to budge when it came to one major concession: job security for workers in circulation and page production.

According to the Guild, the Pioneer Press is likely to outsource field circulation to local contractors, which would affect about 36 workers, mostly part-time. And up to eight local page-production workers could see their jobs outsourced before the new contract expires, as Digital First looks to centralize production at a common location for all of its publications.

In a statement on the Minnesota Guild’s website, the Pioneer Press bargaining team said it secured a “letter of agreement regarding enhanced severance packages and limits on the number of positions that may be outsourced” in production, and enhanced severance for any outsourced circulation employees.

The new contract also rolls back the Pioneer Press’ ability to furlough Guild members, capping the number of unpaid days management can impose at three in 2018 and eliminating unpaid days altogether in 2019.

The Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37002, currently represents 167 Pioneer Press employees.

A grant from the Communications Workers of America, the Newspaper Guild’s parent union, helped make the joint bargaining framework possible, covering travel and other costs.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Stopping the Presses: Pioneer Press to close printing plant, lay off 170 workers

February 10, 2014 by
The Pioneer Press closing affects about 170 workers, including press operators (L to R) Bill Henry, Gary Weakley and Dan Grant. Henry has worked at the plant for 44 years, Weakley for 42 and Grant for 15.

The Pioneer Press closing affects about 170 workers, including press operators (L to R) Bill Henry, Gary Weakley and Dan Grant. Henry has worked at the plant for 44 years, Weakley for 42 and Grant for 15.

 

Darrin Seiberlich followed in his father’s footsteps when he took a job in the St. Paul Pioneer Press printing plant nearly 30 years ago. Seiberlich’s co-worker Jim Anderson traces his roots at the newspaper one generation further, to his grandfather.

Those legacies and others will reach the end of the line Feb. 16, when the Pioneer Press plans to close its St. Paul plant and lay off about 170 full- and part-time workers, including members of the Teamsters, Electrical Workers, Newspaper Guild and Machinists unions.

“It’s a hard transition,” said Seiberlich, a foreman at the plant and member of Teamsters Local 120. “It’s not just our lives; a lot of us were brought up as kids around here.”

Under the terms of a five-year contract, the Pioneer Press, which traces its roots back to the state’s first newspaper, the Minnesota Pioneer, will outsource the work of printing a newspaper across the Mississippi River, to the rival Star Tribune. The Pioneer Press plant, located near the St. Paul Downtown Airport at 1 Ridder Circle, will go up for sale.

Workers learned about the plant closing in November, when management called an interplant meeting. David Handlos, a press operator at the newspaper since 1970 and shop steward for Teamsters Local 1M, said the news caught most employees by surprise.

“We figured it was a rah-rah type meeting,” Handlos said. “All of a sudden they say, ‘Boom, the place is closing.’ It was very unexpected. It was completely out of the blue. We didn’t have a clue.”

Foremen at the plant, Jim Anderson (L) and Darrin Seiberlich followed their fathers to work at the Pioneer Press. Anderson’s grandfather worked for the company as well.

Foremen at the plant, Jim Anderson (L) and Darrin Seiberlich followed their fathers to work at the Pioneer Press. Anderson’s grandfather worked for the company as well.

From shock to acceptance

Much has been made of print media’s decline in an increasingly digital world, and the Pioneer Press plant closing reflects a trend of job losses in the industry nationwide. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports nearly 209,000 U.S. workers were employed in “print machine operations” in 1999, a total that had dropped to 173,000 by 2012.

But longtime workers at the Pioneer Press had long since learned to deal with rumors of the newspaper’s decline.

“They’ve been saying ever since I can remember, ‘Oh, the newspaper’s going to go the way of the dinosaur, it isn’t going to last,’” Handlos said. “Well, it’s lasted.

“I’ve seen a lot of people come and go as they’ve shut down departments as the technology overtakes them, but I never thought it would be shut down completely.”

In the two months since news of the closing broke, the prevailing mood has shifted, Seiberlich said, from “total shock” to acceptance.

“Being in the news business as long as we have, we’ve watched everything change,” Seiberlich said. “Everything in the world is changing, and this is just part of it.”

As the printing equipment inside the plant changed over the years, so too did the product. Seiberlich remembered using “drums” – a cylindrical style of printer – during the first half of his career. Handlos saw the plant transition from lead-type presses to computerized, web-offset presses.

“This was a state-of-the-art facility when they moved in here,” Anderson said.

More recently, the plant has adapted to “zoning” strategies designed to customize the product to serve local audiences. “People in different neighborhoods might get two different newspapers,” Seiberlich explained.

web.pipress-pressesUncertainty awaits

In the weeks following the announcement, workers’ union representatives met with management to negotiate severance packages that will be based on tenure with the company. The Pioneer Press also has directed workers to resources available through the state’s Dislocated Worker Program.

But for printing-plant lifers like Anderson and Seiberlich, for whom a job at the press was practically a birthright, the uncertainty looming beyond Feb. 16 is a very new feeling.

“Other than four years in the Navy, this has been my only job, the only thing I’ve ever known,” Seiberlich said.

Anderson expects it will be “surreal” not driving to the plant Feb. 17.

“This is the stage in your life where if you’re going to make a career change, it’s something to think about,” he added. “But it’s always hard, and there will be some people I’m definitely going to miss.”

For older workers like Handlos, the plant closing hastens a decision to retire. “I was real close to pulling the plug anyway, but it still came earlier than I really wanted it to,” he said.

Bill Henry, a press operator with 44 years of experience at the plant, is on the fence. “I’m going to take it easy for the rest of winter, then maybe see if there’s something else out there I’m interested in,” he said.

Henry has a hard time believing he will enjoy another job as much as he’s enjoyed printing a newspaper.

“For as long as I’ve been here, I pretty much know my job inside and out,” he said. “Anything that goes wrong, you can fix it.

“At the end of each day, after you put out the product, you’re done with that day. And tomorrow it’s something new again.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The economic debate hasn’t changed much in 25 years

January 14, 2013 by
A cartoon from the Jan. 27, 1938, Union Advocate presents a familiar problem.

A cartoon from the Jan. 27, 1938, Union Advocate presents a familiar problem.

Business owners say Minnesota’s economic climate is poor, urging lower tax rates and steep cuts to government spending. Union leaders say Minnesota owes its high quality of life to public investments in education and infrastructure that are a catalyst for economic growth.

That’s the debate likely to take place when state lawmakers return to the Capitol next month, and it sounds an awful lot like the “Great Debate” that took place between business leaders and labor leaders in a public forum 25 years ago in St. Paul.

As it turns out, the arguments weren’t all that fresh 25 years ago either, according to the Feb. 1 edition of The Union Advocate: “For the most part the comments were familiar, as both business and labor summarized their positions. The clearest conflict emerged over the questions of workers’ compensation and whether the state has a poor business climate.”

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

Sponsored by the St. Paul Labor Speakers Club, the Jan. 25, 1987, debate drew four participants, two from labor and two from business, including Minnesota Chamber of Commerce President Win Borden.

Businesses will flee Minnesota as the national economy recovers, Borden said, unless the state cuts spending for government services, reduces corporate property taxes and cuts the cost for unemployment and workers’ compensation.

“The tragic fact is some states will be left behind because some states are not as creative as they should be in creating new jobs,” Borden said. “Unfortunately Minnesota is one of those states.”

Eliot Seide, then the area director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wasn’t buying what Borden was selling. He “chided the business lobbyists for failing to acknowledge what Minnesota gets for its tax dollars – excellent education, a good transportation system and a great quality of life – all factors that attract business,” The Advocate reported.

Seide even seemed a little disappointed to be repeating the same old, tired debate still echoing in the House and Senate chambers today.

“I came here hoping to hear something different,” he acknowledged.

Tom Majeski (left), a reporter for the Pioneer Press, distributed fliers outside the Xcel Energy Center Jan. 14, 2003. About 50 members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, took part in the action to protest cuts sought by management during bargaining.

Tom Majeski (left), a reporter for the Pioneer Press, distributed fliers outside the Xcel Energy Center Jan. 14, 2003. About 50 members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, took part in the action to protest cuts sought by management during bargaining.

10 Years Ago: Proposed wage freeze drew cold reception from PiPress workers

More than 50 Pioneer Press employees, members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union, froze their tails off outside a Minnesota Wild game to protest management’s attempt to freeze workers’ wages for three years, The Advocate reported in its Jan. 23, 2003, edition.

Union members at the Pioneer Press, who had been working without a contract since July 2002, distributed handbills to Wild fans heading into the arena. The sheets featured team rosters on one side and bargaining information on the other.

In addition to the wage freeze, Knight-Ridder, which owned the newspaper at the time, sought to “raise the employees’ share of family health-care costs by 50 percent, freeze pension contributions, and extract other concessions, even though the paper is profitable,” The Advocate reported.

75 Years Ago: Minnesota Box Company landed on do-not-patronize list

The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly put Minnesota Box Company on its do-not-patronize list, prompting the city’s unions begin pressuring area brewing companies and bottlers to make sure the union label appears on their crates and boxes carrying its products.

Trades and Labor President Ray Wentz put Minnesota Box on the list after management refused to include employees laid off during a “seasonal slump” in a union election.

Minnesota Box President N.J. Lennartson “has frequently stated that he did not believe any of his employees wished to join a union, and his attitude has been one of antagonism against unionization,” Wentz told The Advocate.

Landing on the list meant Minnesota Box would have trouble competing with manufacturers entitled to use the union label on their boxes and crates, Box Makers business representative Charles LaVaque said.

“The St. Paul Bottling company and the Superior Bottling company use nothing but union-made boxes for their soft drinks,” LaVaque said. “The Hamm Brewing company also uses union-made cases, and we urge our friends to insist on union-made boxes, shipping cases and wooden cartons.”

100 Years Ago: Democrats in St. Paul Fire Department fired

St. Paul Mayor Herbert Keller drew sharp criticism in a front-page story in The Union Advocate’s Jan. 31, 1913, edition, after the city’s Fire Commissioners fired nine St. Paul firefighters for being “too old to be efficient” any longer.

The Advocate suspected there was an additional reason for the firefighters’ dismissal: “the fact that they are all Democrats.”

Keller, who held office from 1910 to 1914, claimed to be running a non-partisan administration. The city’s union leaders weren’t buying it.

“None of (the fired firefighters) is really too old to be efficient, but the mayor wanted their places for some of his political friends,” The Advocate claimed.

The firings added insult to injury for city firemen, who had been granted only a “small increase in pay” by Keller’s administration months earlier.

Filed Under: From the Archives Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,