Newspaper Guild 47 with the Pekin Daily Times did an informational picket Monday. The six-year-old Union is asking the company for raises in what’s to be it’s second bargaining agreement with GateHouse Media.
Sharon Woods Harris is the chair of the paper’s Guild 47. She says some of the 25 union members with college educations are making just more than $10 per hour.
But Woods Harris says that GateHouse has told them raises are not possible. “This is a small town newspaper. It’s a dying thing across America and we are working to keep it alive and we work hard every day. We love this paper and we love this community and all we want to do is serve both. But we have to have to be able to live.” Woods Harris says GateHouse needs encouragement.
GateHouse Media representatives say the company continues to negotiate in good faith and it looks forward to having a new collective bargaining agreement in the near feature.
The GateHouse-owned papers in Springfield and Rockford are also in contract negotiations. The Pekin Daily Times Guild contract expired in March.