Village Voice Staff Set To Strike

Staffers at The Village Voice are set to strike if they can't agree on contract negotiations by midnight on June 30th.

According to the union press release, the Voice staff has been cut by an estimated 60 percent and average annual salaries have been reduced:

"Management has so far played hardball with the union, refusing to make an offer, while demanding extensive concessions from the newspaper’s staff including a substantial, ever-increasing contribution to an inferior health plan, as well as the elimination of management’s own contribution to employees’ retirement accounts."

If the strike goes through, loyal Voice readers won't be punished. The staff plans on publishing content via Tumblr at an alternative site called The Real Voice.

When the Voice staffers unanimously voted to authorize the strike last week, The New York Observer pointed out that in 2008 at the last round of negotiations, "the union fought down the proposal of a two-tiered benefits system which would grandfather existing employees in the good benefits package but offer a lesser model to new hires, asking, 'Why worry about the unborn?”' Since then, management has used the benefits the union defended to lure new talent to the Voice."

Comments

[steve11407]

02:40 PM on 06/30/2011

Capitalism. Not enough customers not enough money.

[samairclean]

12:37 PM on 06/30/2011

The employees at the Village Voice are going on strike? Really? Both of them?

[santoroturillo]

06:35 AM on 06/30/2011

It continues to amaze me how the American management shorth sided approach is used in contractual negotiations. From one side of their mouth they preach team work, sharing objectives and Empowering employees, from the other they preach two classes of employees who would be working side to side doing practically the same job but being payid much less. How can these morons expect anyone to be motivated enough to work in a team work environment?

[bealebkk]

05:08 AM on 06/30/2011

village voice? don't you mean backwater gossip...!

[mauibob]

12:59 AM on 06/30/2011

The union wants to put the final nails in the coffin of another business. Go for it.

[Snookhookr]

11:08 PM on 06/29/2011

That danged Chris Christie and his union busting...............

[fourthestatepost]

08:48 PM on 06/29/2011

Oh snap.

[dkinton49]

08:22 PM on 06/29/2011

They should just belly up. No one cares about this rag any more!

[ptrgamb]

07:17 PM on 06/29/2011

There's hardly anything left to "The Village Voice." You can't call it a shadow of it's former self. It's LESS than a shadow.

[jhNY]

01:03 PM on 06/29/2011

Back when there was more to it, cover to cover, this would have really mattered. But, as per pattern nowadaze, first, it's been denuded of most columnists and most comics and most news coverage and most cultural coverage, and now those few who still work there doing something are backed into a corner. And if they do strike, and leave the building, chances are they'll never be allowed back in.

[WHTrout]

11:32 AM on 06/29/2011

Frankly, it would be good to see The Village Voice (and its Phoenix-based parent company, which also owns weeklies in San Francisco, Phoenix, Ft Worth, Seattle, etc) just GO OUT OF BUSINESS. Here in SF, the Voice owners took a well-respected weekly paper (SFWeekly) and turned it into a useless right-wing bullhorn -- while losing a lawsuit filed by another weekly for predatory advertising pricing and other shady business practices. The Phoenix-based owners RUINED The Village Voice -- I hope the journalists there shut it down permanently.

[Kurtiss Jackson]

10:37 AM on 06/29/2011

In this day and age when so many people consider themselves journalists, writers, bloggers etc. how could a newspaper journalist feel comfortable enough to strike?

[jl4141]

10:13 AM on 06/29/2011

The Village Voice? Oh, yeah, I remember that paper from 30 years ago. It's still around?

[jhNY]

12:59 PM on 06/29/2011

Sort of.

[Skate Free]

06:14 PM on 06/28/2011

OMG, Village Voice writers on strike that's... wait what? Oh, never mind! Maybe now those table-squatting slackers getting wifi and multiple refills at my local coffee shop will GO HOME! (or better yet maybe go find a more productive pastime) hahaha OCWeekly FTMFW

[TFlint]

10:41 AM on 06/29/2011

Dense Conservs always think "hahaha" is an intelligent comment.

[Always Conservative]

04:34 PM on 06/28/2011

Watch yourselves, people... The glitter will be flying now!!!

[Arts4u]

07:05 PM on 06/29/2011

Ah... homophobia.... the shining beacon of certain conservatives.... and you wonder why the republican party is losing its members.

[Snookhookr]

11:07 PM on 06/29/2011

SLAP FIIIIGHT!!