Chicago Sun-Times bosses this week are threatening to shut down the presses after union members last night rejected concessions that would have signaled a green light for a sale to Chicago investor James Tyree.
About 800 newspaper workers could be heading for the unemployment lines since union members turned a thumbs down to 15 percent pay cuts, and redactions of seniority and severance clauses in their contract.
Tyree struck a deal to buy the cash hemorrhaging Sun-Times for $25 million, a bid many investors called a fools mission. But Guild newsroom workers voted 83-22 to reject demand that they take cuts rule changes so Tyree can buy the bankrupt company. Workers at the Sun-Times News Group’s Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana Monday rejected the concessions 17-1. Pioneer Press and Lake County News-Sun workers vote today and union workers at the Herald News in Joliet weigh in Thursday.
Tyree says he will give the Sun-Times a little more time.
"I've promised I will keep open this proposal until Sept. 29th, and I'm certainly willing to do that -- but I do not want to get into a negotiation," Tyree told reporters.
“ … In my mind there is no other way,’ he said. “There's no room to negotiate work rules or compensation or pensions because I'm planning on our [investor] group losing money for a good long time."
But union leaders still want to negotiate.
"This was not a vote against Tyree or his bid," Guild executive director Tom Thibeault told the press. "This is a vote that puts into place that people want to save the Sun-Times, but that they also want to sit at the table and work out the details."
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Photo: James Tyree, file photo
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