Amidst plans of merger, AZ Republic unionizes
“Our concern is that often times when a media company buys another company, that means layoffs,” said Perry Vandell, breaking news public safety reporter at The Arizona Republic.
To finance the deal, Apollo Management has made a term loan of $1.8 billion, which worries employees.
“The thing that has people really scared is that with that loan comes an 11.5 interest rate,” said Vandell. “So essentially, financially, it’s in Gannett’s best interest to pay that out as soon as possible.”
Rebekah Sanders, consumer protection reporter at The Arizona Republic, added staff were told in July Gannett planned on cutting $300 million across the country. She said: “When you look at the repayment schedule, it’s impossible for them to make the payments they’re talking about and make $300 million.”
Employees at The Arizona Republic concluded this means more layoffs.
Sanders and Vandell are two staffers that championed the decision for unionization at The Arizona Republic. Their efforts were helped along by reporters at the Los Angeles Times who successfully unionized in 2018. On Oct. 16, 2019, they secured a historic contract for pay raises, job protections, and parental leave.
Many newspapers around the nation are turning to unionization to protect their rights because of a high percentage of layoffs. Gannett has laid off employees at The Arizona Republic yearly, sometimes without warning and at other times without any detail.
“With the most recent layoff from January of this year,” said Vandell, “we were told by Gannett executives that layoffs were coming, but we didn’t really know when. It was just this dark cloud looming over us for like 6 to 7 weeks. It was just terrible for morale.”
The surprise layoffs from Gannett included the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, and employee of over 40 years, Steve Benson.
“It felt like if someone as iconic as Steve Benson can be laid off with no warning and very little severance,” Sanders said, “then anybody can be gone without a thought.”
Now that the Republic has voted to unionize, a contract has to be bargained with the NewsGuild.
Vandell said a contract with the NewsGuild can allow employees to know layoff dates, potential cut positions, severance packages, and possibly other agreements on staff treatment.
Before the vote, Gannett sent employees emails likening union support to criminals. Gannett threatened pay raises, flexibility and benefits. After The Arizona Republic voted to unionize, Sander’s phone was confiscated.
“In that meeting where my phone was taken away, I was interrogated by Human Resources about my union activity which is illegal for the company to do. They did that to two other union organizers as well, individually.”
“This is just the beginning,” Vandell said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
