Go back to Front pageSAN FRANCISCO -- Bargainers for the Teamsters and the two daily newspapers appeared to be locked in end-game bargaining Friday night, raising hopes that a settlement and end to the 11-day strike at the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner may be in sight.
"It's the Teamsters' time. We want to get it all done today," said Doug Cuthbertson, chairman of the Conference of Newspaper Unions (CNU), whose 2,600 rank-and-file members from eight unions walked out Nov. 1.
Mayor Frank Jordan, who virtually turned his offices over to newspaper labor and management negotiators on Nov.4 and assumed the role of mediator, was scheduled to catch a flight late Friday evening to join a San Francisco trade delegation that departed two days ago.
"A lot of planning has gone into this trip," said Jordan's press secretary, Noah Griffin. "He doesn't want to miss it."
On the other hand, Griffin acknowledged that the mayor, having staked big chunks of time and prestige on settling the strike, doesn't want to miss the climax should his high-profile mediation bear fruit soon.
The newspaper unions have worked without a contract since Nov. 1, 1993, and negotiations have been both complex and fractious. In the end, the most difficult issue has been management's insistence on modernizing the distribution system operated by the San Francisco Newspaper Agency.
Newspaper Agency president Jim Hale previously encapsulated management's position in a sentence: "We have too many Teamsters."
About 600 Teamsters deliver the two newspapers. Management wants to eliminate youth carriers and use part-time nonunion drivers to service many routes now driven by Teamsters.
Management's original proposal would have cost Teamsters Local 921 about 150 jobs. That proposal has since been modified with management now saying it expects the jobs to be lost through attrition.
Bargaining for the Teamsters are Tom McGrath, chief of the Teamsters International's newspaper division, Andy Cirkelis, president of Local 921 and Ralph Torrisi, president of Teamsters Local 296, which represents drivers for the San Jose Mercury News.
Only the Teamsters and the 1,100-member Newspaper Guild have noneconomic issues on the table as of late Friday. Negotiators have left wages -- an issue on which all unions bargain jointly -- for last.
On Thursday night, Jordan announced that the Machinists Union, which services the presses for the two newspapers, had reached agreement on a tentative contract with management.
The 46-member union is not a part of the CNU but has declared that it will not return to work until all other striking newspapers unions have contracts.
Meanwhile, the newspaper production facilities remained under siege Friday. Fewer than a dozen union members have crossed the public lines.
The distribution system has been so hamstrung that news racks in San Francisco remain empty and home delivery almost nonexistent.
Distribution of the much thinner newspapers, which are being produced by nonunion and management workers, has increased in the suburbs. Management has vowed to continue to produce the newspaper despite the strike.
Striking newspaper employees, meanwhile, have been producing a twice-weekly newspaper, the San Francisco Free Press, and a daily online edition of the Free Press on the internet.
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