Negotiations have stalled between representatives of the Newhouse family that owns the Star Ledger and the paper’s unions, putting New Jersey’s largest daily in peril once again.
That prompted publisher Richard Vezza yesterday to reiterate his threat to shut down the money-losing paper unless its four production unions agree to $9 million in concessions by Sept. 27.
“By the end of this month there may be a decision to terminate publication of the Star Ledger at the end of 2013 and lay off all its employees,” Vezza said in an email yesterday. “We are writing this letter so that in the event of this sad outcome of our current negotiations with The Ledger’s four production unions, no one can claim surprise or say, ‘if I had only known, I would have.’ ”
The paper, which lost $19 million last year, counts 845 employees, including 170 editorial employees.
The pressmen, the mechanics and the engravers are believed to be close to a deal. But the Teamsters Local 1100, which represents 195 mailer employees, remains far from a potential settlement.
Ed Shown, president of Pressmen’s Local 8-N and a spokesman for all four unions, said he remains hopeful that talks will be resumed but concedes “it might go down to the 11th hour.”
Mailers Local 1100 head Steve Grant, who was meeting with his negotiating committee yesterday, said his union has already made major concessions.
“Our last proposal was approximately $2.5 million in givebacks,” he said. “We keep going back and finding more things we can do, but the company keeps saying it is not enough.”
He said the paper is looking for $4.3 million in concessions, adding, “They are throwing crumbs at you and expecting miracles.”
There are no new meetings scheduled between the paper and union reps, but that may change after the mailers hold a full membership meeting on Monday.
“We’re working as vigorously as we can,” said Grant. “I’m optimistic that we’ll be meeting with them by the end of next week.”