-By Warner Todd Huston
The Minneapolis Star Tribune is often called the “Red Star” Tribune by residents of Minneapolis for its long-time, virulently left-wing outlook. Many has been the time when the editorial board of the Star Trib has carried water for political candidates shilling for big labor.
The STrib endorsed Obama for president for his supposed fiscal responsibility as well as his focus on the working classes. It is well known that big labor was solidly behind Obama and have been getting payoffs every week since the January inaugural.
But that was then. Now-a-days the STrib is not so keen on unions. In fact, it is so put off by unions that it is going to court to have its contract with its printers union annulled and asks for new terms to be imposed by the courts to save the paper from going bankrupt. Apparently, unions are fine for politicians as far as the STrib is concerned, but when it is faced with real life union demands, well, the courts are asked to save them from union excess.
The Star Trib has been fighting the unions for a few years at this point as its sales flag and its finances wane.
The Star Tribune is asking a bankruptcy judge to cancel its contract with its 116-member printer’s union and impose new terms that would save the struggling newspaper $3.5 million a year.
The debt-laden newspaper claims the local has failed to enter serious negotiations for concessions made necessary by the sharp decline in advertising sales.
The company wants the pressmen to accept lower wages and new work rules that would reduce staffing and overtime requirements.
In the fantasy land of editorial boards and the starry-eyed political blather that so often goes on in big city news rooms so naturally tilted to the far left, it is interesting to see what a paper does when confronted with real world decisions. It’s great to be the big union supporter in the editorial department, but not so great in the accounting department.
Do you smell that smell, STrib? It’s reality.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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