More union employees with the Sun-Times Media Group are voting today on whether they should take a pay cut.
Chicago banker James Tyree has offered to buy the company for $25-million and the pay cut is one of many conditions he’s set for the deal to move forward. Union members with the flagship Chicago Sun-Times newspaper overwhelmingly rejected Tyree’s conditions last night. Mark Fitzgerald is with Editor and Publisher, a newspaper trade magazine. He says employees at the company have already taken pay cuts and there is no guarantee employees won’t be laid off if they agree to Tyree’s concessions.
FITZGERALD: It’s possible to press workers right to the wall and they’re going to react by saying, “To hell with it.” You can see that already in some of the reactions of the Sun-Times union members.
Tyree has given the union until September 29th to agree to his concessions. The Sun-Times Media Group filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year.