The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News consider new job contract – manual workers left out so far

The company that owns the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Phily.com is hammering out deals – after buying the media outlets at a bankruptcy auction in April.  The Inquirer’s newsroom employees’ union Tuesday approved a new contract, but unions full of drivers and security guards are still without agreements.

The increasing number of people who prefer to read their news online could be playing a role in the negotiations between the company that owns the papers and the unions working without contracts, including three Teamsters’ locals.

Temple University Assistant Professor Susan Jacobson studies new media and its impact on journalism.

“You don’t need presses, or you don’t need as many presses,” she says. “You don’t need drivers, or you don’t need as many drivers.  Probably from a pure business sense it would make sense for them to outsource their delivery needs for example. The reality is, you have people who have worked for the Daily News and the Inquirer for many many years and to just casually let them go is kind of cruel and heartless.”

Jacobson says the new management company no doubt is trying to balance the economic reality with the newspaper’s legacy.