Pantagraph press operators rally for ‘fair contract’ [VIDEO]

Pantagraph Press Operators picketed outside the building earlier today. (Photo by Michelle Mantel/WJBC)

Union workers picketed outside The Pantagraph building in downtown Bloomington today. The 10 press operators, who are part of the Teamsters Local 568 Graphic Communications Conference, say they’re working under an old contract.Contract negotiations continue on June 9. Meanwhile union members say they’re concerned with the language cited in the contract proposals that deal with pension and health care contributions.

“We’re out here now just to renew interest and let the public know that this isn’t over. It seems like a tax against workers is going on all over the country,” said District Council 4 Treasurer Robert Miller.

The press operators are the only union-represented employees of The Pantagraph. Attempts to unionize more newspaper workers failed in December 2008.

Just down the road, news employees at WEEK/WHOI-TV in East Peoria say they’re still working without a contract. The members of American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA) say language in the contract rejected last month would have given the station’s company, Granite Broadcasting, leverage to outsource local news operations. A Granite station based out of Detroit, Michigan is already feeding its local news to anchors in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Union workers recently passed out thousands of flyers around the neighborhoods surrounding the East Peoria station as well as in Darien, Connecticut where the CEO of Granite resides.