The folks at the Village Voice, the increasingly corporatized "alternative newsweekly" to end all "alternative newsweeklys" are poised to strike to defend themselves from massive managerial takebacks. Gawker carries the whole press release. These workers are members of UAW Local 2110, the same local which includes the TAs and adjuncts at NYU and those TAs organizing at Columbia. Here's the press release, via Gawker.

Village Voice Workers Poised To Strike

NEW YORK: Faced with a harsh and insulting proposal from management, workers at The Village Voice — the nation’s largest alternative weekly — are prepared to walk off the job for the first time in the newspaper’s history.

As tense negotiations continue and a contract deadline draws near, the Voice’s salespeople, designers, photographers, editors, and writers are united in the face of management’s attempt to roll back hard-won benefits, undermine their bargaining power, and erode their ability to support their families.

In negotiations for a new contract to replace the agreement
that expires at midnight on June 30, Voice management has:

· demanded that workers pay more for their health insurance and switch
to a less generous health care plan.

· offered meager wage increases ($15 a week) paid for by reducing
contributions to workers’ 401(k) plans — a “raise” that is unlikely to outpace
inflation for most workers.

· and insisted that terms for work on the Voice’s website be determined in
one-on-one deals between individual writers and the corporation, not through the collective
bargaining that is required in a union shop.

The Voice, which will mark its 50th anniversary this fall, has long been an advocate for social justice—and particularly the rights of workers—in New York City and elsewhere.
Accepting an unjust contract is not how Local 2110 intends to celebrate the paper’s 50th
birthday. And its members are prepared to remind management that there’s no
party if workers aren’t invited, respected, and fairly compensated.

Any and all coverage will be much appreciated. Please contact Ken Switzer, kswitzer@villagevoice.com, 646-752-1007, for more information. Thanks.