OUR
RESPONSE TO HOWELL RAINES AND THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.......
The current edition of The Atlantic Monthly contains a Letter To The Editor from New York Guild President Barry Lipton and New York Times Guild Unit Chairperson Lena Williams, which responds to the cover story in the May edition by former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines, in which he attempts to rationalize his dismissal from the paper in the wake of the Jayson Blair affair. Unfortunately, the editors of The Atlantic Monthly heavily edited the letter, particularly those portions critical of their handling of the Raines piece. We reprint the letter as originally submitted. The portions edited out by The Atlantic Monthly are set in italics.
(Re: “My Times”
by Howell Raines, May 2004)
After
reading Howell Raines’s 21,000 word cover story about his final days at The
New York Times, our initial response was not to dignify it with a response.
However, as a union that represents journalists, we felt morally
compelled and ethically obligated not to allow Mr. Raines’s indictment of The
Times and the Guild to stand as fact.
The Atlantic Monthly permitted Mr. Raines to use the magazine as a bully pulpit to launch a personal attack against the Guild, the Times, and the paper’s journalists, yet the magazine’s editors failed to adhere to a basic principle of journalism: fact-checking. No one at the magazine contacted the Guild to seek a response or to check facts asserted by Mr. Raines. As a result, the piece is riddled with errors and inconsistencies that could have been addressed and, perhaps, corrected with a simple telephone call. Mr. Raines places much of the blame for his own personal demise, and what he views as the recent decline of the paper-of-record, on The Newspaper Guild and its 64-year labor relationship with The Times.
In
Mr. Raines’s ill-informed view, the Guild serves as “rush
chairman of the culture of complaint” at The Times; instills “dysfunctional
traits” in new hires; forces senior editors to “testify” at endless
grievance hearings; and strong-armed the company into accepting “mindless job
guarantees.”
His
categorical statement that “at The New York Times we never fired anyone,” is
absurd especially since Mr. Raines goes on to say that he was fired.
Even the most junior reporter or copy editor would have questioned
Mr. Raines’s assertion that in its 153-year-history, The New York Times has
never fired anyone.
Employees
can, and have been, fired by The Times but not without the due process provided
under the contract between the Guild and The Times.
In fact, the Guild-Times collective bargaining agreement includes a
“progressive discipline” procedure under which employees can face
disciplinary action, “up to and including dismissal.”
It also provides for binding arbitration should we dispute the dismissal.
The
“grievance hearings” Mr. Raines refers to are actually sometimes
“disciplinary hearings,” meetings between Times management and the Guild to
deal with work-related employee issues, ranging from lateness to job
performance. Such meetings are
called by The Times Labor Relations department, not by the Guild.
Employees are entitled to Guild representation at these meetings.
The meetings seldom go on for hours and are held, when possible, at a
time and place convenient for the parties involved.
Seldom are top editors involved in such meetings.
Mr.
Raines incorrectly invented a hybrid of meetings routinely held
between the Guild and the Times: the disciplinary meeting and the grievance
meeting. Grievance meetings are monthly meetings, usually an hour or
two in length, held between the Guild and representatives from the company’s
labor relations department to discuss possible violations of the Guild contract
and to resolve them, if possible, in a timely fashion in order to avert
arbitration. Editors do not attend grievance meetings.
One
of the most egregious claims made by Mr. Raines is that staff members at The
Times get “tenure for life” after a probationary period of 14 weeks.
Based on job titles, the probationary periods for new employees are 12,
15 and 26 weeks. Trial periods for
reporters, photographers and copyeditors are 26 weeks.
There are no 14-week trial periods.
What Mr. Raines failed to say, perhaps because he was ignorant of the
fact or simply cared to ignore it, is that Times management has the right to
fire an employee at any time during their probationary period, without
explanation. The Guild cannot
challenge such dismissals unless they are discriminatory.
Had Mr. Raines taken the time
to read the contract, which is available to all employees at the Times and is
available to anyone upon request, he would have saved himself, and your
magazine, the embarrassment of an error, that left unchecked, became a mistake.
Mr.
Raines’s obvious contempt for the union is misplaced. Mr.
Raines need only to look in the mirror to find the true cause of his demise
rather than point accusatory fingers in every direction.
Mr. Raines describes The Times as a company in which the union is mommy
and the company is daddy. The
relationship between the Guild and The Times dates back to 1940, when the first
collective bargaining agreement was signed between the parties.
Since then, there have only been three strikes at the paper, in 1962,
1978 and 1981. Together, the Guild and The Times have built what even Mr.
Raines begrudgingly acknowledges is “the world’s greatest newspaper.”
Although
Mr. Raines has a right to his opinion, the Guild and the 1,500 employees we
represent at The Times are disappointed that the editors of The Atlantic Monthly
did not feel the need to offer their readers a more balanced
story. There are three sides
to every story: yours, mine, and the hard, cold truth.
Having read Mr. Raines’s piece we were reminded of a line in Nikki
Giovanni’s poem, “Ego Tripping.” It
says: “I’m so perfect, even my errors are correct.”
Barry
Lipton, New York Guild President
Lena
Williams, Times-Guild Unit Chair
New York. N.Y. April 28, 2004
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New York Times Guild Unit
Chairperson Lena Williams has been nominated for this year's Guild Service Award
from the [International] Newspaper Guild (TNG).
The citation, presented at The Guild’s annual convention (Sector
Meeting) is given to the rank-and-file member judged to have made outstanding
contributions to the union and it’s members at the unit and local levels.
The winner is chosen from members nominated from throughout TNG. Lena was nominated by N.Y. Guild President Barry Lipton, and
her nomination was unanimously endorsed by our Executive Committee.
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07/08/04