Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Buffalo News this week said it will be closing its Downtown Buffalo production and printing facility and shifting operations to Cleveland, Ohio.
According to the report, the printing of the paper would shift to The Plain Dealer operation in Cleveland, impacting about 160 employees in Buffalo associated with the printing and delivery of the paper.
When union leaders representing workers at The Buffalo News first caught wind of the news, it was received in a different way via two separate emails.
"One from our publisher here at The Buffalo News, as well as the HR representative. The publisher saying, 'Planning to move,' and the other saying, 'Would like to,'" said John Fletch, Union President of Buffalo Mailers Local 81, CWA 14169. "I had spoke before in saying that if I was to be shocked, that would be very inaccurate, because I kind of felt like it was coming, somewhat inevitable. Still, after 38 years of employment, it came as a shock to me."
Fletch represents a large portion of the 160 employees at The Buffalo News that would be impacted by this decision to shift operations. He said the news also came to a shock to several workers, including some of the longer-term employees.
During a meeting between union leaders and members of the News hierarchy on Wednesday, Fletch says more clarification was provided on what's to come going forward. Leaders at the News notified union leaders of their intentions, knowing there's legalities and negotiations that have to be conducted as part of the process.
"Not necessarily knowing what we were going into, we were more on the receiving end of it and wanted to hear their thoughts, as they called for the meeting and broke this news," Fletch said. "It was very much so a face-to-face verbalization of what we've been hearing since Monday. Neither side chose to dip their toe in the waters of speaking of any kind of separation plans. More so where their side and the union's take was, as far as the reasoning behind this. So it felt like a very introductory level meeting."
Fletch says the plans for the News, and he quotes them, is they "Really want to get out of the print end of things," media speaking. He says they would like to move operations, finding that to be a more beneficial situation in the end.
"They committed to the desire of wanting to get this done by Oct. 1 of this year, and we spoke on how many several different units here - there's several different unions in The Buffalo News - will be affected as some may not," Fletch explained. "Again, it was very superficial, generic speak, as to them explaining their decision. And we've imposed them with the question, 'Did you do a financial breakdown of it?' They weren't prepared to give that information at the time, but that will come via an information request on the union's behalf to see what their actual findings or justification for this move is for them."
The Monday report from the News also says there will be no impact to the content or home delivery of the paper in Buffalo. Fletch confirms that is their intent if they follow through with their plan.
"All the articles will be sent electronically, somehow transported back to the Buffalo area. I believe our transportation department, early indications by the company is that they are not going to be affected, so they'll be involved in the transportation of it," he said. "It's just going to be a matter of reaching the deadlines, hitting the deadlines, and getting on the road and back to the area."
As Fletch point out, the News had short stints of this when they had a proclaimed virus malware problem in the past. Workers were required to outsource their work to get presses up and running again. With the past experience of doing this, Fletch believes it will probably be something the News can accomplish, but it'll take some time to organize it all and get it right.
As for what's next, Fletch says the union he represents will meet with the other leaders of the other locals that are involved with The Buffalo News, allowing the chance for everyone to get on the same page and see what their thoughts are.
"In the meantime, I feel like they're still putting together their plan," Fletch said. "If there's one thing I found out about this company since Lee Enterprises took it over, it seems like a lot of ideas come out and then the plans follow. So I don't even know if they were prepared to speak on any more than they did today. Just their reasoning."
