Citizen Tierney, Internet Mayor Clash

As you may have heard already, the Newspaper Guild and management have reached a tentative agreement on non-economic issues, and won’t be striking anytime soon. (Cue long exhales from Byko et al.)

The two sides still have yet to reach an agreement on pensions, but it appears there won’t be a strike. (The photos of myself will return to the newsroom.) Steve Volk is still blogging at The Daily Strike, in case you want to catch up.

But just when you thought that the denouement could somehow be more boring than actual negotiations, who steps in but the Mayor of the Internet, State Rep. Mark B. Cohen!

Cohen sent a letter to management supporting the Newspaper Guild. Dissection of the memo — and Brian Tierney’s incredible sentence — after the jump.

Cohen apparently sent his letter in support of the Newspaper Guild — and, specifically, seniority and pensions — on Sunday. The gist of it: He thinks workers, especially hard workers likely to stir the pot, need protection; he thinks pensions are good; most school districts have more tiers of seniority than the newspaper; he thinks the Inquirer Building would make fantastic condos, but he wouldn’t like to see that; he namedrops Stephen Colbert. Fair enough. (Cohen, of course, also posted about it on Phillyblog, and got a response on how to fix every newspaper ever — ask local Cubans what they think about Castro! — from a person who claims to have “absolutely no love for the journalism industry.” Of course!)

Tierney decided to fire off a quick response to the state rep:

“We are in meetings as we speak and so I won’t be able to respond more fully—but know that the things we are requesting are based on a very thoughtful review of this paper as well as those around the country we admire—the concerns about seniority being the sole determinant are based upon a desire to foster the highest quality, and importantly, diversity—sadly, if we base things only on seniority it will make us a much less diverse news organization—it concerns me that we won’t reflect the diversity of our community—and it is obvious that are more recent hires are more diverse than those with more seniority—so, in the end it’s about balance—focusing in the end on excellence because that is what will best serve our community and the great traditions of this wonderful organization.”

Yes, Tierney wrote one 136-word sentence — can this be considered playing the race card? — saying that if the current system of seniority was preserved, he’d be forced to fire a bunch of minorities. Oh snap! There’s a few more things, but… wow. Citizen Tierney channeling Hemmingway in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber there. Impressive.

Continued uncertainty about negotiations [Newspaper Guild]
Guild’s Official Statement [The Daily Strike]