Onex Corp., a Toronto-based gang of pillagers, is seeking to buy the two Philadelphia dailies, Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. The papers are up for sale in the Knight-Ridder/McClatchey debacle, all begun because another gang of pillagers thought a 12 percent profit margin was too thin.
Onex sent a letter to the president of the Pennsylvania Teamsters Union, asking the Teamsters to look the other way while Onex dismantled the white-collar Newspaper Guild, a union that covers the reporters and editors at the two papers. In return for allowing Onex to slash the newsroom staff in half, the Teamsters would suffer no job losses.
To his credit, the president of the Teamsters said all the newspaper unions will stick together. And then he leaked the Onex letter to the Philadelphia newspapers.
Onex has dismantled unions in Wichita, Kansas, so they know how it's done. But the bigger question is, if they are successful in Philadelphia, how long will it be until other big city newspapers are similarly slashed, all in the name of quick profits?
If you're a liberal, ask yourself: How important is your daily newspaper? Will you feel better or worse if your print news gets cut by lack of reporting staff?