CHAPTER 10
A UPI flashback.
Memo to Domestic Bureaus, July 24, 1934, by Earl J. Johnson
Gentlemen:
We used the phrase "whore houses" in the news report last week. This raises
the question of how far we can go under our policy of frank reporting.
The phrase "whore houses" was used by a federal judge in questioning a
witness in an important trial. We were handling a running story of the trial
with questions and answers, and we carried the judge's question verbatim. We
will continue to use such terms in the news report on those rare occasions
when they fit naturally into the record of official remarks by judges or
public men.
"Sex orgies" is appearing frequently in stories about the Dave Allen morals
case in Hollywood. On some days I have had the feeling that we were using
that phrase too often, although there is no doubt of its accuracy.
What we must avoid and this is creating an impression of trying to be
darting or flippant in the use of such terms. "Whore houses" appeared once
and we may not have occasion to use it again for years. I hope not, because
to many readers it is an offensive term. We must employ our new freedom with
discretion, restraint, and good taste always.
What would he have thought when UPI put out the story on July 3, 1978, about the Suprme Court decision on George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words.
In 1992, George Bush was coming to the end of his presidency. Apparently someone thought it had come a bit early. I still have a copy of a letter dated Sept. 17, 1992, from Van Nuys, Calif. It was addressed in neat handwriting to: "President George Bush, White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500 Attn: Frank Skinner" It was stamped, "Return to sender, addressee unknown."
In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president, a black man named Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles police officers. A not guilty verdict in the case against the officers sparked several days of rioting. Bosnia and Hercegovina seceded from Yugoslavia and Congress was rocked with a bad check scandal that snared a number of congressmen. Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, killing 14 and leaving a quarter of a million homeless. And, in Britain, the royal family couldn't seem to keep it together. Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson divorced, then Princess Anne and Mark Philips divorced and finally, the storybook marriage of Princess Di and Prince Charles came to an end.
Early in the year, we lost another colleague, who had left UPI for the Associated Press.
The Washington Post obit read:
Robert M. Andrews, 59, a reporter in the Washington bureau of the Associated Press who was a highly regarded rewrite man and a deft and skillful teller of human interest and feature stories, died Feb. 20 at Fairfax Hospital. He had cancer.
Mr. Andrews was a newsman for 35 years, and he spent almost all of that time with the wire services. He began with United Press International in London. In the early 1960s, he joined the UPI bureau in Washington and stayed for 13 years. In 1978, after a brief period in public relations and with U.S. News & World Report, he joined the AP.
In recent years at the AP, Mr. Andrews covered cultural events and wrote features. The sort of thing that caught his attention was church services in unusual settings. Thus, a story he wrote from Tysons Corner said, "Every Sunday morning, in his makeshift church above an automobile body shop, pastor Cameron Simmons knocks out the dents and heals the scrapes from the spiritual fender benders of life."
A piece on the same theme, so to speak, from the Rosslyn section of Arlington began, "Looking for a different worship experience? Consider 'Our Lady of Exxon,' a local Methodist church where you can drive in for gasoline and a lube job, then walk upstairs for some fire and brimstone."
"We've lost our best storyteller, the man who brought Washington down to earth for millions of readers across the world," said Jonathan Wolman, the AP bureau chief in Washington.
Bob was a shining light also during his years at UPI and one of his gems was a sidebar during the funeral of President John F. Kennedy.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) – A little boy at his grieving mother’s side saluted the passing casket.
And in that moment, he suddenly became the brave soldier his father would have wanted him to be on this day, of all days.
For today, John F. Kennedy, Jr., turned three.
His world was strangely different, in little ways a child notices but does not understand.
Where was his daddy? The tall man with the laughing eyes who had a big desk and saw lots of important people and stooped to spank him good-naturedly and took him on helicopter rides and called him “John-John.”
This was supposed to be the day of The Party. The cake with three candles to blow out, the friends singing boisterous “Happy Birthdays,” the gifts.
But home, the White House, was quiet. Some of the furniture was gone. And the soldiers outside, whose salutes he delighted in trying to return with one of his own, looked different. They didn’t glance down at him and sneak a wink or a smile today. Their commands barked, their rifles clattered.
Secret Service agents came and led John-John and his sister out to the north portico. Mrs. Kennedy, dressed all in black, met them at the door and took them to a limousine. Then she walked back up the line with their uncles, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward Kennedy, and the slow, sad march to church began.
President and Mrs. Johnson and a host of aides and security agents followed Mrs. Kennedy on foot. John-John and Caroline rode in the car behind them.
A half-mile later, in front of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the parade stopped. John-John and Caroline were brought around to join their mother.
The little boy looked around bewildered and started crying. His mother spoke to him softly, and he stopped.
They walked up the steps of the cathedral, and there waiting was Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston. John-John seemed awed by the tall, craggy-faced man towering above him, wearing a white, two-pointed miter and black vestments.
Mrs. Kennedy, holding each of her children by the hand, walked in and down the aisle to their seats.
John-John grew restless during the mass. Someone picked a small book—The Church Today—Growth or Decline—from the literature rack at the rear of the cathedral and gave it to the boy to occupy him. He still clasped it in his hand when he left the church with his mother and sister.
They stood waiting at the bottom of the steps. Pallbearers appeared at the door with the flag-draped casket, and as it came slowly down toward them, Mrs. Kennedy leaned down and whispered to her son.
He stood apart, straightened stiffly, and raised his hand in salute as the casket passed.
It was another year of farewell messages as those who stayed continued to hope that the company would pull through. But there were ominous signs and the ranks were dwindling fast. There were fewer people to say good-bye to. Royal Brightbill, who said good-bye on behalf of his creation, Helmut De Lago, and then said good-bye for himself, found himself saying good-bye again. Failing to get any reassurances from the company that surgery would be covered by the UPI health plan, I canceled surgery and later wrote a pre-emptive good bye — just in case.
On May 4, 1992, I sent the following:
All-wa
Fyi, I was scheduled for surgery Wednesday to have an obstinate hernia repaired. However, after attempting to check insurance status with company and having people at comprehensive benefits even refuse to discuss it, and then talking with doug levy (union official), I have canceled the surgery. The word to the wise, I think, is stay healthy. Anything submitted between now and whenever is highly speculative.
On May 11, 1992, The Washington Post did an in-depth piece on UPI, titled, "At UPI, No News Is Bad News. The Failing Wire Service Needs a Buyer, and Fast"
Paul Hendrickson set the stage with his lede graph:
"They were there with the news Chef Boy-Ardee died. They were there with the report that Lindbergh was safely on the ground at Le Bourget. They were there first those 29 still-chilling Novembers ago when a president's head lurched back in his limo at Dealey Plaza. The bulletin went on the UPI printer at 12:34 p.m. Dallas time. White House correspondent Merriman Smith -- 'Smitty,' everyone called him -- was riding in a press pool car swerving down Elm Street in Dallas in those bewildering afterseconds. He kept fighting off AP's Jack Bell for control of the radio phone. The 11 words appearing in a clacking black on a teletype were: 'Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.' Thanks to United Press International, small-town editors with their backsides to stoves in New England heard about JFK in Dallas two minutes before the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital received JFK."
He interviewed Tom Ferraro, a White House reporter at the time, who said: "I've described it as being married to a terminally ill patient. On one level you want her to die, so you can get on with your life. On the other, you don't want to give up, you don't want her to give up. You do it for the rushes you get." Ferraro said the rush was still there, "but, you see, there's no ... clients anymore."
David Wiessler, at the time the senior political reporter, told Hendrickson, "We used to take the story by the throat and shake it around and bang it on the table. And, and, we ... just ... can't ... do that anymore."
I was working the desk that June day in 1985 when I heard the radio report that Chef Boy-Ardee had died. His real name was Ettore Boiardi. It was the weekend and I hadn't a clue where to go to match the story. I had a friend who worked at my neighborhood Safeway. I called him and asked him to grab a can of any Chef Boy-Ardee product and read the label. He gave me enough information that I was able to find the bureau closest to his firm in Ohio and get a reporter on the case.
On June 4, 1992, a very sad farewell appeared in The Washington Post: A.B. Sawislak, senior editor at UPI, dies. Arnold B. Sawislak, 64, retired Washington editor of United Press International, died of complications of neurological surgery June 4 at George Washington University Hospital.
He was Arnie to us. He signed off his messages RNE, and we all knew who it was. He gave 41 years to UPI as a legislative correspondent, regional reporter, congressional correspondent, chief political writer, columnist and enterprise writer. He retired as senior editor in 1990.
Arnie wrote a weekly column, Washington Window, and a novel about tabloid journalism, "Dwarf Rapes Nun; Flees in UFO."
One of Arnie's gems:
WASHINGTON (UPI) – Less than 24 hours after President Nixon assured Republican governors last week that he knew of no more Watergate “bombs,” the White House dropped another one — and the shrapnel ripped the web of confidence Nixon had tried to weave in Memphis.
On June 23, 1992, I wrote:
All:
At the end of today’s shift I’ll be on vacation, returning Monday, July 6. while efforts continue to keep upi alive, the reality is that I leave today with the possibility that I will not be able to get back into the building to retrieve my coffee cup. So, I want to wish you all the best — and that best includes a thriving, productive upi on july 6. but if our words should not again cross the message wires, I want to thank all of you for your tremendous help, dedication, hard work and tenacity over the past few months. That said, I hope to talk to you on july 6.
And on july 6:
All:
Good morning! And july 6 did arrive! Savannah, ga., evening press headline: “man who killed wife, self just released from prison.”
Rosso-wa
Morn dave, and welcome back to the new upi.
Haskell-bh (Boston)
The following message is more than a personal goodbye; it was also a goodbye for the St. Louis, Mo., bureau. Steve Whitworth’s message also conveys the spirit of Unipressers.
Buros
Tdy marks my last day as a full-time unipresser et the closing of the x (St. Louis) buo. Eye’m not sure how long x buro has been open, but eye’m sure it’s almost as wild as upi. A lotta great ppl have worked here thru the yrs; just to mention a few tt eye was fortunate enuf to meet et/or work with: Jim Wieck, Dale Singer, laszio domjan, tom uhlenbrock, tim Bryant, rich luna, Janice kalmar, mandy Mueller, read martin, mede nix, steve wade, warren mayes et art Phillips. Eye also had the pleasure of working with jake wolf in Jefferson city, et such Kansas city staffers as john hendel, toni cardarella, Elizabeth drake, joe keenan, will dickenson, bob musinski et jenell Wallace.
Eye started with upi in 1985 in New Orleans, where eye worked with ellen debenport, rob gloster, john demers, janet plume, royal brightbill, joan duffy et dave fornell. Steve watsky was a stringer then et later became one of the classic unipressers; the msg wire unhas bn the same since he left.
Et of course eye’ve been fortunate enuf to work the network of unipressers nationwide, most of whom eye’ve never had the chance to meet in person. This msg wud be far too long if eye attempted to name everyone who has helped et guided me or just been a good friend over the wires. To those of u still with the company: u know who u are. Thnx for everything.
It’s very sad to be closing this buro down, but eye’m grateful for the opportunity upi gave me as a young reporter fresh outta j-skull. Eye know tt the nearly seven yrs eye’ve spent here hv given me experience et skills tt shld serve me well down the road. Again, thnx to all of u. eye hope eye get a chance to meet some more of u somewhere down the line; old unipressers shld always be friends, becoz we’ve shared experiences tt give us a common bond unlike any other news organization eye know of. Some experiences were good et others were bad, but anybody who has worked for this company for any length of time knows wot eye mean when eye say if u’ve been a unipresser, ur part of a family. It may be a loud, contentious family with a few conflicts here and there, but eye’m proud to call any past or present unipresser my friend et hope they feel the same way abt me.
My name or work may be popping up on the wire on a stringer basis for a while, at least until eye find full-time work elsewhere. Eye doan hv anything arranged yet, et it’s a little scary luking for a job in this economy, but eye’m counting on the good experience eye’ve gained here to help me land something.
Best of luck to al unipressers et keep on plugging. It’s been a pleasure working with all of u. et if any of u are ever in the st. louis area, look me up…
Thnx et rgds
Whitworth-x
1-20-92
unipressers
today is my last day behind my tube after almost 4-and-a-half years at the world’ most independent wire service. I have learned more about life during my time here than ever before. However, there have also been some very tough times, some that have even made me teary, like when my co-worker was laid off 2 times in a year.
On march 2, I start as the chief spokesman for the Illinois environmental protection agency. Thankfully, I will be replaced here at the Illinois capitol, where upi is very much revered for its legendary staffers, including our m.e. bob kieckhefer and others.
There are several ppl I want to thank before I go: phil magers-da (Dallas), who hired me and is a fantastic editor and boss. Jim wieck-exda, who treated everyone like a pro. David barron-exda, the fastest writer I ever saw. Marcy kreiter-hx (Chicago), who put her confidence in me and gave me latitude to do my best. And my current boss, char kosek-hx, who kills herself every day because she really believes in this place.
I wish all fellow staffers the best of luck and as one of my co-workers used to say, “unipressers never die, they just come back.” I’ve already done that once. Will the second time be a charm? 73s to all.
Shomon-gx-gt-da-peace (Springfield, Ill., ??, Dallas)
Unipressers
It’s been my great honor to work alongside you ever since I first crossed the threshold of the rv (Richmond) buro in 1976. in two stints with this great old ship I’ve had a lot of fun, done a few great stories. But the memories that mean the most will remain those of my colleagues. From the beginning u have dazzled me with your abilities and dedication, inspired me with your grit, buoyed me with your humor and, more recently, made me cry as I’ve watched you suffer the indignities and privations of our darkest voyage.
I’ll remember each of you, past and present, including Ed Roby, whose brilliance and big heart couldn’t hide long behind the gruff Brooklyn cab driver exterior, and who marked my standing as the first female to work in rv (Richmond) by calling me only “da goil” from day one: Tom Ferraro, my dearest friend and professional inspiration, who fooled me into thinking he was a choir boy in the old rv days by muttering, “excuse me Karen” every one of the 100 times a day he said the “f” word: Jeff Reynolds, who brought sanity and clarity to the oh-so appropriately named MAD (MidAtlantic) desk — and later the likes of bill lohman, ellis Conklin, jane Sutton, ken franckling and bill inman who allowed me the privilege of handling their feature copy; ron cohen, who epitomizes the meaning of upi to me; Helen Thomas, who let me have dinner with her; frank cook, who made me laugh; dave rosso, who hasn’t given in to this very day; steve gerstel, who let me sit next to him in hopes of his enormous talent would rub off and who elevated me to the highly coveted title of “head honey” on the hill … and the rest of the wonderful, crazy bunch of you still turning it out on your cranky old tubes in your flea bitten offices. Thanks to you I’ll never stop being proud to call myself a unipresser. Gd luck to you all. 73s. Karen Timmons-wafin (rv, waftus, sa-hu-ru, wa) (Richmond, Washington-features, Senate, House, Regional, Washington)
Buos
This is another one of those msgs
Who: Sharon (sa) miller-sxr
What: bailing out
When: well, today could be my last day, and then again eye might be back for a short time after eye return from vccn next week. It all depends on how the skeds work out.
Where: san Francisco (see how) all those people to whom eye’ve sed over the years “eye owe u a drink for tt” are welcome to come by and collect ‘em. The bar’s open. We might even provide munchies.
Why: it’s time. no eye do not have a new job with a wealthy company tt also will hire u at big bucks. My husband is about to get a housewife for the first time in 13 years of marriage. Eye figure about one month of tt will drive us both crazy.
How: reluctantly, even tho eye kno it’s the rite thing to do. Eye’ll miss all of u terribly.
73s
sab-miller-sxr (San Francisco-radio)
unipressers
I am leaving upi after 12 years. it has been a wonderful life, not just a job. I’m grateful for having had the opportunity and thankful to all who helped me along the way. I hope upi will go on forever. It is a great institution that deserves to live and to flourish once again. Special thanks to Helen, leon, steve geimann, bob martin in London and the hill folk — shep and gerstel — who kindly helped us regionals learn the ropes back in the good ole days. I’ll miss y’all. Have to leave suddenly to avoid conflict of interest. Just got a job in governor wilson’s administration doing public affairs for his health and welfare agency. New trails for me, and for you, I hope for only the best. Cheers and 73s. chrystal-bc (Sacramento)
allpoints (goodbye)
it’s hard to say good-bye to u all even though I met most u only on the message wire. Upi has helped me fulfil part of my dreams over the last four years both as a paris stringer where I covered some memorable stories, and as a desker here in wa where I learned to run the fast-paced and understaffed 24-hour desk. But I have a good offer from the competition and think the future is brighter there. Upi can’t survive (nor can I) on dreams and its reputation. There are too few people, and (not that I need to tell u) all are overworked and underpaid, and deserve better. For my two cents worth, the best investment upi could make now is in people. The only way upi can survive and prosper is to have a good product. The only way to have a good product is to have good, experienced reporters and editors. And the only way to get and keep those people is to treat them and compensate them fairly. Sounds like an elementary business principle but some people haven’t learned that. When and if they do, who knows, maybe I’ll be back. All the best to everyone.
Lever-waforn (Washington-foreign)
All
Well, this brief bdcst shift marks the end of my life with the vaunted wire service. After 10-plus years I’m heading to nx (New York) to join my family and seek my fortune after 10 years in km (San Diego). The weather is fine here, but there are no no opportunities in either journalism, flackery or anything in between. I just want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way or has just been a pal. The long list includes tony gonsalves, joe fasbinder and the hard-working hc (Los Angeles) crew, my old pal bill murray in sx (San Francisco), bob martin and everyone at nxs (New York Sports). The roster of the departed is too long to even bring up, but my mentor marty houseman, the old latam (Latin American desk) hand, deserves a special mention. So many people. This place was really something and I hope it bounces back without any further layoffs.
73s
Anderson-km (San Diego)
Buos
(bye) well, folks, been over this road so many times before there isn’t much more I can say about it. I certainly have learned not to say goodbye. Have enjoyed being reunited with old friends throughout the company, making new ones and fighting the good fight with some of the best in the business, today is my last day on this current tour with upi, but I will be keeping close contact and pulling for your success all the way. 73
brightbill-led
allpoints
(goodbye) 14 years ago this month I hired on at the phoenix buro for a temporary four-month position with the goal of earning enough bucks to move to Hawaii. As I like to say, somehow I didn’t make it to Hawaii. But I’ve had a good run. I helped cover the u.s. invasion of panama with the late doug tweedale (Christmas in the tropics)…once armed men stopped my bus going into panama city, and once I had a late night encounter with invisible U.S. troops on a dark road. During my nearly two years as forn correspondent for Colombia and Ecuador, I covered a volcanic eruption that killed 23,000 people, a guerrilla raid on the justice palace that killed 100, a presidential election and two papal visits. My years here on the forn desk have seen the collapse of the berlin wall, the soviet coup, the death of the ayatollah khomeini, etc. they say what this company doesn’t give in perks or praise, it gives in excitement and I guess I’ve had my share. A lot of people gave me a boost, like former latam exec gary neeleman who guided me to Colombia and former managing editor bill Ferguson who gave me a plane ticket to panama. Herb surrett hired me in phoenix, where gravel-voiced harriett hindman chain-smoked and showed me the ropes. Lou Carr, Leon Daniel and Jeff Reynolds in Washington have shown me what it is to endure. Loretta Robinson the courage of the human spirit and Dave Rosso, the benefits of an undying sense of humor. And all u folks in buos overseas, u who fight to do a good job despite all odds, I pray that someday u’ll get the appreciation u deserve. So many people, so many war stories. They say at an embattled company, people stay because of the companionship. That’s what I’ll miss the most. My husband is pursuing his dream to become a pilot for the Coast Guard and we’re moving to Pensacola, Fla. UPI says maybe later, I can work from there. But who knows. So I’ve decided to say good bye, because this is probably it. Thanks to all. Rgds. Walsh-waforn.
Buros
I guess there are still a few left out there. Hi I’m unemployed n yur not. But seriously, at whatever time I decide to turn out the lights this afternoon, fy (Frankfort, Ky.) will be officially downclosed n I’ll be heading to the unemployment line. As far as ky is concerned, sal-sv (Louisville) is captain n crew. The last 13 months have been a great learning experience for me, but learning experiences wont feed my kids next month. Many thnks are in order, especially to my boss and mentor sal-sv (the Italian stallion), kieck and kreiter-hx (Chicago), cook and pohla-ps (Pittsburgh), swenson-nxs (New York-sports) and king of the techs jim price in Indianapolis. I hope upi survives this latest downgrade, but it don’t luk gud. Who wud want to buy a wire with only a handful of writers. My advice is to start updating those resumes. And if you have any baseball cards to give away, msg me on pza. Im going back on the show circuit to supplement my non-existent income until a brighter day. Tnks again to those who count. You know who you are.
Danny-fy
Unipressers
Ouch! Getting kicked off the upi roller coaster smarts! And not knowing where I’ll land adds a little terror to the adventure. But when I jumped off the radio merry-go-round 3-and-a-half years ago I knew the ride at upi was getting rickety and I might lose my seat at any dip or turn. A snickering Hartford courant reporter asked me at the time how it felt to jump onto a sinking ship and I told her I could swim. And swim I will. But it’s been a thrill to work with the legendary bruno vittorrio ranniello, who gave me a new view of religion; mark dupuis, who gave me a new view of politics; and dennis milewski, who gave me a chance to climb out of the radio swill bucket and do some real news. And “young ken” (brown), of late on the national desk, how could I forget you? Well, your “big sister” is a “wib wench” no longer. Thanks for the memories, guys, and if you hear of any jobs, please let me know. good luck to all who are left to continue the battle. And now I’m off to pink slip heaven. Amen. Chrs. Yost-bp (hf) (Bridgeport, Conn., Hartford)
Allpoints
I’ve rewritten this message a hundred times in the past few weeks. What it comes down to is that no matter how many more employees or clients the other outfits have, none ever have had or ever will have a finer group of staffers. You are what has always made upi a special company (and why I’ve quit twice before and come back). To all of you overseas, particularly those of you I’ve come to consider friends, a special salute. If you ever head toward virginia, there’ll always be a light on and welcome mat out for you at our house. Bests, lai-waftus (Jill Lai-Washington-features)
All at upi
When bob gornall lured me from the cw (Charleston, W.Va.) daily mail in august 1966 to upi, he promised me it would NOT be “a bed of roses.” How right he was. The first winter, ray evans and I worked 63 consecutive night tricks, due to 60-day xgr (legislature) session. The second winter, ray and I worked 42 consecutive nights, since xgr met only 30 days in alternate years “back then.” Like wally martin-upr, I started as a wire service copy boy — INS in columbus, ohio, in 1952. we made eight-copy books for reporters to do their stories on. I took two copies to the cz (Columbus, Ohio) bus station and shipped them to the ironton tribune and another nupe in tt area for tt day’s editions. Then I went soft and worked for newspapers in parkersburg, w.va.; panama city, panama; Marietta, ohio; then to the Charleston daily mail where gornall offered me a 45-dollar-a-week raise at the very time our fourth child was born. All the children are thru college now. Don’t say upi doesn’t keep its promises — it has been no bed of roses as promised by the first dozen or so buro managers. Let me say that if we are better people because of adversity, then upi people are the strongest people on the face of the earth. I’m glad I came on board. As consarned aggravatin’ as it cud be much of the time, as I often told mac porterfield prolly the only way I wud get outta hr was to get thrown out. Oh, well, “no more scores ‘n stuff” to collect. The fones have stopped ringing. So long. Best wishes.
Dan hose-cw
The following message was a personal goodbye that also signaled the closing of a bureau and the entire state of New Jersey.
All
Three years ago, I closed down upi’s Newark bureau and now I’m turning out the lights in new jersey, abandoning drawers full of disorganized files, two functioning terminals and a temperamental fax machine.
I joined upi in 1985 after working for a client newspaper (now both an ex-client and an ex-newspaper) in northern new jersey. After I came on board, I realized I was lucky to be in new jersey—a state that produces an extraordinary amount of news and a state where a series of talented editors had built a bureau with a real gorilla reputation. I got to cover the Baby M case and the john list trial and to meet people like joyce carol oates, john mcphee and john digilio, a reputed mobster who once wrestled a co-defendant to the floor during a brawl in a courthouse hallway and later was found in the Hackensack river with five bullets in his head. (digilio used to pinch me on the cheek and say, “hey, honey, after I win my case, I’m going to take you out.” I was never sure what he meant by that, but someone took him out first.)
The last three years have been hell. Two of us have tried to keep a state report going and watched the client base dwindle. I’m glad the company is now trying to pull up its socks and find a direction, and I hope that my bad memories will fade with time.
There are many many people, a lot of them still with the company, that I was fortunate to work with and get to know. There are six people who stick in my mind as typical of the talented and dedicated journalists upi hired and then sometimes threw away — former nxl staffer cathy burke, former financial editor dottie brooks, former book review queen jill lai, former new jersey editor and national desker dennis o’shea, former national super-desker dan chiszar and former Washington morning message king dave rosso.
To those of you who are staying, best of luck. To those who are joining me in the exodus, remember — it’s not an end, it’s a beginning. After all, chiszar is now a roustabout with the circus. Chrs, burns-tr (Trenton)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
All: This Is My Last Day - Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
One of the joys of working at UPI was getting to know many very talented reporters and editors. Unfortunately, we never got to meet many of the people whose names appeared atop stories and on the daily message wire exchanges.
I was fortunate in that I worked in Washington, D.C., and was in contact with a large staff.
Among the personalities was Ed Rogers.
Ed started in the South and in Washington he served as our Southern regional reporter. There are many stories floating around about Ed, but this is among the favorites.
In 1953, the national desk in New York alerted all bureaus to be on the lookout for an expected list of American servicemen who had been captured in Korea and were to be freed from Chinese POW camps. All bureaus were told to contact relatives for quick reaction.
According to those who knew Ed, he awaited the list in usual mode – armed with three packs of Camel cigarettes, a bag of peanuts and a beverage in a brown paper bag.
When the list came out, Ed spotted the name of PFC John Engle, son of Mrs. Edna Engle of Monteagle, Tenn. No other address was listed.
The telephone operator told Ed that there was no Edna Engle listed and there was no phone service to Monteagle, located at the top of a mountain serviced by a winding two-lane highway.
He called the Grundy County Sheriff's office and persuaded the deputy on duty to drive up the mountain and bring Edna Engle to his office.
About an hour later, Edna Engle was on the phone and Ed interviewed her. When he was finished talking with Edna, Ed filed this urgent:
URGENT
With Red China
MONTEAGLE, Tenn. (UP) -- Mrs. Edna Engle, upon learning that her son John had
been freed from a Red Chinese Prisoner of War camp, said early this morning,
"I have no son named John.”
The year 1991 started with the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq and the death of an estimated 200,000 Iraqis. Yugoslavia ceased to be, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia left the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union was dismantled, Jeffry Dahlmer was arrested and charged with at least 17 deaths of young men who he had lured to his home for sex. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas was accused by Anita Hill of sexual harassment, four white police officers were videotaped beating Rodney King and Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister of India, was assassinated.
It was also the year that a group of Saudi investors bought United Press International, pulling the company out of its second bankruptcy and expanding its involvement in the Middle East. Unfortunately for the rank and file Unipressers, they received word of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the New York Times. The company couldn't tell its own employees first.
Steve Geimann, assistant managing editor for regional, was named Washington bureau chief to replace Schwartz.
And Unipressers continued to provide the world with news with smaller pay checks and a never-ending chorus of farewell messages -- and the tension was showing.
rossiter-wa
I’ve just been handed a notice frm building management saying we “are hereby required within three (3) days after this notice is served” to pay up or get out. U want me to fax it to u? thx
Martin-hc (Los Angeles)
vanbennekom
hipps UPI
UPI-whoever
it is now 5 months since my employment agreement was terminated by UPI. UPI has yet to pay me 5,850 dollars owed for time worked. I have exhausted my calls and letters and received no response.
This is not money owed for severance or vacation. It is money owed to me by UPI for time put in as an employee of UPI. If UPI cannot afford to pay out $5,850 in one payment, contact me and we can set up a payment plan. Ignoring me does not mean I’ll forget the money or go away.
Thank you (unsigned)
There were attempts from management to shore up morale.
All
I am impressed with our budget coverage, from the main lead crafted by Bud Newman — with help from all hands — to the various sidebars on agencies, effects, themes and analyses. Despite the adversity that challenges us every day, everyone worked hard to give our clients the important details about the spending plan. Our copy was well-written, well-edited and well-sourced, especially by those thrown into the lurch by a war that has sapped our crew. Everyone on the Washington staff deserves kudos for their work yesterday. I want to especially acknowledge Dave Rosso, Steve Gerstel, Bob McNeill and Bud Newman, whose thoughts and ideas in the days before the budget was released helped shape our coverage. Chrs
(Steve) Geimann (Washington)
But rancor is oftentimes very difficult to salve, especially when there is so much precedence.
Geimann-buo
In a deliberate effort to make ur day even more miserable, I ask the rhetorical question: so, is the world’s largest…wire service gonna pay overtime for this little muscle flexing exercise that brought me in early on a religious holiday to cover what’s left of our butt in a field deemed too insignificant to cover in the future? Or what? Brenner-war
9-18-91
Brenner was Eliot Brenner, who for years had worked side-by-side with me on the Washington desk, before he moved across the Potomac River to cover the Pentagon.
Geimann
Hm (Concord, N.H.) stringer Jim XXXX is owed at least $1,000 et has not received anything over two months. He has talked with uu et others in wa et fx (Fairfax, Va., where UPI had set up administrative offices) and has been told at various times:
--you’re on the priority stringer list
--a check will be cut for you on Friday
--the money ran out before they got to you, but a check will be cut this Friday and you’re on the top of the list.
--there’s no one here who can talk to you about that.
--there’s no one here who can talk to you about that
--there’s no one …
eye wud greatly appreciate it if this pathetic company wud stop lying to him and give him some straight answers. Are we no longer paying stringers? Is there really a priority stringer list?
Thayer is the only help eye hv and he is responsible for writing all weekend radio. If he quits because of lack of payment, as so many stringers already have, there will be NONO weekend radio.
Our remaining New Hampshire radio clients are already under a great deal of pressure because they get no Maine or Vermont copy and hm closes as 2 p.m. weekdays. If they see nothing on the weekends they will be forced to cancel.
Cud eye get a response to this from uu or anyone in charge (if anyone still is)?
Rgds
Van dongen-hm
Stringers were reporters who worked by the story. They were paid by the story, received no benefits and were on-call. The stringer situation was serious and Van Dongen was correct in his descriptions. There, indeed, was a priority list. During my last years at UPI, I dealt with overseas stringers, which, at the time (1996-1999) were substantial since UPI had pretty much closed all overseas bureaus and turned most, if not all, of our overseas reporters into stringers. I fielded many calls from stringers asking about their pay. And there was a priority list. I will go deeper into the stringer situation in a later chapter.
Meanwhile, Al Rossiter continued to try to sooth the crew.
Unipressers
This is an unsettling time for staffers and I understand that. But while the lawyers for the company, the union and our creditors argue their positions, we must continue to serve our clients to the best of our ability.
I want to make sure everyone understands our goal: It is to report the news as well as we can. Our clients are varied and their needs are varied. Therefore, we must cover as many newsworthy events as possible. We must provide analysis and insight where it is required. And of foremost importance, we must be certain our copy is accurate, is understandable and is balanced. Nothing will turn off clients faster than copy that violates those principles.
The length of our newspaper copy should be dictated by the story and its significance, not by a formula that says every story must be 400 or 600 or 800 words long. There is nothing wrong with the 100-, 150- and 200-word stories. Few newspapers have room for more than a few graphs for anything but the most important events of the day. Broadcasters certainly have no need for excess wordage.
Our national report needs more of the shorter stories that move on state reports. If the story is one that might be printed in more than one region, then it should move on the national service. We must remember our clients are a diverse lot with diverse requirements.
The needs of state reports vary, depending on our client base. I will be in touch with all regional and state editors in the next few days to review their reports and explore ways to improve them. Our goal is to serve every client we have today and to prepare a report that will attract new business.
We will be making changes next week in some areas of our operation, particularly in sports, business, Washington coverage and photos. I’ll have a detailed memo discussing these changes, and what they mean to the operation, later this week.
Some of our colleagues have received notices and will be leaving the company in the days ahead. Their contributions were appreciated and they will be missed. But those of us who remain must press ahead. UPI can survive, and grow, and provide new jobs in the future, but it will take the continued dedication and perseverance of all of us to make that happen.
Thanks
rossiter-wa
09-23-91
Rossiter was a sincere man and he was liked and respected, not only as a manager, but as a reporter and an editor. But there were things happening far beyond his control.
rossiter-geimann-wa (hill-ar (Seattle))
the sept. 25 issue of the Seattle weekly, the city’s major “alternative” paper, contains an item titled “wire cutters” that details the fate of the Seattle buro. The article says, quote, “last week the wire service laid off two of its Seattle staff writers, Terrance Finan and Dennis Ainsley, according to UPI public relations spokesman Milt Capps.”
The fact that my first name was spelled wrong and Dennis’s last name was completely wrong (it’s Anstine) is laughable, at worst. What is not laughable is the possibility that the abysmal moral and ethical sensibilities of UPI’s top management have sunk to such lows that it doesn’t matter (to them) if they make public the names of once-dedicated employees who have been thrown out of their jobs without ceremony, severance or so much as a thank you for a job done well.
All of Seattle knows that Dennis and I are unemployed as of next week. But somehow, I don’t think this is going to keep me awake tonight; I have more important things in my life to attend to. For the record though — and for the sake of others who may, too, find their names in print as the reward for what they have done for UPI — can someone please explain what the company’s policy is on this and what kind of reasoning (if any) led to it?
Finan-ar
And the farewell message flood continued, including this one from David Anderson, who started at UPI two years before I did, was an active union member and eventually became our religion editor.
Unipressers
It was 1967 and the pay was $62.50 a week, the job was sorting the mail, getting Gerstel’s smokes, taking Helen’s dictation, picking up a sandwich for Brenner (Bernie, not Eliot) and changing the ribbon on Frandsen’s (Julius, not Jon) teletype. There’s been a lot of learning since then — most especially from such good comrades as Dave Wiessler, Arnie Sawislak, George Marder, Liz Wharton, Leon Burnett, Bob McNeill, David Rosso and a lot of others, too. There’s been a lot of decent hangovers — at Bassin’s, the Curtain Call, the Mozart and so many reincarnations of the Blue Mirror a religion writer could start believing in life after … well — and some indecent political arguments and just one hell of a lot of good fun. Now that part is over. The pay aint much better but I’d still be glad to get Gerstel’s smokes for him, take dictation from Helen anytime and I’d consider fetching Brenner whatever he needed. I’m still learning from Wiessler.
But it’s just the end of a chapter, not the book and, at least for the moment, eye’ll still be around on occasion, opening books, cajoling reviews.
Dylan said “good-bye is too good a word/so I’ll just say fare thee well.”
So be it … and may peace and justice be with you in your … our … struggle
d.Anderson-wa
Unipressers
After 13 years and one month with UPI, eye’m logging out tda (this time real). But even with the 35 percent pay cut and UPI’s uncertain future, it still saddens me greatly to leave. As many, many departing Unipressers b4 me have said, it’s the people who have always made UPI a special place to work. And tts true tda. Eye wish only the best for all of u et UPI. Chrs
Lowry-us (mg) (Austin, Tex., Montgomery, Ala.)
1-11-91
Allbureaus
Dear Unipressers
I arrived at UPI in the middle of the Vietnam War and I am leaving in what I hope is the middle of the Persian Gulf War. My arrival was with joy. My departure is with regrets — regret that the war in the Gulf is not over and that I’ll miss seeing its end with UPI and regret that the future of this once-grand worldwide wire service is so dark. I hope UPI does indeed rise from its ashes as did the phoenix.
My resignation is effective Saturday but I am gone as of now, Monday, January 21, 23 years, two months and three days after I arrived.
A job I could not pass up fell into my lap. I am going back to my origins — the city news bureau of Chicago, now 100 years old and going strong. This time, I’ll be the broadcast faculty at CNB.
One thing that won’t change is that I will still be trying to train young reporters to think broadcast. I think UPI should have focused on television and radio far more in the past to shore up its finances (but who asked me?) I mean ALL of UPI broadcast. The state reports are just as important, perhaps more so, than the national report because of all of the stations with network and other affiliations.
…
I apologize for leaving the dedicated Unipressers who are still waging the good fight for UPI — from Helen Thomas on down the list. May you all win this war.
My login password in recent weeks has been godsaveUPI. Maybe someone with more faith than I can take over this password and successfully raise the phoenix.
(Susan) stevens-upr-hx (UPI Radio, Chicago)
All Unipressers
After 15 years, most of them good ones, it’s time for me to call it quits at old UPIou.
When I first started at UPI, I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night out of sheer happiness, anticipating the day ahead, planning how I could make the bells ring around the world and how I and people like Juan Walte and Matt Quinn and Helen Thomas and Lori Santos at the White House and people like Dave Wiessler and Sean McCormally on the desk, would dropkick AP right out of the stadium.
I OD’ed on the sensation of filing an urgent at about 6 p.m. and then, about ten minutes later, hearing the screams from the AP booth at the other end of the State Department press room. In a way, I am prouder of the fact that we knocked down phony scoops from the other end of the press room — the fictitious 10,000-foot runways which existed only in the fevered mind of Ollie North and the AP copy.
Recently, I also found myself waking up in the middle of the night, but in despair — at stories that would get lost on the desk, at bells that didn’t ring because there was nobody home out there in client-land, at unpaid expenses, at k-market computers that would crash at the worst possible moments, at a newsroom that began to look more and more like the night of the living dead.
While we were doing our best on the wire — better than the competition most of the time — there were people in charge of our financial destinies who shouldn’t have been in charge of a bicycle rack.
At one time, I counted 28 UPI vice presidents, 27 more than the U.S. government had. The ninth floor looked like yuppy heaven, with self-important, overpaid little twerps going to lunch with each other at our expense.
Little by little, week by week, I came to realize that what I was doing wasn’t valued very much, economically or journalistically, and I think this affected what I was doing. No pumping adrenalin, with conflicting editorial direction, systematically drained of some of the money I used to earn, my work began to show it and I was no longer happy with it. That’s nature’s way of saying, “move on, bozo.”
For a brief magic moment, my career and UPI’s high point coincided. It’s time to leave before all that magic is gone. I leave with tremendous respect for those I worked with. I continue to be constantly amazed how good the copy looks, especially the foreign report, even though there are now big geographical gaps. Having worked one Sunday shift in the Washington bureau, I stand in awe at the amount of copy that the national editors move — quickly, accurately and coherently. I can’t imagine most newspapers needing any more or any better.
But I can imagine a lot of financially pressured newspapers or broadcast managers taking the easy way out and cutting the UPI service. The news for these no-brainer bottom-liners is that if UPI goes under, three things will happen: the AP guys will stop running for the phones, the AP (and Reuters) price will go up dramatically and the staffs of both AP and Reuters will be cut back. Bet on it.
I’m starting Monday to work in Washington for the English language wire of DPA, the German news agency, where I won’t be competing with you directly, but where I will see your work. I will be pulling for all of you and for UPI.
Logging out
Jim Anderson (State Department)
Unipressers
Well, something I didn’t expect to see for a long time has arrived — my last weekend shift at UPI. It’s been an up and down 2 1/2 years, with most of the downs coming in the last few months. UPI has been good to me until the layoffs started, and I wouldn’t be leaving if things had not deteriorated to their present state of affairs. Even if the powers that be have stripped this old girl of most of her dignity, at least those of us who have been here these last several months can be proud that we’ve pretty much weathered what’s been thrown at us.
I’ll miss many of you as I leave to edit the alumni magazine at hahnemann university and hospital here in Philly, and think the message wire will be what I’ll miss most of all. I’ve been proud to be associated with this company and all the professionals who have worked here and still work here. Whatever happens, I’ll be thinking of you.
Chrs and good luck to all of you.
Sue morgan-na (Philadelphia)
Buos
This is my last shift at UPI after 8 ½ years in hx (Chicago) and wa (Washington). UPI being UPI, I’ve fantasized about my farewell msg for years (die, berl, die—stuff along those lines). But now that it’s time to say good-bye, I’m having trouble finding the right words. I came to this company as a 23-year-old mess and leave it, surprisingly, in somewhat better shape. Thnx to all of us who made it fun along the way.
Rgds. Silverman-ntl (National-Washington)
all
I’ll be logging out later today for the last time, ending a relationship with Unipressers that goes back to July 1966 on the day the hough riots swept Cleveland into the national headlines.
The years that followed allowed me to travel to many sections of the country, working with the finest wordsmiths ever put on the planet and my leaving is more bitter than sweet. But I’ve received an offer that I cannot refuse, for my family’s sake more than anything else.
We’ve all carried the same banner since last November, cutting salaries and home budgets in hopes that UPI can be saved. It became rather tattered piece of cloth near the end, but carry it we did, with honor above all.
The rally cry has always been that UPI’s only assets are its name and its employees. But the recent days seem to indicate that upper management is keen on the idea of cutting the assets to just one. And we are not on the list.
We were told three times here in hx (Chicago) by pb (Pieter Van Bennekom) that bankruptcy was never in the scenario. He proved the proof of his own words when he carried us over that brink for the second time in six years, telling us that chapter 11 was always in the game plan no matter what.
It became an effort to cut suppliers out of what they are due and employees out of what they have earned. It won’t pay the stringers for their months of hard work, work the company now says it must continue receiving if it is to become a new entity.
Chapter 11 allows the company the room to do just what it is doing now, dragging employees around by their necks so the eventual auction block will have few people on it, just a logo and maybe a few at the top of the executive office pile.
It has been an absolute pleasure working with you. And I ask that you remember your training in the years to come so the true story of UPI will be told.
It is one of those who help UPI and those who helped themselves to UPI, the nudge-nudge, wink-wink types who looted the place for their own ends, giving themselves hefty salaries to begin with and then adding bonuses to the amount, along with golden parachutes that equal the salaries of any five us battling to pay our bills, send kids to school, keep our taxes current and remain honest citizens in an increasingly dishonest world.
TELL THE TALE. Don’t let it die even if UPI does, as it well might. Be as you have always been, the best in the business, able to beat grandma or anyone else with both hands tied behind your back.
Some of the truth is already coming to roost within the close-knit journalistic community. For those without subscriptions, check your local library or a friend for the September 14 copy of Editor and Publisher. It’s there for anyone to see, right on page 9.
Thank you for years of friendship. It has been my honor to be associated with you.
To quote my Irish ancestors, red skelton and the frugal gourmet: luck with rainbows, may god bless, I bid you peace.
Graham-hxf (Chicago financial)
Unipressers
Eye have started this msg four or five times. Wld much rather write four or five 700-word skedders than a simple goodbye.
Tdy is my last day at UPI. Fortunately, eye am leaving under my own steam.
Trying to put these words together as I struggle with strong feelings of sadness and anger is difficult.
Eye am going to miss working daily with a fine group of journalists as we beat the other guys time and time again. Will miss your senses of humor, still intact despite great hardships. And I will miss the opportunity to tell people, “I work for UPI.”
Eye was lucky to work under business ed roz liston, who really knows her stuff and is one of the kindest people around. Plus her nxf (New York Financial) staff was great to work with — always helpful, professional and upbeat.
Thnx also to steve whitworth in x (St. Louis), my surrogate buro chief, for answering my questions, answering fones when eye was gone, and being my buddy. And to john hendel-kps (Kansas City Sports), my coworker and friend frm early days in journalism.
Eye am proud to have been a part of the UPI tradition, even though it has been troubled in recent years.
In the past week, eye have debated how far to go in expressing my feelings in this message. Decided there is no point in being dishonest now.
Like all of you, eye am enraged at the events of the past year. Those who spoke in lofty manner of helping our ship find a safe port instead ran us aground onto a rocky, barren island. Then they cannibalised us.
It is reprehensible. It is wrong. And they have gotten away with it. But, dear Unipressers, rest assured that you will receive justice some day, some way. Perhaps not in a court of law. Perhaps it won’t be economic justice. But have faith that right eventually will prevail.
My hope for all of you is that you find the respect and bigger paychecks that you deserve. 73s
Wallace-kp
Unipressers
like many otrs recently, eye never thot eye wud have to send this message. But tdy is my last day with UPI, after nearly 13 yrs. Eye don’t want to leave because eye love the good things UPI has been in my career. But financial realities and a nagging ulcer require a change. Eye am proud to have been a Unipresser and eye’m thankful for the great ppl eye have worked with and the great stories eye have covered. Eye wish you all the best in the future, and hope you will keep in touch. Eye’ll be reachable thru my home.
Chrs
Schlangenstien-hs-ex-sl-ne-da (Houston, Shreveport, New Orleans, Dallas)
Unipressers
After 13 years at UPI, I’ve come to the end of the line. It’s been a long, strange trip since I walked into the Pittsburgh bureau on 1978, with its walls of chattering printout machines and teletype operators playing all-night poker in the backroom. The last year has been a tough one, but I refuse to let the sad antics of the current management beasties blot out the good memories—the camaraderie, the never-say-die spirit and the sheer underdog pleasure of beating that great grey overdog, the ap. It’s become harder and harder to win the competitive game, but those other, more important qualities have persevered even in the hardest times. I’m proud to have worked with you all. It’s been fun.
Lobsenz-wa
all
today ends another longstanding tradition, albeit a minor one. After more than 60 years of combined service, a Zverina will no longer be part of UPI. My father Ivan retired in May 1990 after 45 years, and is enjoying his retirement immensely.
I, on the other hand, have another 30 years of work to go before I can slack off. So, after 15 years with UPI — seven of them spent as its automotive writer after starting in NX (New York) financial — I am resigning from UPI to grab something else that will allow me to continue to do the work I love.
This will be just another goodbye message when the day is done. But most of these farewells have had one common thread: these people loved their jobs here, and did not want to leave.
This could not be more true for me, and those of you who know me know I had one of the best jobs in the house. But watching this company crumble at the hands of higher-ups has been very painful, and some of the latest proposals set forth by the company to the WSG (Wire Service Guild) are downright insulting, to put it nicely. (I also leave as a WSG shop steward).
Apparently, covering the nation’s largest industry and a leading economic indicator does not seem to warrant a full-time position anymore. If that is true, it would be another tragic mistake that could possibly cost some remaining clients, especially here in the motor city state.
To all of you who have to or want to ride it out, the very best of luck. And may the good guys win for a change. Chrs
Zverina-ducars (nxf) (Detroit, New York Financial)
Capps-wa
(rocknroll)
(to the tune of great balls of fire)
we got no clients and we got no pay
the wire’s weak in ev-er-y way
the system’s slow
my life’s on hold
good-ness gra-cioius
filing the wire!
Chrsz et 73s
Rosenbush-nxf
Rosenbush-nxf
(rocknroll—reprise)
(to the blues)
woke up this morning, heading for the tube
got one mo’ book review, that’s wa-ay overdue
but ever’body else…is bustin’ their’s too
cuz that’s the way it is,
with the everlovin’
u-p-i BUH-luesssss!
Chiz et 73s backatcha
Capps-nv (Nashville)
Unipressers
Today’s the day I must depart
Just a short time since my start
When I came here with wide-eyed wonder
Hoping I would not choke or plunder
In my dream that went awry
To be a part of UPI
But I am luckier today
For having even this short stay
With people who love the work they do
Who respect themselves and others too
Thank you for this chance to learn
I hope UPI will never adjourn
Bye. eve tahmincioglu (it isn’t that difficult (to pronounce)!)
Eve-nxf
Unipressers
Oh, hell. My turn after all these years. I hope whoever’s left wins the lottery. I’m going to walk down to the little beer joint I own now and drink to all of you and everyone I knew at this job. I may not sober up for a year.
Happy trails
Haines-al (San Antonio)
Unipressers
Lo (for the last time). I’ve read so many of these messages, that I don’t know what to say. You’re the best damn people one could ever work with, you don’t deserve what’s happening.
It’s been a great 21 ½ years on the best job a person could ever have. May god bless and watch over all of you. Chrs
Usiak-bf (Buffalo)
Unipressers
Today is my last day with UPI. I don’t want to leave, but the company is challenging my contractual seniority rights to a news job. It has been a pleasure to work with you over the almost 18 years that I have been with UPI. I also have had the pleasure to meet many of you in my travels as a wire service guild officer. I wish you all the best. May god bless us all.
(chuck) moody-ps (Pittsburgh)
Unipressers
one month short of nine years, I’m not even working on my last official day. I went to Rhode Island Friday for a funeral and ended up in the hospital with stomach problems. So, for all those remaining, good luck … and get another job. Regards. McNally-hx (Chicago), late of UPI.
Unipressers
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight I log out for the last time after nearly nine years … some happy, some sad. I could tell you all about my bitter-sweet departure … how I, too, have been chased out by the grim one … how UPI has treated me so bad or so good … how I’ve worked with the best damn journalists … but that’s all been said by fellow Unipressers who’ve departed this life before me. It’s too late to be remorseful and life is too short to wallow in regrets. I guess I needed this kick in the pants to get on with my life. And I leave here with high hopes and a renewed sense of purpose. To the few and the proud I leave behind, keep your chin up and your chest out. There is life after UPI. Best of luck. Carrigan-phx
Unipressers
Parting really is a sweet sorrow — sad to be leaving the colleagues with whom I’ve worked, those who are my friends and those I don’t know but whose professionalism I respect and whose spirit I admire.
The problem with UPI has never been its news people nor the product they produced. We have been UPI’s assets and those assets have been squandered. That’s the sad part. On the other hand…
After 24 years with UPI (that amounts to 48 weeks earned but uncollected severance pay, but, hey, who’s counting?), there is that little voice that says, “free, free, free at last…”
For those who come after me, and management has admitted there’s another not-so-little list, the good news is that there is life after UPI and it is good.
Chrs, or as we used to say, 73s. hanauer-nxe (New York Enterprise)
Unipressers
There is a sign on the UPI door here Orval Jackson put up. It says, “what a beautiful day, watch some bastard louse it up.” Says it all.
Wish my good bye msg was as eloquent as Joe Mahoney’s or as brief as don dughi’s, but alas, it won’t be.
The bottom line is I’m toast. Thanks to all of you left out there who helped me along the way. Special thanks to my mentors Jim Dever and Larry Desantis. Thx to ray foli who bought my wife a drink at the Kentucky derby many years ago. I’ll remember those nice touches.
We’ll all survive this debacle.
Cosgrove-tpp (Tampa photos)
Unipressers
Last year I considered myself one of the fortunate ones that survived the cuts. This year I think myself one of the lucky ones that got let go. Good luck to all of us who’re going on to better things and my condolences to those who continue to plod on for all those great news radio clients in Guadalajara and Timbuktu. I am grateful to have been allowed to represent some of you for the union and I only wish that the company’s mismanagement had shown more grace and not given himself a golden parachute while depriving others of the most minimal of safety nets.
Chrs. Rosenberger-nx
Unipressers
I came to UPI two weeks past my 21st birthday filled with the romantic vision that I could help to provide a valued service for journalism, and for many years I assumed I would continue to do so for the rest of my working days. Over the past year, I adjusted that goal to simply hoping I would be allowed to go down with the ship I loved.
That wish was denied, and so my good friends, I bid you all adieu and good luck.
I leave here poor financially but enriched otherwise. I have learned much about our craft at the feet of many artists and masters; I have experienced the rush and camaraderie of working disasters and major team events, and I have made friends I cherish.
I also have learned some tough lessons about corporate loyalty and economics. In no longer believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.
But I still believe in the basic goodness and indominatability of the colleagues I leave behind. For that I am eternally grateful.
Pohla-pss (Pittsburgh sports)
Unipressers
I had the best job on earth and the best years of my life here. Well, the later ones were a little rough but still no regret. So long and best of luck to all
Chrs. Hai do-cxp-ktp (Albany state capitol bureau, Albany pictures)
Unipressers
Today is my last day as a Unipresser, a title that’s proudly been mine for almost 20 years and has been in the family well over half a century. I became a Unipresser despite having been raised in a UPI family, something that probably gave rise to the rumors about me being a slow learner.
In fact, today is the end of four generations of family involvement in the news business. I have accepted an unsolicited offer to be a speechwriter for Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
In keeping with my habit of writing long, this is longer than I’d expected it to be. (desk, cut from the bottom).
I was just a kid working in the southern division (best damn place to break on in the world) when I got my first dose of news reality. The phone rang and a raspy voice bellowed: “this is Warner in Atlanta. Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
From charlotte it was on to Raleigh and then home to Washington for the deep overnight and day desk. In 1984 I went up to capitol hill to take the defense beat. There was a stint in the stinking desert (ah, Dharan is lovely this time of year). After dodging efforts to have me put a $6,000 hotel bill on a personal credit card as the corporate alarm bells were ringing, it was back home to add the Pentagon to the growing list of responsibilities.
I’ve covered about everything one can cover — plane crashes, presidents, campaigns and conventions, wars, summits and all-nighters in the Senate listening to whiny politicians gnawing on their pork bones.
In between came such things as:
--waking up in –40 temperatures in the arctic to see the northern lights circling the horizon and ending a 120-degree day in Saudi Arabia by lounging on Persian carpets, eating off a platter of roast lamb and having incense wafted into my face by bedoins.
--coining or adopting the phrases: “shit for brains,” “three grafs of cosmic goo followed by a lead,” ”I’m so confused,” “the world’s largest financially and … bankrupt wire service,” and, “if news breaks, fix it.”
--the pure adrenalin high of whupping the competition while working solo on the Desert One disaster and taking Dean Reynolds’ breathless dictation on the Reagan assassination attempt.
I have worked with the best journalists in the world. I’d list everyone, but for sure I’d commit the sin of omission. But in addition to the obvious parental influence (Eliot’s father, Bernie, worked UPI for decades) on my career, there is one person I must acknowledge.
The Chief — Steve Gerstel. He slipped me beers after the office softball games, encouraged me as I fell into the business, helped me get to Washington and let me come to the Hill, his private domain. And he taught me, (but not to write long) Jefe, I promise to check in at 5p every Friday for my GAO reports.
Back in high school I had an English teacher who returned papers in the order of the grade, highest to lowest. One day mine was last and he said: “and now we come to you, Mr. Brenner. If you had to write for a living, as your parents do, you’d starve to death.”
It never got that bad and it’s sure been fun.
The current and future state of UPI, how it got here and where it’s going, are not topics for this note. I observe only that for years I thought it would be hard to quit. I’m sad to say it wasn’t. The painful part is leaving the people.
It’s been a great ride. Thanks for letting me come along, but I think I’ll get off here and sign up for the Downhold Club.
Eliot Brenner-WA
11-22-91
Unipressers
It is with great sadness that after 11 years with UPI, I announce my resignation. Bob Goldner’s dismissal yesterday has made my continuing association with the company untenable. Bob and I had embarked upon an attempt to facilitate a management buyout of UPI and various parties had expressed interest in backing us. We sincerely believed this to be the only means to save the company. As all of you are painfully aware, bad management is systematically destroying and dismembering this company. What we did was very simple. We looked at what we did best, where we could do better, what nobody else was doing, and made a firm commitment to eliminate the rest. We identified markets and areas that had previously been ignored and we came up with a plan that ensured a profitable UPI in the year 1993, with appropriate levels of capital to revamp our communications infrastructure and marketing effort. Based on our negotiations with a number of potential investors, we felt confident that within a matter of weeks, we could have secured the necessary capital to take over the company.
As a result of Bob’s dismissal, I can no longer in good conscience work toward this end within UPI but shall with all means and personal resources at my disposal continue to work outside the company to secure a new ownership and management for UPI. I believe this is the only way the company can ever survive. I have 11 years invested in the company. I have no choice but to give it my best shot, even now.
If we succeed, I look forward to working with all of you again, because that has been one of the greatest joys of being part of UPI.
Regards
Jack reed
11-28-91
Then there was the man who had a beautiful name who wrote witty 15-second novels under the equally delightful pseudonym — Helmut del Lago. Royal Brightbill had regaled us with his inventions over the years and they became collectors’ items. But late in 1991, Brightbill passed along Helmut’s farewell.
Buos
Fans, connoisseurs of microblast literature (the inter-galactic, funky 90s term for the 15-second novel) and fellow masochists (those of you in the latest wave of lay-offs and especially those of you who must continue to battle the Gang of Four — Deceit, Treachery, Ingratitude and Avarice). It is hard to be funny at a time like this. But, in view of yesterday’s bankruptcy court action, this little parable, my last offering to you on this wire, seems appropriate.
The Pig
A reporter invited to a roast pig dinner on a hog farm was amazed to see the main course had three wooden legs. He asked the farmer about it.
“Oh, that was the best pig I ever had,” the farmer said. “A few years back, my house caught fire while I slept. He ran through the flames to wake me.”
“Is that how he lost his legs?”
“And just a couple of months ago, I fell in an alligator-filled bayou. He jumped in and pulled me out.”
“But what about the legs?”
“My friend, a pig that valuable you just don’t eat all at once.”
Somewhere on Wall Street a dog was barking.
Which is a kinder and gentler way of saying:
The rape of UPI has ended. The necrophilia has begun.
Helmut del Lago
9-24-91
Then it was Brightbill’s turn and his farewell will remain a classic.
Unipressers
Helmut del lago wrote his last msg last week. On his behalf, I thank you for encouraging his “art.” I am not skilled as he in concise expression, but please bear out an old Unipresser’s reminisces.
Twenty-two years ago, fresh journalism degree in hand, I took off my cap and gown and flew the same day to my first assignment with UPI in Raleigh, N.C. It has been a fast, thoroughly exhilarating ride — except for the past few years, which, in some respects, has been like watching my mother die, painfully, of cancer.
I could not believe the RA (Raleigh) office when I arrived that first day. It looked like something out of a 1930s movie. Stacks of newspapers everywhere, rumpled paper on the floor, cluttered, beat up desks supporting even more beat up typewriters. Loud, clacking black machines streaming mounds of perforated tape. Telephones constantly ringing. The space was pitiably small.
My first day on the job, there was a prison break. A guard was killed. Richard Hatch, the state editor, told me to work the phones and develop a profile on the guard. I started taking notes in longhand. He told me to use a typewriter or I never would survive.
The next day I saw my story in print. And Hatch had written me a note to the effect that I was on my way “to becoming a top-notch Unipresser.” It was the first time the term Unipresser had been applied to me, and you could have peeled me off the ceiling.
Within a week I was on the overnight by myself and could not believe the responsibility thrust on me. Nothing to it. Just rewrote everything that had been done all day, monitor the TV stations and pickup anything we missed, get the first edition of the morning paper and pick up wot we missed. Oh, yeah, and don’t forget the broadcast briefs packages that seemed to come up almost every hour on the half hour. Field the stringer calls etc etc. I quickly understood what Walter Cronkite meant when he said the toughest job he ever had was the Kansas City overnight of United Press. It would take me two hours past scheduled quitting time to get the work done. I stayed and did it, and did not put in for overtime, because I didn’t want Hatch to think I couldn’t handle it.
About seven weeks after I started, there came one night, the insistent bells of the first flash I ever heard. The message said: “The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had arrived safely on the moon.
I went home with headaches every night, and lay awake for what seemed like hours, terrified that I might have screwed up. I made my first move a year later, to a two-man bureau in Charlotte. A year later after that I became CT bureau manager because the manager at the time, John Shalko, had quit to go home to Rhode Island for one of those “cushy pr jobs” with the phone co.
The first seven years of my career, our young family moved six times. But it was because it was what I wanted to do, and UPI gave me the chance. I have had the opportunity to work with the masters — Gregory Jensen, Bob Musel, Joe Grigg, Al Webb, Peggy Polk, Leon Daniel, Lou Carr, Arnie Sawislak stand out in my mind. I’ll include Dick Growald in there. If I did anything right it was because of the influence of people like that.
Since Charlotte, I have worked in New York, Brussels, Athens, the Middle East, London, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, New Orleans again, San Francisco, Baton Rouge again, Shreveport, New Orleans and Baton Rouge again. I was part of the Middle East coverage team in the Yom Kippur war in 1973, covered an opening of parliament, a trial at the Old Bailey, a coup in Greece, a terrorist hijacking, hurricanes, an electrocution, political races, speeches, trials, state government and Mardi Gras ad nauseum. And sports of all sorts. But my favorites were always the three-legged chicken stories — those innocuous features that made people smile — the funeral home with the drive-up window, the dog intelligence test, the hookers’ masquerade ball.
I even did a stretch as a regional executive — and quit twice in a six-month period. When I started my third tour, I vowed this time UPI would divorce me before I divorced it. The time has come.
All of us have had a love-hate relationship with UPI because it has been our family. And just like a family, we have fought with each other, loved each other, cried with each other and lifted each other up. We were an unbeatable team when challenged from the outside. It only has been the attacks on us from within, by people who had no concept of the tradition and never had the UPI heart that has brought the company to the point it is today.
About 84 years ago, E.W. Scripps told the AP he wanted to buy its wire for his newspaper. The AP refused because there already was an AP “member” in the same town, and they had this little exclusivity clause in their contracts that allowed one newspaper per town to monopolize wire news. As we all know, Scripps’ in-your-face response was to start United Press, which eventually became United Press International. Among its many credits is the break-up of the international news cartel that existed prior to World War II.
That in-your-face tradition led to the best wire service ever, with a loose system that encouraged every Unipresser to give full expression to his individuality and reach his full potential, rather than press him into a bland mold. Every one of you is an inheritor and bearer of that tradition, a tradition that says fight the odds. Never quit. Never quit. That tradition never can be killed by changing times or jobs, recession or corporate chicanery.
I leave with no regrets and a treasure chest of memories, but also with some sadness at what UPI has been reduced to. My warmest wishes to my colleagues who leave today, and especially to those on whose shoulders falls the duty to defend the tradition against unprecedented assault.
73
brightbill-bg
One of the joys of working at UPI was getting to know many very talented reporters and editors. Unfortunately, we never got to meet many of the people whose names appeared atop stories and on the daily message wire exchanges.
I was fortunate in that I worked in Washington, D.C., and was in contact with a large staff.
Among the personalities was Ed Rogers.
Ed started in the South and in Washington he served as our Southern regional reporter. There are many stories floating around about Ed, but this is among the favorites.
In 1953, the national desk in New York alerted all bureaus to be on the lookout for an expected list of American servicemen who had been captured in Korea and were to be freed from Chinese POW camps. All bureaus were told to contact relatives for quick reaction.
According to those who knew Ed, he awaited the list in usual mode – armed with three packs of Camel cigarettes, a bag of peanuts and a beverage in a brown paper bag.
When the list came out, Ed spotted the name of PFC John Engle, son of Mrs. Edna Engle of Monteagle, Tenn. No other address was listed.
The telephone operator told Ed that there was no Edna Engle listed and there was no phone service to Monteagle, located at the top of a mountain serviced by a winding two-lane highway.
He called the Grundy County Sheriff's office and persuaded the deputy on duty to drive up the mountain and bring Edna Engle to his office.
About an hour later, Edna Engle was on the phone and Ed interviewed her. When he was finished talking with Edna, Ed filed this urgent:
URGENT
With Red China
MONTEAGLE, Tenn. (UP) -- Mrs. Edna Engle, upon learning that her son John had
been freed from a Red Chinese Prisoner of War camp, said early this morning,
"I have no son named John.”
The year 1991 started with the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq and the death of an estimated 200,000 Iraqis. Yugoslavia ceased to be, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia left the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union was dismantled, Jeffry Dahlmer was arrested and charged with at least 17 deaths of young men who he had lured to his home for sex. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas was accused by Anita Hill of sexual harassment, four white police officers were videotaped beating Rodney King and Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister of India, was assassinated.
It was also the year that a group of Saudi investors bought United Press International, pulling the company out of its second bankruptcy and expanding its involvement in the Middle East. Unfortunately for the rank and file Unipressers, they received word of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the New York Times. The company couldn't tell its own employees first.
Steve Geimann, assistant managing editor for regional, was named Washington bureau chief to replace Schwartz.
And Unipressers continued to provide the world with news with smaller pay checks and a never-ending chorus of farewell messages -- and the tension was showing.
rossiter-wa
I’ve just been handed a notice frm building management saying we “are hereby required within three (3) days after this notice is served” to pay up or get out. U want me to fax it to u? thx
Martin-hc (Los Angeles)
vanbennekom
hipps UPI
UPI-whoever
it is now 5 months since my employment agreement was terminated by UPI. UPI has yet to pay me 5,850 dollars owed for time worked. I have exhausted my calls and letters and received no response.
This is not money owed for severance or vacation. It is money owed to me by UPI for time put in as an employee of UPI. If UPI cannot afford to pay out $5,850 in one payment, contact me and we can set up a payment plan. Ignoring me does not mean I’ll forget the money or go away.
Thank you (unsigned)
There were attempts from management to shore up morale.
All
I am impressed with our budget coverage, from the main lead crafted by Bud Newman — with help from all hands — to the various sidebars on agencies, effects, themes and analyses. Despite the adversity that challenges us every day, everyone worked hard to give our clients the important details about the spending plan. Our copy was well-written, well-edited and well-sourced, especially by those thrown into the lurch by a war that has sapped our crew. Everyone on the Washington staff deserves kudos for their work yesterday. I want to especially acknowledge Dave Rosso, Steve Gerstel, Bob McNeill and Bud Newman, whose thoughts and ideas in the days before the budget was released helped shape our coverage. Chrs
(Steve) Geimann (Washington)
But rancor is oftentimes very difficult to salve, especially when there is so much precedence.
Geimann-buo
In a deliberate effort to make ur day even more miserable, I ask the rhetorical question: so, is the world’s largest…wire service gonna pay overtime for this little muscle flexing exercise that brought me in early on a religious holiday to cover what’s left of our butt in a field deemed too insignificant to cover in the future? Or what? Brenner-war
9-18-91
Brenner was Eliot Brenner, who for years had worked side-by-side with me on the Washington desk, before he moved across the Potomac River to cover the Pentagon.
Geimann
Hm (Concord, N.H.) stringer Jim XXXX is owed at least $1,000 et has not received anything over two months. He has talked with uu et others in wa et fx (Fairfax, Va., where UPI had set up administrative offices) and has been told at various times:
--you’re on the priority stringer list
--a check will be cut for you on Friday
--the money ran out before they got to you, but a check will be cut this Friday and you’re on the top of the list.
--there’s no one here who can talk to you about that.
--there’s no one here who can talk to you about that
--there’s no one …
eye wud greatly appreciate it if this pathetic company wud stop lying to him and give him some straight answers. Are we no longer paying stringers? Is there really a priority stringer list?
Thayer is the only help eye hv and he is responsible for writing all weekend radio. If he quits because of lack of payment, as so many stringers already have, there will be NONO weekend radio.
Our remaining New Hampshire radio clients are already under a great deal of pressure because they get no Maine or Vermont copy and hm closes as 2 p.m. weekdays. If they see nothing on the weekends they will be forced to cancel.
Cud eye get a response to this from uu or anyone in charge (if anyone still is)?
Rgds
Van dongen-hm
Stringers were reporters who worked by the story. They were paid by the story, received no benefits and were on-call. The stringer situation was serious and Van Dongen was correct in his descriptions. There, indeed, was a priority list. During my last years at UPI, I dealt with overseas stringers, which, at the time (1996-1999) were substantial since UPI had pretty much closed all overseas bureaus and turned most, if not all, of our overseas reporters into stringers. I fielded many calls from stringers asking about their pay. And there was a priority list. I will go deeper into the stringer situation in a later chapter.
Meanwhile, Al Rossiter continued to try to sooth the crew.
Unipressers
This is an unsettling time for staffers and I understand that. But while the lawyers for the company, the union and our creditors argue their positions, we must continue to serve our clients to the best of our ability.
I want to make sure everyone understands our goal: It is to report the news as well as we can. Our clients are varied and their needs are varied. Therefore, we must cover as many newsworthy events as possible. We must provide analysis and insight where it is required. And of foremost importance, we must be certain our copy is accurate, is understandable and is balanced. Nothing will turn off clients faster than copy that violates those principles.
The length of our newspaper copy should be dictated by the story and its significance, not by a formula that says every story must be 400 or 600 or 800 words long. There is nothing wrong with the 100-, 150- and 200-word stories. Few newspapers have room for more than a few graphs for anything but the most important events of the day. Broadcasters certainly have no need for excess wordage.
Our national report needs more of the shorter stories that move on state reports. If the story is one that might be printed in more than one region, then it should move on the national service. We must remember our clients are a diverse lot with diverse requirements.
The needs of state reports vary, depending on our client base. I will be in touch with all regional and state editors in the next few days to review their reports and explore ways to improve them. Our goal is to serve every client we have today and to prepare a report that will attract new business.
We will be making changes next week in some areas of our operation, particularly in sports, business, Washington coverage and photos. I’ll have a detailed memo discussing these changes, and what they mean to the operation, later this week.
Some of our colleagues have received notices and will be leaving the company in the days ahead. Their contributions were appreciated and they will be missed. But those of us who remain must press ahead. UPI can survive, and grow, and provide new jobs in the future, but it will take the continued dedication and perseverance of all of us to make that happen.
Thanks
rossiter-wa
09-23-91
Rossiter was a sincere man and he was liked and respected, not only as a manager, but as a reporter and an editor. But there were things happening far beyond his control.
rossiter-geimann-wa (hill-ar (Seattle))
the sept. 25 issue of the Seattle weekly, the city’s major “alternative” paper, contains an item titled “wire cutters” that details the fate of the Seattle buro. The article says, quote, “last week the wire service laid off two of its Seattle staff writers, Terrance Finan and Dennis Ainsley, according to UPI public relations spokesman Milt Capps.”
The fact that my first name was spelled wrong and Dennis’s last name was completely wrong (it’s Anstine) is laughable, at worst. What is not laughable is the possibility that the abysmal moral and ethical sensibilities of UPI’s top management have sunk to such lows that it doesn’t matter (to them) if they make public the names of once-dedicated employees who have been thrown out of their jobs without ceremony, severance or so much as a thank you for a job done well.
All of Seattle knows that Dennis and I are unemployed as of next week. But somehow, I don’t think this is going to keep me awake tonight; I have more important things in my life to attend to. For the record though — and for the sake of others who may, too, find their names in print as the reward for what they have done for UPI — can someone please explain what the company’s policy is on this and what kind of reasoning (if any) led to it?
Finan-ar
And the farewell message flood continued, including this one from David Anderson, who started at UPI two years before I did, was an active union member and eventually became our religion editor.
Unipressers
It was 1967 and the pay was $62.50 a week, the job was sorting the mail, getting Gerstel’s smokes, taking Helen’s dictation, picking up a sandwich for Brenner (Bernie, not Eliot) and changing the ribbon on Frandsen’s (Julius, not Jon) teletype. There’s been a lot of learning since then — most especially from such good comrades as Dave Wiessler, Arnie Sawislak, George Marder, Liz Wharton, Leon Burnett, Bob McNeill, David Rosso and a lot of others, too. There’s been a lot of decent hangovers — at Bassin’s, the Curtain Call, the Mozart and so many reincarnations of the Blue Mirror a religion writer could start believing in life after … well — and some indecent political arguments and just one hell of a lot of good fun. Now that part is over. The pay aint much better but I’d still be glad to get Gerstel’s smokes for him, take dictation from Helen anytime and I’d consider fetching Brenner whatever he needed. I’m still learning from Wiessler.
But it’s just the end of a chapter, not the book and, at least for the moment, eye’ll still be around on occasion, opening books, cajoling reviews.
Dylan said “good-bye is too good a word/so I’ll just say fare thee well.”
So be it … and may peace and justice be with you in your … our … struggle
d.Anderson-wa
Unipressers
After 13 years and one month with UPI, eye’m logging out tda (this time real). But even with the 35 percent pay cut and UPI’s uncertain future, it still saddens me greatly to leave. As many, many departing Unipressers b4 me have said, it’s the people who have always made UPI a special place to work. And tts true tda. Eye wish only the best for all of u et UPI. Chrs
Lowry-us (mg) (Austin, Tex., Montgomery, Ala.)
1-11-91
Allbureaus
Dear Unipressers
I arrived at UPI in the middle of the Vietnam War and I am leaving in what I hope is the middle of the Persian Gulf War. My arrival was with joy. My departure is with regrets — regret that the war in the Gulf is not over and that I’ll miss seeing its end with UPI and regret that the future of this once-grand worldwide wire service is so dark. I hope UPI does indeed rise from its ashes as did the phoenix.
My resignation is effective Saturday but I am gone as of now, Monday, January 21, 23 years, two months and three days after I arrived.
A job I could not pass up fell into my lap. I am going back to my origins — the city news bureau of Chicago, now 100 years old and going strong. This time, I’ll be the broadcast faculty at CNB.
One thing that won’t change is that I will still be trying to train young reporters to think broadcast. I think UPI should have focused on television and radio far more in the past to shore up its finances (but who asked me?) I mean ALL of UPI broadcast. The state reports are just as important, perhaps more so, than the national report because of all of the stations with network and other affiliations.
…
I apologize for leaving the dedicated Unipressers who are still waging the good fight for UPI — from Helen Thomas on down the list. May you all win this war.
My login password in recent weeks has been godsaveUPI. Maybe someone with more faith than I can take over this password and successfully raise the phoenix.
(Susan) stevens-upr-hx (UPI Radio, Chicago)
All Unipressers
After 15 years, most of them good ones, it’s time for me to call it quits at old UPIou.
When I first started at UPI, I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night out of sheer happiness, anticipating the day ahead, planning how I could make the bells ring around the world and how I and people like Juan Walte and Matt Quinn and Helen Thomas and Lori Santos at the White House and people like Dave Wiessler and Sean McCormally on the desk, would dropkick AP right out of the stadium.
I OD’ed on the sensation of filing an urgent at about 6 p.m. and then, about ten minutes later, hearing the screams from the AP booth at the other end of the State Department press room. In a way, I am prouder of the fact that we knocked down phony scoops from the other end of the press room — the fictitious 10,000-foot runways which existed only in the fevered mind of Ollie North and the AP copy.
Recently, I also found myself waking up in the middle of the night, but in despair — at stories that would get lost on the desk, at bells that didn’t ring because there was nobody home out there in client-land, at unpaid expenses, at k-market computers that would crash at the worst possible moments, at a newsroom that began to look more and more like the night of the living dead.
While we were doing our best on the wire — better than the competition most of the time — there were people in charge of our financial destinies who shouldn’t have been in charge of a bicycle rack.
At one time, I counted 28 UPI vice presidents, 27 more than the U.S. government had. The ninth floor looked like yuppy heaven, with self-important, overpaid little twerps going to lunch with each other at our expense.
Little by little, week by week, I came to realize that what I was doing wasn’t valued very much, economically or journalistically, and I think this affected what I was doing. No pumping adrenalin, with conflicting editorial direction, systematically drained of some of the money I used to earn, my work began to show it and I was no longer happy with it. That’s nature’s way of saying, “move on, bozo.”
For a brief magic moment, my career and UPI’s high point coincided. It’s time to leave before all that magic is gone. I leave with tremendous respect for those I worked with. I continue to be constantly amazed how good the copy looks, especially the foreign report, even though there are now big geographical gaps. Having worked one Sunday shift in the Washington bureau, I stand in awe at the amount of copy that the national editors move — quickly, accurately and coherently. I can’t imagine most newspapers needing any more or any better.
But I can imagine a lot of financially pressured newspapers or broadcast managers taking the easy way out and cutting the UPI service. The news for these no-brainer bottom-liners is that if UPI goes under, three things will happen: the AP guys will stop running for the phones, the AP (and Reuters) price will go up dramatically and the staffs of both AP and Reuters will be cut back. Bet on it.
I’m starting Monday to work in Washington for the English language wire of DPA, the German news agency, where I won’t be competing with you directly, but where I will see your work. I will be pulling for all of you and for UPI.
Logging out
Jim Anderson (State Department)
Unipressers
Well, something I didn’t expect to see for a long time has arrived — my last weekend shift at UPI. It’s been an up and down 2 1/2 years, with most of the downs coming in the last few months. UPI has been good to me until the layoffs started, and I wouldn’t be leaving if things had not deteriorated to their present state of affairs. Even if the powers that be have stripped this old girl of most of her dignity, at least those of us who have been here these last several months can be proud that we’ve pretty much weathered what’s been thrown at us.
I’ll miss many of you as I leave to edit the alumni magazine at hahnemann university and hospital here in Philly, and think the message wire will be what I’ll miss most of all. I’ve been proud to be associated with this company and all the professionals who have worked here and still work here. Whatever happens, I’ll be thinking of you.
Chrs and good luck to all of you.
Sue morgan-na (Philadelphia)
Buos
This is my last shift at UPI after 8 ½ years in hx (Chicago) and wa (Washington). UPI being UPI, I’ve fantasized about my farewell msg for years (die, berl, die—stuff along those lines). But now that it’s time to say good-bye, I’m having trouble finding the right words. I came to this company as a 23-year-old mess and leave it, surprisingly, in somewhat better shape. Thnx to all of us who made it fun along the way.
Rgds. Silverman-ntl (National-Washington)
all
I’ll be logging out later today for the last time, ending a relationship with Unipressers that goes back to July 1966 on the day the hough riots swept Cleveland into the national headlines.
The years that followed allowed me to travel to many sections of the country, working with the finest wordsmiths ever put on the planet and my leaving is more bitter than sweet. But I’ve received an offer that I cannot refuse, for my family’s sake more than anything else.
We’ve all carried the same banner since last November, cutting salaries and home budgets in hopes that UPI can be saved. It became rather tattered piece of cloth near the end, but carry it we did, with honor above all.
The rally cry has always been that UPI’s only assets are its name and its employees. But the recent days seem to indicate that upper management is keen on the idea of cutting the assets to just one. And we are not on the list.
We were told three times here in hx (Chicago) by pb (Pieter Van Bennekom) that bankruptcy was never in the scenario. He proved the proof of his own words when he carried us over that brink for the second time in six years, telling us that chapter 11 was always in the game plan no matter what.
It became an effort to cut suppliers out of what they are due and employees out of what they have earned. It won’t pay the stringers for their months of hard work, work the company now says it must continue receiving if it is to become a new entity.
Chapter 11 allows the company the room to do just what it is doing now, dragging employees around by their necks so the eventual auction block will have few people on it, just a logo and maybe a few at the top of the executive office pile.
It has been an absolute pleasure working with you. And I ask that you remember your training in the years to come so the true story of UPI will be told.
It is one of those who help UPI and those who helped themselves to UPI, the nudge-nudge, wink-wink types who looted the place for their own ends, giving themselves hefty salaries to begin with and then adding bonuses to the amount, along with golden parachutes that equal the salaries of any five us battling to pay our bills, send kids to school, keep our taxes current and remain honest citizens in an increasingly dishonest world.
TELL THE TALE. Don’t let it die even if UPI does, as it well might. Be as you have always been, the best in the business, able to beat grandma or anyone else with both hands tied behind your back.
Some of the truth is already coming to roost within the close-knit journalistic community. For those without subscriptions, check your local library or a friend for the September 14 copy of Editor and Publisher. It’s there for anyone to see, right on page 9.
Thank you for years of friendship. It has been my honor to be associated with you.
To quote my Irish ancestors, red skelton and the frugal gourmet: luck with rainbows, may god bless, I bid you peace.
Graham-hxf (Chicago financial)
Unipressers
Eye have started this msg four or five times. Wld much rather write four or five 700-word skedders than a simple goodbye.
Tdy is my last day at UPI. Fortunately, eye am leaving under my own steam.
Trying to put these words together as I struggle with strong feelings of sadness and anger is difficult.
Eye am going to miss working daily with a fine group of journalists as we beat the other guys time and time again. Will miss your senses of humor, still intact despite great hardships. And I will miss the opportunity to tell people, “I work for UPI.”
Eye was lucky to work under business ed roz liston, who really knows her stuff and is one of the kindest people around. Plus her nxf (New York Financial) staff was great to work with — always helpful, professional and upbeat.
Thnx also to steve whitworth in x (St. Louis), my surrogate buro chief, for answering my questions, answering fones when eye was gone, and being my buddy. And to john hendel-kps (Kansas City Sports), my coworker and friend frm early days in journalism.
Eye am proud to have been a part of the UPI tradition, even though it has been troubled in recent years.
In the past week, eye have debated how far to go in expressing my feelings in this message. Decided there is no point in being dishonest now.
Like all of you, eye am enraged at the events of the past year. Those who spoke in lofty manner of helping our ship find a safe port instead ran us aground onto a rocky, barren island. Then they cannibalised us.
It is reprehensible. It is wrong. And they have gotten away with it. But, dear Unipressers, rest assured that you will receive justice some day, some way. Perhaps not in a court of law. Perhaps it won’t be economic justice. But have faith that right eventually will prevail.
My hope for all of you is that you find the respect and bigger paychecks that you deserve. 73s
Wallace-kp
Unipressers
like many otrs recently, eye never thot eye wud have to send this message. But tdy is my last day with UPI, after nearly 13 yrs. Eye don’t want to leave because eye love the good things UPI has been in my career. But financial realities and a nagging ulcer require a change. Eye am proud to have been a Unipresser and eye’m thankful for the great ppl eye have worked with and the great stories eye have covered. Eye wish you all the best in the future, and hope you will keep in touch. Eye’ll be reachable thru my home.
Chrs
Schlangenstien-hs-ex-sl-ne-da (Houston, Shreveport, New Orleans, Dallas)
Unipressers
After 13 years at UPI, I’ve come to the end of the line. It’s been a long, strange trip since I walked into the Pittsburgh bureau on 1978, with its walls of chattering printout machines and teletype operators playing all-night poker in the backroom. The last year has been a tough one, but I refuse to let the sad antics of the current management beasties blot out the good memories—the camaraderie, the never-say-die spirit and the sheer underdog pleasure of beating that great grey overdog, the ap. It’s become harder and harder to win the competitive game, but those other, more important qualities have persevered even in the hardest times. I’m proud to have worked with you all. It’s been fun.
Lobsenz-wa
all
today ends another longstanding tradition, albeit a minor one. After more than 60 years of combined service, a Zverina will no longer be part of UPI. My father Ivan retired in May 1990 after 45 years, and is enjoying his retirement immensely.
I, on the other hand, have another 30 years of work to go before I can slack off. So, after 15 years with UPI — seven of them spent as its automotive writer after starting in NX (New York) financial — I am resigning from UPI to grab something else that will allow me to continue to do the work I love.
This will be just another goodbye message when the day is done. But most of these farewells have had one common thread: these people loved their jobs here, and did not want to leave.
This could not be more true for me, and those of you who know me know I had one of the best jobs in the house. But watching this company crumble at the hands of higher-ups has been very painful, and some of the latest proposals set forth by the company to the WSG (Wire Service Guild) are downright insulting, to put it nicely. (I also leave as a WSG shop steward).
Apparently, covering the nation’s largest industry and a leading economic indicator does not seem to warrant a full-time position anymore. If that is true, it would be another tragic mistake that could possibly cost some remaining clients, especially here in the motor city state.
To all of you who have to or want to ride it out, the very best of luck. And may the good guys win for a change. Chrs
Zverina-ducars (nxf) (Detroit, New York Financial)
Capps-wa
(rocknroll)
(to the tune of great balls of fire)
we got no clients and we got no pay
the wire’s weak in ev-er-y way
the system’s slow
my life’s on hold
good-ness gra-cioius
filing the wire!
Chrsz et 73s
Rosenbush-nxf
Rosenbush-nxf
(rocknroll—reprise)
(to the blues)
woke up this morning, heading for the tube
got one mo’ book review, that’s wa-ay overdue
but ever’body else…is bustin’ their’s too
cuz that’s the way it is,
with the everlovin’
u-p-i BUH-luesssss!
Chiz et 73s backatcha
Capps-nv (Nashville)
Unipressers
Today’s the day I must depart
Just a short time since my start
When I came here with wide-eyed wonder
Hoping I would not choke or plunder
In my dream that went awry
To be a part of UPI
But I am luckier today
For having even this short stay
With people who love the work they do
Who respect themselves and others too
Thank you for this chance to learn
I hope UPI will never adjourn
Bye. eve tahmincioglu (it isn’t that difficult (to pronounce)!)
Eve-nxf
Unipressers
Oh, hell. My turn after all these years. I hope whoever’s left wins the lottery. I’m going to walk down to the little beer joint I own now and drink to all of you and everyone I knew at this job. I may not sober up for a year.
Happy trails
Haines-al (San Antonio)
Unipressers
Lo (for the last time). I’ve read so many of these messages, that I don’t know what to say. You’re the best damn people one could ever work with, you don’t deserve what’s happening.
It’s been a great 21 ½ years on the best job a person could ever have. May god bless and watch over all of you. Chrs
Usiak-bf (Buffalo)
Unipressers
Today is my last day with UPI. I don’t want to leave, but the company is challenging my contractual seniority rights to a news job. It has been a pleasure to work with you over the almost 18 years that I have been with UPI. I also have had the pleasure to meet many of you in my travels as a wire service guild officer. I wish you all the best. May god bless us all.
(chuck) moody-ps (Pittsburgh)
Unipressers
one month short of nine years, I’m not even working on my last official day. I went to Rhode Island Friday for a funeral and ended up in the hospital with stomach problems. So, for all those remaining, good luck … and get another job. Regards. McNally-hx (Chicago), late of UPI.
Unipressers
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight I log out for the last time after nearly nine years … some happy, some sad. I could tell you all about my bitter-sweet departure … how I, too, have been chased out by the grim one … how UPI has treated me so bad or so good … how I’ve worked with the best damn journalists … but that’s all been said by fellow Unipressers who’ve departed this life before me. It’s too late to be remorseful and life is too short to wallow in regrets. I guess I needed this kick in the pants to get on with my life. And I leave here with high hopes and a renewed sense of purpose. To the few and the proud I leave behind, keep your chin up and your chest out. There is life after UPI. Best of luck. Carrigan-phx
Unipressers
Parting really is a sweet sorrow — sad to be leaving the colleagues with whom I’ve worked, those who are my friends and those I don’t know but whose professionalism I respect and whose spirit I admire.
The problem with UPI has never been its news people nor the product they produced. We have been UPI’s assets and those assets have been squandered. That’s the sad part. On the other hand…
After 24 years with UPI (that amounts to 48 weeks earned but uncollected severance pay, but, hey, who’s counting?), there is that little voice that says, “free, free, free at last…”
For those who come after me, and management has admitted there’s another not-so-little list, the good news is that there is life after UPI and it is good.
Chrs, or as we used to say, 73s. hanauer-nxe (New York Enterprise)
Unipressers
There is a sign on the UPI door here Orval Jackson put up. It says, “what a beautiful day, watch some bastard louse it up.” Says it all.
Wish my good bye msg was as eloquent as Joe Mahoney’s or as brief as don dughi’s, but alas, it won’t be.
The bottom line is I’m toast. Thanks to all of you left out there who helped me along the way. Special thanks to my mentors Jim Dever and Larry Desantis. Thx to ray foli who bought my wife a drink at the Kentucky derby many years ago. I’ll remember those nice touches.
We’ll all survive this debacle.
Cosgrove-tpp (Tampa photos)
Unipressers
Last year I considered myself one of the fortunate ones that survived the cuts. This year I think myself one of the lucky ones that got let go. Good luck to all of us who’re going on to better things and my condolences to those who continue to plod on for all those great news radio clients in Guadalajara and Timbuktu. I am grateful to have been allowed to represent some of you for the union and I only wish that the company’s mismanagement had shown more grace and not given himself a golden parachute while depriving others of the most minimal of safety nets.
Chrs. Rosenberger-nx
Unipressers
I came to UPI two weeks past my 21st birthday filled with the romantic vision that I could help to provide a valued service for journalism, and for many years I assumed I would continue to do so for the rest of my working days. Over the past year, I adjusted that goal to simply hoping I would be allowed to go down with the ship I loved.
That wish was denied, and so my good friends, I bid you all adieu and good luck.
I leave here poor financially but enriched otherwise. I have learned much about our craft at the feet of many artists and masters; I have experienced the rush and camaraderie of working disasters and major team events, and I have made friends I cherish.
I also have learned some tough lessons about corporate loyalty and economics. In no longer believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.
But I still believe in the basic goodness and indominatability of the colleagues I leave behind. For that I am eternally grateful.
Pohla-pss (Pittsburgh sports)
Unipressers
I had the best job on earth and the best years of my life here. Well, the later ones were a little rough but still no regret. So long and best of luck to all
Chrs. Hai do-cxp-ktp (Albany state capitol bureau, Albany pictures)
Unipressers
Today is my last day as a Unipresser, a title that’s proudly been mine for almost 20 years and has been in the family well over half a century. I became a Unipresser despite having been raised in a UPI family, something that probably gave rise to the rumors about me being a slow learner.
In fact, today is the end of four generations of family involvement in the news business. I have accepted an unsolicited offer to be a speechwriter for Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
In keeping with my habit of writing long, this is longer than I’d expected it to be. (desk, cut from the bottom).
I was just a kid working in the southern division (best damn place to break on in the world) when I got my first dose of news reality. The phone rang and a raspy voice bellowed: “this is Warner in Atlanta. Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
From charlotte it was on to Raleigh and then home to Washington for the deep overnight and day desk. In 1984 I went up to capitol hill to take the defense beat. There was a stint in the stinking desert (ah, Dharan is lovely this time of year). After dodging efforts to have me put a $6,000 hotel bill on a personal credit card as the corporate alarm bells were ringing, it was back home to add the Pentagon to the growing list of responsibilities.
I’ve covered about everything one can cover — plane crashes, presidents, campaigns and conventions, wars, summits and all-nighters in the Senate listening to whiny politicians gnawing on their pork bones.
In between came such things as:
--waking up in –40 temperatures in the arctic to see the northern lights circling the horizon and ending a 120-degree day in Saudi Arabia by lounging on Persian carpets, eating off a platter of roast lamb and having incense wafted into my face by bedoins.
--coining or adopting the phrases: “shit for brains,” “three grafs of cosmic goo followed by a lead,” ”I’m so confused,” “the world’s largest financially and … bankrupt wire service,” and, “if news breaks, fix it.”
--the pure adrenalin high of whupping the competition while working solo on the Desert One disaster and taking Dean Reynolds’ breathless dictation on the Reagan assassination attempt.
I have worked with the best journalists in the world. I’d list everyone, but for sure I’d commit the sin of omission. But in addition to the obvious parental influence (Eliot’s father, Bernie, worked UPI for decades) on my career, there is one person I must acknowledge.
The Chief — Steve Gerstel. He slipped me beers after the office softball games, encouraged me as I fell into the business, helped me get to Washington and let me come to the Hill, his private domain. And he taught me, (but not to write long) Jefe, I promise to check in at 5p every Friday for my GAO reports.
Back in high school I had an English teacher who returned papers in the order of the grade, highest to lowest. One day mine was last and he said: “and now we come to you, Mr. Brenner. If you had to write for a living, as your parents do, you’d starve to death.”
It never got that bad and it’s sure been fun.
The current and future state of UPI, how it got here and where it’s going, are not topics for this note. I observe only that for years I thought it would be hard to quit. I’m sad to say it wasn’t. The painful part is leaving the people.
It’s been a great ride. Thanks for letting me come along, but I think I’ll get off here and sign up for the Downhold Club.
Eliot Brenner-WA
11-22-91
Unipressers
It is with great sadness that after 11 years with UPI, I announce my resignation. Bob Goldner’s dismissal yesterday has made my continuing association with the company untenable. Bob and I had embarked upon an attempt to facilitate a management buyout of UPI and various parties had expressed interest in backing us. We sincerely believed this to be the only means to save the company. As all of you are painfully aware, bad management is systematically destroying and dismembering this company. What we did was very simple. We looked at what we did best, where we could do better, what nobody else was doing, and made a firm commitment to eliminate the rest. We identified markets and areas that had previously been ignored and we came up with a plan that ensured a profitable UPI in the year 1993, with appropriate levels of capital to revamp our communications infrastructure and marketing effort. Based on our negotiations with a number of potential investors, we felt confident that within a matter of weeks, we could have secured the necessary capital to take over the company.
As a result of Bob’s dismissal, I can no longer in good conscience work toward this end within UPI but shall with all means and personal resources at my disposal continue to work outside the company to secure a new ownership and management for UPI. I believe this is the only way the company can ever survive. I have 11 years invested in the company. I have no choice but to give it my best shot, even now.
If we succeed, I look forward to working with all of you again, because that has been one of the greatest joys of being part of UPI.
Regards
Jack reed
11-28-91
Then there was the man who had a beautiful name who wrote witty 15-second novels under the equally delightful pseudonym — Helmut del Lago. Royal Brightbill had regaled us with his inventions over the years and they became collectors’ items. But late in 1991, Brightbill passed along Helmut’s farewell.
Buos
Fans, connoisseurs of microblast literature (the inter-galactic, funky 90s term for the 15-second novel) and fellow masochists (those of you in the latest wave of lay-offs and especially those of you who must continue to battle the Gang of Four — Deceit, Treachery, Ingratitude and Avarice). It is hard to be funny at a time like this. But, in view of yesterday’s bankruptcy court action, this little parable, my last offering to you on this wire, seems appropriate.
The Pig
A reporter invited to a roast pig dinner on a hog farm was amazed to see the main course had three wooden legs. He asked the farmer about it.
“Oh, that was the best pig I ever had,” the farmer said. “A few years back, my house caught fire while I slept. He ran through the flames to wake me.”
“Is that how he lost his legs?”
“And just a couple of months ago, I fell in an alligator-filled bayou. He jumped in and pulled me out.”
“But what about the legs?”
“My friend, a pig that valuable you just don’t eat all at once.”
Somewhere on Wall Street a dog was barking.
Which is a kinder and gentler way of saying:
The rape of UPI has ended. The necrophilia has begun.
Helmut del Lago
9-24-91
Then it was Brightbill’s turn and his farewell will remain a classic.
Unipressers
Helmut del lago wrote his last msg last week. On his behalf, I thank you for encouraging his “art.” I am not skilled as he in concise expression, but please bear out an old Unipresser’s reminisces.
Twenty-two years ago, fresh journalism degree in hand, I took off my cap and gown and flew the same day to my first assignment with UPI in Raleigh, N.C. It has been a fast, thoroughly exhilarating ride — except for the past few years, which, in some respects, has been like watching my mother die, painfully, of cancer.
I could not believe the RA (Raleigh) office when I arrived that first day. It looked like something out of a 1930s movie. Stacks of newspapers everywhere, rumpled paper on the floor, cluttered, beat up desks supporting even more beat up typewriters. Loud, clacking black machines streaming mounds of perforated tape. Telephones constantly ringing. The space was pitiably small.
My first day on the job, there was a prison break. A guard was killed. Richard Hatch, the state editor, told me to work the phones and develop a profile on the guard. I started taking notes in longhand. He told me to use a typewriter or I never would survive.
The next day I saw my story in print. And Hatch had written me a note to the effect that I was on my way “to becoming a top-notch Unipresser.” It was the first time the term Unipresser had been applied to me, and you could have peeled me off the ceiling.
Within a week I was on the overnight by myself and could not believe the responsibility thrust on me. Nothing to it. Just rewrote everything that had been done all day, monitor the TV stations and pickup anything we missed, get the first edition of the morning paper and pick up wot we missed. Oh, yeah, and don’t forget the broadcast briefs packages that seemed to come up almost every hour on the half hour. Field the stringer calls etc etc. I quickly understood what Walter Cronkite meant when he said the toughest job he ever had was the Kansas City overnight of United Press. It would take me two hours past scheduled quitting time to get the work done. I stayed and did it, and did not put in for overtime, because I didn’t want Hatch to think I couldn’t handle it.
About seven weeks after I started, there came one night, the insistent bells of the first flash I ever heard. The message said: “The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had arrived safely on the moon.
I went home with headaches every night, and lay awake for what seemed like hours, terrified that I might have screwed up. I made my first move a year later, to a two-man bureau in Charlotte. A year later after that I became CT bureau manager because the manager at the time, John Shalko, had quit to go home to Rhode Island for one of those “cushy pr jobs” with the phone co.
The first seven years of my career, our young family moved six times. But it was because it was what I wanted to do, and UPI gave me the chance. I have had the opportunity to work with the masters — Gregory Jensen, Bob Musel, Joe Grigg, Al Webb, Peggy Polk, Leon Daniel, Lou Carr, Arnie Sawislak stand out in my mind. I’ll include Dick Growald in there. If I did anything right it was because of the influence of people like that.
Since Charlotte, I have worked in New York, Brussels, Athens, the Middle East, London, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, New Orleans again, San Francisco, Baton Rouge again, Shreveport, New Orleans and Baton Rouge again. I was part of the Middle East coverage team in the Yom Kippur war in 1973, covered an opening of parliament, a trial at the Old Bailey, a coup in Greece, a terrorist hijacking, hurricanes, an electrocution, political races, speeches, trials, state government and Mardi Gras ad nauseum. And sports of all sorts. But my favorites were always the three-legged chicken stories — those innocuous features that made people smile — the funeral home with the drive-up window, the dog intelligence test, the hookers’ masquerade ball.
I even did a stretch as a regional executive — and quit twice in a six-month period. When I started my third tour, I vowed this time UPI would divorce me before I divorced it. The time has come.
All of us have had a love-hate relationship with UPI because it has been our family. And just like a family, we have fought with each other, loved each other, cried with each other and lifted each other up. We were an unbeatable team when challenged from the outside. It only has been the attacks on us from within, by people who had no concept of the tradition and never had the UPI heart that has brought the company to the point it is today.
About 84 years ago, E.W. Scripps told the AP he wanted to buy its wire for his newspaper. The AP refused because there already was an AP “member” in the same town, and they had this little exclusivity clause in their contracts that allowed one newspaper per town to monopolize wire news. As we all know, Scripps’ in-your-face response was to start United Press, which eventually became United Press International. Among its many credits is the break-up of the international news cartel that existed prior to World War II.
That in-your-face tradition led to the best wire service ever, with a loose system that encouraged every Unipresser to give full expression to his individuality and reach his full potential, rather than press him into a bland mold. Every one of you is an inheritor and bearer of that tradition, a tradition that says fight the odds. Never quit. Never quit. That tradition never can be killed by changing times or jobs, recession or corporate chicanery.
I leave with no regrets and a treasure chest of memories, but also with some sadness at what UPI has been reduced to. My warmest wishes to my colleagues who leave today, and especially to those on whose shoulders falls the duty to defend the tradition against unprecedented assault.
73
brightbill-bg
Saturday, January 8, 2011
All: This Is My Last Day - Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
In 1990 a man named Berl Schwartz became Washington bureau manager. Not sure where he came from, but it was apparent he was in over his head at UPI. One of his gem actions caught the eye of The Washington Times, a newspaper owned by News World Communications Inc., founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- an organization that was to play a pivotal role with UPI a decade later.
Schwartz wanted to glamorize UPI by trying to get “exclusive” material from newsmakers. One day he took a story written by a congressional reporter and had it refiled, taking the reporter’s name off the story and making it look as though Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., had written it exclusively for UPI.
It was a budget story based on Hoyer’s testimony before a subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. The testimony was delivered in an open session and the text of Hoyer’s speech was available to all who came into the hearing room.
This is what Schwartz wanted at the top of the rewritten story:
Bc-budget-johnqpublic correct
(removing byline to hoyer writing for upi)
Average Americans will suffer from federal budget cuts
(What happens if thousands of federal employees are temporarily furloughed because Congress and the administration cannot agree on a budget plan? Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., paints a stark picture of the effect on the average American in his testimony presented Wednesday to a subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee)
By STENY HOYER
Distributed by UPI
The Washington Times jumped all over this with the following:
Zip a Dee Doo Dah
The new UPI Washington bureau manager, Berl Schwartz, decided to put a little zip into a story filed by a UPI reporter about furloughing federal employees. So he took out all the extra stuff. Like just about everything the reporter filed except for some quotes from Democratic Caucus Chairman Steny Hoyer.
But the story still didn’t have quite the zip Mr. Schwartz was seeking. So he gutted the story down to nothing but quotes and put a byline on it – “By Steny Hoyer, Written for UPI.”
Much zippier, the story went out on the wire.
Well, just two hours later the wire sent a correction zipping along behind the “Hoyer” story. It said the piece “was not written expressly for UPI” by the Maryland Democrat and was actually testimony he’d given before a House subcommittee. But it had zip.
Schwartz came into the office, read the Washington Times piece, slammed around his office for a while, beating the desk with his fist, and filed this message on the internal message wire:
“The Washington Times reported today that I put out testimony by Steny Hoyer as having been written for UPI. I did it. It was a mistake, which I corrected on the wire.
The Times also said I “took out all the extra stuff. Like just about everything the reporter filed except for some quotes …” and that I “gutted the story down to nothing but quotes.”
Here’s the story as originally filed by Shep. Judge for yourself the accuracy of the Times report.
This inability to own up entirely to his stupid act prompted me to respond:
Schwartz
Since you asked for our judgment I’ll offer mine. I feel your “mistake” jeopardized the integrity of the reporter who filed a correct story, jeopardized the integrity of the editor who filed the story and jeopardized the integrity of UPI and the integrity of so many unipressers over the years who have worked damn hard to produce an honorable product. Rosso
At least he owned up to his incompetence. On Nov. 8, 1990, Schwartz wrote:
All-wa
Thank you for your hard work last night and today in making our election coverage something to be proud of. We’ve received some praise and no criticism, which in this cynical business is the same as praise. Even Tough Old Broad Victoria Wakefield was impressed. Thank you in particular for helping me fake my way through my first UPI election night.
Schwartz.
To which Janet Bass, who covered health, added:
Tough old broad?????
On Jan. 2, 1991, Schwartz sent a note to the Washington staff, that said, in part:
All-wa
I have just posted an announcement that UPI has granted me an unpaid leave of absence so that I can accept the McMahon visiting professorship of journalism at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma on the main campus in Norman.
This is the first year of the professorship, which means I will be making up the program as I go along — something for which UPI has given me excellent training.
In 1990 a man named Berl Schwartz became Washington bureau manager. Not sure where he came from, but it was apparent he was in over his head at UPI. One of his gem actions caught the eye of The Washington Times, a newspaper owned by News World Communications Inc., founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- an organization that was to play a pivotal role with UPI a decade later.
Schwartz wanted to glamorize UPI by trying to get “exclusive” material from newsmakers. One day he took a story written by a congressional reporter and had it refiled, taking the reporter’s name off the story and making it look as though Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., had written it exclusively for UPI.
It was a budget story based on Hoyer’s testimony before a subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. The testimony was delivered in an open session and the text of Hoyer’s speech was available to all who came into the hearing room.
This is what Schwartz wanted at the top of the rewritten story:
Bc-budget-johnqpublic correct
(removing byline to hoyer writing for upi)
Average Americans will suffer from federal budget cuts
(What happens if thousands of federal employees are temporarily furloughed because Congress and the administration cannot agree on a budget plan? Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., paints a stark picture of the effect on the average American in his testimony presented Wednesday to a subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee)
By STENY HOYER
Distributed by UPI
The Washington Times jumped all over this with the following:
Zip a Dee Doo Dah
The new UPI Washington bureau manager, Berl Schwartz, decided to put a little zip into a story filed by a UPI reporter about furloughing federal employees. So he took out all the extra stuff. Like just about everything the reporter filed except for some quotes from Democratic Caucus Chairman Steny Hoyer.
But the story still didn’t have quite the zip Mr. Schwartz was seeking. So he gutted the story down to nothing but quotes and put a byline on it – “By Steny Hoyer, Written for UPI.”
Much zippier, the story went out on the wire.
Well, just two hours later the wire sent a correction zipping along behind the “Hoyer” story. It said the piece “was not written expressly for UPI” by the Maryland Democrat and was actually testimony he’d given before a House subcommittee. But it had zip.
Schwartz came into the office, read the Washington Times piece, slammed around his office for a while, beating the desk with his fist, and filed this message on the internal message wire:
“The Washington Times reported today that I put out testimony by Steny Hoyer as having been written for UPI. I did it. It was a mistake, which I corrected on the wire.
The Times also said I “took out all the extra stuff. Like just about everything the reporter filed except for some quotes …” and that I “gutted the story down to nothing but quotes.”
Here’s the story as originally filed by Shep. Judge for yourself the accuracy of the Times report.
This inability to own up entirely to his stupid act prompted me to respond:
Schwartz
Since you asked for our judgment I’ll offer mine. I feel your “mistake” jeopardized the integrity of the reporter who filed a correct story, jeopardized the integrity of the editor who filed the story and jeopardized the integrity of UPI and the integrity of so many unipressers over the years who have worked damn hard to produce an honorable product. Rosso
At least he owned up to his incompetence. On Nov. 8, 1990, Schwartz wrote:
All-wa
Thank you for your hard work last night and today in making our election coverage something to be proud of. We’ve received some praise and no criticism, which in this cynical business is the same as praise. Even Tough Old Broad Victoria Wakefield was impressed. Thank you in particular for helping me fake my way through my first UPI election night.
Schwartz.
To which Janet Bass, who covered health, added:
Tough old broad?????
On Jan. 2, 1991, Schwartz sent a note to the Washington staff, that said, in part:
All-wa
I have just posted an announcement that UPI has granted me an unpaid leave of absence so that I can accept the McMahon visiting professorship of journalism at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma on the main campus in Norman.
This is the first year of the professorship, which means I will be making up the program as I go along — something for which UPI has given me excellent training.
Friday, January 7, 2011
All: This Is My Last Day - Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
A particularly poignant farewell took 66 days to play itself out.
On Nov. 15, 1991, Dan Carmichael, shortly after fighting his battle against the pay cut, wrote his colleagues his “unipresser” goodbye.
After 21 years at UPI, I am leaving at the end of this shift. I will become a spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, a progressive labor union with some 600,000 members.
I recall the days when I was a rookie 17-year-old newsman in the Honolulu bureau — now long-shuttered — writing TTS and radio wire copy on an old typewriter and then punching it onto a loop of yellow teletype transmission tape. I worked the 4p-midnight shift, going to school full-time during the day.
I had great UPI teachers along the way: in Honolulu, Dallas, New York and Washington. I have particularly fond memories of Robert C. Miller, a legendary UPI war correspondent who retired many years ago. He was the Honolulu bureau manager between wars and junkets to Southeast Asia.
I regret leaving, but it was made inevitable by the slow, deliberate destruction of this company by a series of selfish, incompetent senior managers whose actions border on, and may enter, the threshold of criminality.
Many of you may recall my decade-long service as secretary-treasurer of the Guild. I resigned on May 9, 1988, along with the entire rank-and-file negotiating team, when it became apparent that the union simply was not prepared to do what was necessary to prevail over the worst UPI management in a long line of increasingly inept corporate entities.
I have many fond memories of the Guild. But I believe its leadership has made a series of colossal mistakes and strategic miscalculations during the past several years that have quickened this company’s destruction and the departure of so many fine employees.
I was looking at the diary I kept in 1988 and one entry was particularly vivid. It was written on Feb. 22, 1988, hours after the first meeting between the Guild leadership and the InfoTech-installed group of minions.
I attended and afterwards wrote in my journal: “I smelled the new crowd as union-busters 10 minutes into the meeting.”
I warned my fellow Guild leaders, and any employee who would listen, that this was a group of corporate scavengers who would milk UPI’s assets and leave little more than the shell of a once-proud name. It was a scam from the beginning.
I now leave with my head held high. I’ve told people the truth and possess an enviable record of accuracy in predicting the various management moves that lay ahead.
I wish all of you the best.
If you are ever again faced with the prospect of more concessions — and you will be — I ask you to remember the following, which I wrote on the message wire on November 9, 1990, while campaigning against the first Pieter Van Bennekom pay cuts.
It might not hurt to post it on your tubes (computers):
“I suggest that a vote for this pay cut is a new march down a never-ending trail — that is, concessions inevitably beget more concessions and it will never end until there is nothing left in salaries or benefits.”
73
Carmichael-WA 11-15-91
On Dec. 23, 1991, I filed the following message
All
Just talked to Dan Carmichael. He had Anne Saker by his side and the two of them filled me in. First, Dan is extremely weak, suffering a form of pneumonia in the intensive care unit of Jefferson Hospital in Alexandria, Va. His doctor immediately ordered him to go to the hospital where he has been since Tuesday. He said he is “showing slight improvement, but by no means am I out of the woods.” But he said today is “most definitely” his best day since the onset of his illness. He would very much like to get cards, but please no calls. I can attest to his weakness.
Rosso-wa
The news of Dan’s illness spread quickly from bureau to bureau throughout the world, such is the alacrity of electronic messaging – long before the popularity of Internet and instant messaging.
helluva Christmas present, Dan. Hope you can slap it down soon. 73
carr-ntl (Washington, national)
get better soon Dan and take care of yourself. Chrs-burns-tr (Trenton)
Dan, morrisey tells me ur fightin’ like mad. Don’t give up. My prayers and wishes are with you. Peace and love for you this challenging Christmas. 73. bill reilly (New York, UN)
Dan, wanted u to know eye’ve thot of u over the years since union meeting in Philadelphia et ur visit to hx (Chicago), et eye’m thinking of u now. Get better! Kate (formerly Ferguson, Gibson) griffin
sincere hopes for a speedy recovery, Dan. The world needs more good minds et sunny dispositions like yours. We’ve gotta go on battling negative folks like the onetime Dallas exec with the super loud voice et the severe anti-Dan attitude. Cheers et get well soz the ryans can have another party for you.
Ryan-da (Dallas)
Carmichael (u) what, our favorite firebrand in the hospital? C’mon, no self-respecting red-haired Irishman can duck Christmas with a little pneumonia, geez. On the sincere side, get thyself well. Slay a few dragons…that otta perk u right up. Rgds. Walsh-waforn (Washington foreign desk)
Carmichael
Get well soon, Dan. The holidays just aren’t the same without u outpointing the imposters in red suits stealing presents from our stockings (et money from our paychecks). Eye understand Dick Thornburgh will be sending u a dozen wilted roses. Chrs. Snyder-hc (Los Angeles)
Dan—we are pulling for you to get well real soon. You can do it. We know you are a fighter and the best is yet to be for good journalists like you. Thomas-whu (Helen Thomas, White House)
I’m so sorry to hear you’re sick, Dan. I hope you get to feeling better real soon. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers. Btw, I’m leaving UPI at the end of this week to join a trade magazine. I’ll never forget the “glory days” of the super metro desk. Please take care of yourself, and best wishes for the holidays. Cheers. Craig-wab
Dan: a hospital is NO place to be on Christmas Eve and NO place for a battler like you. I know you can—and are—fighting to get well. We’re counting on it. I expect to be hearing Dan stories again soon. Happy holidays. Chrs. Geimann.
Rosso-wa
Please tell Dan that all of us here in Detroit are thinking of him. Thnx. Mead-du
Carmichael-hospital
Hey Dan, pls get well quick. The hospital is no place to be during these holidays. There’s no chimney for Santa to climb down to bring you presents, or does he use elevators in wa. Rgds from bh’s (Boston’s) Haskell, cafarell, reed, klinger, radsen, and soon-to-return ross
Haskell-bh
Carmichael, sorry you’ll be in the hospital during the holidays, but I hope at least the nurses who are treating you are better looking than that fat guy dressed in red who comes by. Get well soon. Chrs. Sielicki-tl (Tallahassee)
Just before Christmas, I visited Dan at the hospital. Former Unipresser Anne Saker was by his side as she had been through most of his illness.
Dan was propped up in his bed in a private room. He had a large mask that almost covered his face through which he was fed oxygen. His voice was thin as it came through the mask. But his spirits were high. I met his parents, Margaret and Ned Carmichael. They too were trying to put a brave face on Dan’s condition.
Dan had a book beside his bed. He asked me to sign it and write something in it that reflected my memories of him as a person and a Unipresser.
I don’t remember exactly what I wrote. I was caught by surprise and I vacillated between being straight and serious or to try to be light and humorous. I think I did a little of both.
I remembered how he could go into the field to cover breaking news and dictate a flawless lead to an ongoing story, even telling me where to pick up into the old story.
I also remember his claxon horn alert when management came into the newsroom: “AWHOOGA AWHOOGA AWHOOGA, Suits Alert! Suits Alert!”
Dan told me he wanted his parents to have memories of him from his colleagues.
When I was leaving, he asked for my hand and, as I stood beside his bed and tried to look beyond the large plastic mask covering his face, he said, “I love you.”
On Dec. 30, 1991, I sent the following
All:
Just talked with Dan Carmichael, who has been moved from the intensive care unit where he had been since last Tuesday battling pneumonia. Dan told me: “I am doing a hell of a lot better. I’m going to make it and I’m really kind of delighted.”
Dan then asked that I relay to all the following message:
unipressers:
I have been profoundly moved and energized by the phone calls and messages and cards that I have received from all around the world during my recent hospitalization. I’m a very fortunate man to have so many friends at UPI who remember me and care about me. I’m also lucky to be alive and for that I’m also extraordinarily grateful. When I first checked into the hospital, I was told by the top three infectious disease experts that I would be lucky to live 72 hours. Since then they have come in with smiles on their faces each day, marveling at my progress and telling me that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen such a fighter. I have a long, tough period of recuperation ahead. I remain very weak. But I shrink not one iota from this, the biggest battle of my life.
The love and respect that current and former Unipressers have expressed to me has gone a long way toward pulling me through. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I still would like to hear from you, particularly in writing because I must limit my visits in order to conserve my energy. Best of luck to all of you and I would appreciate your prayers.
On Jan. 9, 1992:
All
Dan Carmichael is back in intensive care in Jefferson hospital. I called this ayem but a nurse, after talking with Dan, said he asked her to tell me that he was too tired to talk to me, but that he is improving but still very weak. Keep those cards and letters flowing.
Rosso-wa
Jan. 14, 1992
All
The latest on Dan Carmichael: talked with former wa unipresser anne saker this ayem who said she called couple days ago. She was told that his oxygen intake has been increased and doctors are discouraging calls and visits to allow Dan to conserve energy. But please keep those cards and letters coming. He really appreciates them and they lift his spirits.
Jan. 17, 1992
Unipressers
Just called the hospital and the news about Dan Carmichael is not good. The nurse at the intensive care unit said he is “stable but very critical. He is not doing real well at the moment.” She said Dan is “sort of hanging in there,” but he has not made a turn-around. He is experiencing “lots of respiratory distress” and is fighting his oxygen mask, which he has worn since he entered the hospital before Christmas. “it may be a matter of time before he just wants to be comfortable,” she said.
Jan. 19, 1992, 1:18 p.m.
All
Sad to report that long-time staffer Dan Carmichael died today with pneumonia at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Alexandria, Va. We will advise later time of funeral arrangements.
Bater-ntl
Carmichael-obit
Dan Carmichael, journalist and union activist, dies
WASHINGTON (UPI) – Dan Carmichael, a veteran United Press International reporter based in Washington and a long-time union activist, died Sunday after a brief illness. He was 38.
Carmichael died of AIDS-related pneumonia at Jefferson Hospital in Alexandria, Va.
He served for a decade as a national officer of the Wire Service Guild, representing employees of The Associated Press and United Press International.
Carmichael’s last assignment at UPI, which he left in November, was covering the Justice Department. He joined UPI in Honolulu in 1971 and worked at the news service’s Dallas and New York bureaus before transferring in 1983 to Washington, where he also covered the Labor Department.
“He was incredibly diligent and hard working, always trying to dig out the truth. He used those same qualities in fighting his disease right up until he died,” said David Wiessler, former Washington bureau chief at UPI.
Carmichael was secretary-treasurer of the Wire Service Guild for eight years and helped negotiate three national contracts for members at UPI, among them a 1983 pact that included “agency shop” language requiring all union-covered employees to pay dues, a long-sought measure virtually unheard of in the news industry.
When UPI declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1985, Carmichael had a key role in protecting the interests of UPI employees in federal court, and he was instrumental in the sale of the company to Mexican publisher Mario Vasquez Rana, who spent millions propping up the international news agency.
“The Guild’s efforts were headed by a team. Carmichael was a starter and a finisher. He played offense and defense. He used the written word to gouge the company players and frustrate what appeared to be ‘Hail Mary’ efforts to turn around the company on the wallets of the employees,” said Bill Morrissey, WSG president during the bankruptcy.
“Dan was proud of his role and once described himself as ‘the son of a bitch hitman’ for a reporters’ union,” Morrissey said.
Born Sept. 24, 1953, in Melbourne, Australia, Carmichael spent his childhood in Alice Springs, Northern Territories. The family moved to Hawaii in 1963 and Carmichael, a U.S. citizen, attended the University of Hawaii, receiving his bachelor of arts degree in American studies in 1975.
He began his journalism career while in high school. One of his first major stories for UPI was the private burial of aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1974. After moving to UPI’s Dallas bureau, Carmichael became involved in the legal battle over the exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
Carmichael, accompanied by Oswald’s wife Marina, was the only reporter present when the grave was opened in 1981.
He also covered the demise of Braniff airline and investigated the role American Airlines had in its competitor’s collapse.
A particularly poignant farewell took 66 days to play itself out.
On Nov. 15, 1991, Dan Carmichael, shortly after fighting his battle against the pay cut, wrote his colleagues his “unipresser” goodbye.
After 21 years at UPI, I am leaving at the end of this shift. I will become a spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, a progressive labor union with some 600,000 members.
I recall the days when I was a rookie 17-year-old newsman in the Honolulu bureau — now long-shuttered — writing TTS and radio wire copy on an old typewriter and then punching it onto a loop of yellow teletype transmission tape. I worked the 4p-midnight shift, going to school full-time during the day.
I had great UPI teachers along the way: in Honolulu, Dallas, New York and Washington. I have particularly fond memories of Robert C. Miller, a legendary UPI war correspondent who retired many years ago. He was the Honolulu bureau manager between wars and junkets to Southeast Asia.
I regret leaving, but it was made inevitable by the slow, deliberate destruction of this company by a series of selfish, incompetent senior managers whose actions border on, and may enter, the threshold of criminality.
Many of you may recall my decade-long service as secretary-treasurer of the Guild. I resigned on May 9, 1988, along with the entire rank-and-file negotiating team, when it became apparent that the union simply was not prepared to do what was necessary to prevail over the worst UPI management in a long line of increasingly inept corporate entities.
I have many fond memories of the Guild. But I believe its leadership has made a series of colossal mistakes and strategic miscalculations during the past several years that have quickened this company’s destruction and the departure of so many fine employees.
I was looking at the diary I kept in 1988 and one entry was particularly vivid. It was written on Feb. 22, 1988, hours after the first meeting between the Guild leadership and the InfoTech-installed group of minions.
I attended and afterwards wrote in my journal: “I smelled the new crowd as union-busters 10 minutes into the meeting.”
I warned my fellow Guild leaders, and any employee who would listen, that this was a group of corporate scavengers who would milk UPI’s assets and leave little more than the shell of a once-proud name. It was a scam from the beginning.
I now leave with my head held high. I’ve told people the truth and possess an enviable record of accuracy in predicting the various management moves that lay ahead.
I wish all of you the best.
If you are ever again faced with the prospect of more concessions — and you will be — I ask you to remember the following, which I wrote on the message wire on November 9, 1990, while campaigning against the first Pieter Van Bennekom pay cuts.
It might not hurt to post it on your tubes (computers):
“I suggest that a vote for this pay cut is a new march down a never-ending trail — that is, concessions inevitably beget more concessions and it will never end until there is nothing left in salaries or benefits.”
73
Carmichael-WA 11-15-91
On Dec. 23, 1991, I filed the following message
All
Just talked to Dan Carmichael. He had Anne Saker by his side and the two of them filled me in. First, Dan is extremely weak, suffering a form of pneumonia in the intensive care unit of Jefferson Hospital in Alexandria, Va. His doctor immediately ordered him to go to the hospital where he has been since Tuesday. He said he is “showing slight improvement, but by no means am I out of the woods.” But he said today is “most definitely” his best day since the onset of his illness. He would very much like to get cards, but please no calls. I can attest to his weakness.
Rosso-wa
The news of Dan’s illness spread quickly from bureau to bureau throughout the world, such is the alacrity of electronic messaging – long before the popularity of Internet and instant messaging.
helluva Christmas present, Dan. Hope you can slap it down soon. 73
carr-ntl (Washington, national)
get better soon Dan and take care of yourself. Chrs-burns-tr (Trenton)
Dan, morrisey tells me ur fightin’ like mad. Don’t give up. My prayers and wishes are with you. Peace and love for you this challenging Christmas. 73. bill reilly (New York, UN)
Dan, wanted u to know eye’ve thot of u over the years since union meeting in Philadelphia et ur visit to hx (Chicago), et eye’m thinking of u now. Get better! Kate (formerly Ferguson, Gibson) griffin
sincere hopes for a speedy recovery, Dan. The world needs more good minds et sunny dispositions like yours. We’ve gotta go on battling negative folks like the onetime Dallas exec with the super loud voice et the severe anti-Dan attitude. Cheers et get well soz the ryans can have another party for you.
Ryan-da (Dallas)
Carmichael (u) what, our favorite firebrand in the hospital? C’mon, no self-respecting red-haired Irishman can duck Christmas with a little pneumonia, geez. On the sincere side, get thyself well. Slay a few dragons…that otta perk u right up. Rgds. Walsh-waforn (Washington foreign desk)
Carmichael
Get well soon, Dan. The holidays just aren’t the same without u outpointing the imposters in red suits stealing presents from our stockings (et money from our paychecks). Eye understand Dick Thornburgh will be sending u a dozen wilted roses. Chrs. Snyder-hc (Los Angeles)
Dan—we are pulling for you to get well real soon. You can do it. We know you are a fighter and the best is yet to be for good journalists like you. Thomas-whu (Helen Thomas, White House)
I’m so sorry to hear you’re sick, Dan. I hope you get to feeling better real soon. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers. Btw, I’m leaving UPI at the end of this week to join a trade magazine. I’ll never forget the “glory days” of the super metro desk. Please take care of yourself, and best wishes for the holidays. Cheers. Craig-wab
Dan: a hospital is NO place to be on Christmas Eve and NO place for a battler like you. I know you can—and are—fighting to get well. We’re counting on it. I expect to be hearing Dan stories again soon. Happy holidays. Chrs. Geimann.
Rosso-wa
Please tell Dan that all of us here in Detroit are thinking of him. Thnx. Mead-du
Carmichael-hospital
Hey Dan, pls get well quick. The hospital is no place to be during these holidays. There’s no chimney for Santa to climb down to bring you presents, or does he use elevators in wa. Rgds from bh’s (Boston’s) Haskell, cafarell, reed, klinger, radsen, and soon-to-return ross
Haskell-bh
Carmichael, sorry you’ll be in the hospital during the holidays, but I hope at least the nurses who are treating you are better looking than that fat guy dressed in red who comes by. Get well soon. Chrs. Sielicki-tl (Tallahassee)
Just before Christmas, I visited Dan at the hospital. Former Unipresser Anne Saker was by his side as she had been through most of his illness.
Dan was propped up in his bed in a private room. He had a large mask that almost covered his face through which he was fed oxygen. His voice was thin as it came through the mask. But his spirits were high. I met his parents, Margaret and Ned Carmichael. They too were trying to put a brave face on Dan’s condition.
Dan had a book beside his bed. He asked me to sign it and write something in it that reflected my memories of him as a person and a Unipresser.
I don’t remember exactly what I wrote. I was caught by surprise and I vacillated between being straight and serious or to try to be light and humorous. I think I did a little of both.
I remembered how he could go into the field to cover breaking news and dictate a flawless lead to an ongoing story, even telling me where to pick up into the old story.
I also remember his claxon horn alert when management came into the newsroom: “AWHOOGA AWHOOGA AWHOOGA, Suits Alert! Suits Alert!”
Dan told me he wanted his parents to have memories of him from his colleagues.
When I was leaving, he asked for my hand and, as I stood beside his bed and tried to look beyond the large plastic mask covering his face, he said, “I love you.”
On Dec. 30, 1991, I sent the following
All:
Just talked with Dan Carmichael, who has been moved from the intensive care unit where he had been since last Tuesday battling pneumonia. Dan told me: “I am doing a hell of a lot better. I’m going to make it and I’m really kind of delighted.”
Dan then asked that I relay to all the following message:
unipressers:
I have been profoundly moved and energized by the phone calls and messages and cards that I have received from all around the world during my recent hospitalization. I’m a very fortunate man to have so many friends at UPI who remember me and care about me. I’m also lucky to be alive and for that I’m also extraordinarily grateful. When I first checked into the hospital, I was told by the top three infectious disease experts that I would be lucky to live 72 hours. Since then they have come in with smiles on their faces each day, marveling at my progress and telling me that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen such a fighter. I have a long, tough period of recuperation ahead. I remain very weak. But I shrink not one iota from this, the biggest battle of my life.
The love and respect that current and former Unipressers have expressed to me has gone a long way toward pulling me through. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I still would like to hear from you, particularly in writing because I must limit my visits in order to conserve my energy. Best of luck to all of you and I would appreciate your prayers.
On Jan. 9, 1992:
All
Dan Carmichael is back in intensive care in Jefferson hospital. I called this ayem but a nurse, after talking with Dan, said he asked her to tell me that he was too tired to talk to me, but that he is improving but still very weak. Keep those cards and letters flowing.
Rosso-wa
Jan. 14, 1992
All
The latest on Dan Carmichael: talked with former wa unipresser anne saker this ayem who said she called couple days ago. She was told that his oxygen intake has been increased and doctors are discouraging calls and visits to allow Dan to conserve energy. But please keep those cards and letters coming. He really appreciates them and they lift his spirits.
Jan. 17, 1992
Unipressers
Just called the hospital and the news about Dan Carmichael is not good. The nurse at the intensive care unit said he is “stable but very critical. He is not doing real well at the moment.” She said Dan is “sort of hanging in there,” but he has not made a turn-around. He is experiencing “lots of respiratory distress” and is fighting his oxygen mask, which he has worn since he entered the hospital before Christmas. “it may be a matter of time before he just wants to be comfortable,” she said.
Jan. 19, 1992, 1:18 p.m.
All
Sad to report that long-time staffer Dan Carmichael died today with pneumonia at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Alexandria, Va. We will advise later time of funeral arrangements.
Bater-ntl
Carmichael-obit
Dan Carmichael, journalist and union activist, dies
WASHINGTON (UPI) – Dan Carmichael, a veteran United Press International reporter based in Washington and a long-time union activist, died Sunday after a brief illness. He was 38.
Carmichael died of AIDS-related pneumonia at Jefferson Hospital in Alexandria, Va.
He served for a decade as a national officer of the Wire Service Guild, representing employees of The Associated Press and United Press International.
Carmichael’s last assignment at UPI, which he left in November, was covering the Justice Department. He joined UPI in Honolulu in 1971 and worked at the news service’s Dallas and New York bureaus before transferring in 1983 to Washington, where he also covered the Labor Department.
“He was incredibly diligent and hard working, always trying to dig out the truth. He used those same qualities in fighting his disease right up until he died,” said David Wiessler, former Washington bureau chief at UPI.
Carmichael was secretary-treasurer of the Wire Service Guild for eight years and helped negotiate three national contracts for members at UPI, among them a 1983 pact that included “agency shop” language requiring all union-covered employees to pay dues, a long-sought measure virtually unheard of in the news industry.
When UPI declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1985, Carmichael had a key role in protecting the interests of UPI employees in federal court, and he was instrumental in the sale of the company to Mexican publisher Mario Vasquez Rana, who spent millions propping up the international news agency.
“The Guild’s efforts were headed by a team. Carmichael was a starter and a finisher. He played offense and defense. He used the written word to gouge the company players and frustrate what appeared to be ‘Hail Mary’ efforts to turn around the company on the wallets of the employees,” said Bill Morrissey, WSG president during the bankruptcy.
“Dan was proud of his role and once described himself as ‘the son of a bitch hitman’ for a reporters’ union,” Morrissey said.
Born Sept. 24, 1953, in Melbourne, Australia, Carmichael spent his childhood in Alice Springs, Northern Territories. The family moved to Hawaii in 1963 and Carmichael, a U.S. citizen, attended the University of Hawaii, receiving his bachelor of arts degree in American studies in 1975.
He began his journalism career while in high school. One of his first major stories for UPI was the private burial of aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1974. After moving to UPI’s Dallas bureau, Carmichael became involved in the legal battle over the exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
Carmichael, accompanied by Oswald’s wife Marina, was the only reporter present when the grave was opened in 1981.
He also covered the demise of Braniff airline and investigated the role American Airlines had in its competitor’s collapse.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
All: This Is My Last Day - Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
The 1990 35 percent pay cut debate
In 1990, the farewell messages were interrupted — but not halted — by an energetic debate over whether the employees should accept another pay cut requested by the company. Six years earlier, in 1984, the company hit us with a 25 percent pay cut and the layoff of 200 employees. At the time, management had told us that conditions were so bad that the company would have to lay off 300 employees and slash salaries by 10 percent. This time, the company was seeking a 35 percent pay cut for 90 days, saying it was the only way UPI would survive and once we were in better condition we would recoup what we gave up. The company was asking us to “vote for seemingly instant death or for yet another chance at life.” The company also stated that it had at least six possible buyers of all or parts of UPI.
UPI had buttons made sporting the UPI logo to advertise the company. The guild members had buttons of their own. One read: HIRE THEM CHEAP. USE THEM UP. THROW THEM OUT. Another showed Wire Service Guild loyalty: WSG HERE TO STAY. UPI. And another read: Undaunted Proud Insulted. The guild had voted one strike in the company's history. That was in the spring of 1974. It lasted 23 days.
The internal message wire became a forum for Unipressers from all ranks to express their views on the matter. No punches were pulled.
Unipressers:
In the next few days, those of you that are members in good standing of the Wire Service Guild will be receiving ballots for the most important vote in UPI’s history.
The company — with the union now agreeing to submit the request to you — is asking union-covered employees to assume a temporary wage reduction of 35 percent for a period of three months so that, during that period, we may operate UPI on revenue solely from outside the Infotechnology family. You know, of course, that exempt employees already took the same cut as of this past Sunday, and that they also lost their rights to notice and severance pay under company policy, something we are not asking from Guild-covered employees.
In the next few days, I will be traveling to UPI bureaus around the country to speak to the greatest possible number of Unipressers to try to explain the issues in the yes-or-no vote and to address your concerns. Because of the time constraints, I will not be able to reach all of you, so I want to provide a few thoughts in advance.
A “no” vote to the company’s request will simply mean that after Nov. 16, 1990, when the ballots are counted, we cannot ensure that we will have enough cash on hand to meet the payroll and other life-and-death obligations for the next two weeks. Therefore, we will have to take the once unthinkable step of putting UPI into liquidation. In such a scenario, it is virtually certain that there will be no assets left to satisfy obligations such as severance pay, because we all know UPI is a franchise service company, not an enterprise that has acquired physical assets over the years. It means we will not have time or opportunity to pursue to the fullest the possibilities that have arisen to find a new owner for UPI that understands our tradition and values our work product.
Your “yes” vote doesn’t guarantee UPI will be successfully sold. The only thing it guarantees is that we will be able to take the process to its conclusion, giving us vital breathing room to find the best possible home for UPI.
I realize full well it’s an impossible choice. We’re asking you to vote for seemingly instant death or for yet another chance at life, but no one can assess those chances at this moment. Meanwhile, engaging in public speculation as to the likelihood of any sale prospect and the desirability of various potential buyers is the best way to make sure that NO deal can ever be struck.
I understand that you’re probably angry. It’s a natural reaction for us who have emotionally invested so much into UPI to vent our frustrations and to feel that it’s got to be somebody’s fault. Those of you who have been around a long time may feel that it’s all the fault of Scripps-Howard, people who tried valiantly to honor the tradition of UPI founder E. W. Scripps, the best way they knew how — leaving the stewardship of UPI only to in-house management.
Some may feel it was all the fault of Doug Ruhe and Bill Geissler, who tried to do the best they could. Doug is selling jewelry in Connecticut and Bill is about to go down for the third time in his life in a business venture. They have paid a great deal.
Mario Vasquez Rana is back in Mexico where he knows how to run his business, after pumping more than $50 million of his personal money into UPI.
Earl Brian did the best he could to fit UPI into a grand information strategy and lost operating control of his empire in a chain of unfortunate events. The financial restructuring team of Alan Hirschfield and Allan Tessler are left with no choice but to mandate that the operating companies come immediately to cash flow self-sufficiency in order to buy the time to find a purchaser.
UPI in its last few decades never had a real chance at taking its rightful place among the successful giants of the growing information industry. It is up to us now to make sure we get a real chance.
I believe we share a dedication to the future of UPI. For my part, after 22 years as a Unipresser, I will not rest until this struggle is settled. On behalf of UPI, I ask your support and pledge continued efforts to be worthy of it.
Pieter VanBennekom
Executive Vice President
5 Nov. 1990
Coincidentally, the following moved on the UPI wire the day before VanBennekom’s plea:
iraq-paycuts 11-4
Arafat orders pay cuts for PLO bureaucrats, fighters
CAIRO (UPI) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat ordered his officials and troops Sunday to take cuts in pay of up to 30 percent to compensate for the halt in Gulf Arab aid to the organization, Cairo Radio said.
waforn
eye note the Palestinians are only getting 30 percent pay cut. how do we join their union? Chiz.
Schweisberg-beijing
The next day an anonymous writer produced the following attempt at humor, which didn’t make the wire, but did the rounds of the Washington newsroom
WASHINGTON, Nov 5 -- United Press international today unveiled a new wave of action designed to bring the troubled wire service to cash self-sufficiency.
UPI 2001, as the new program is known, goes beyond previous policies, because, UPI spokesman Milt Capps explains, "our previous actions apparently were not stern enough."
This time UPI is cutting staff in half, reducing the length of stories to 150 words, and relying more heavily on outside sources for news.
"Basically we will rewrite CNN," Capps said.
In addition, hearing rumblings that Wire Service Guild personnel might not vote to accept pay cuts, UPI is making a stronger threat than before if this happens.
"Originally, we said that we would declare Chapter 11," Capps said. "But many employees enjoyed our previous bankruptcy and remember, the judge in that receivership ordered the company to keep operating and pay salaries before other bills."
Accordingly, the spokesman announced, "we are now saying that if employees do not vote to accept pay cuts we will send Ann Kott to visit each of them in person!"
Similarly, since clients have responded less than enthusiastically to calls for them to pay higher fees for reduced services, "We are now saying that if they do not pay more, we will shoot Helen Thomas!"
All
Once more into the breach. I hope and pray that all Unipressers will vote to give UPI another chance to survive. I have never lost faith that we could make a comeback and I know the sacrifices everyone is being asked to make are very tough. But I also know that none of us want news agency journalism to be a monopoly in this country. We have never let the UPI down in our work or dedication. I am appealing to all to vote to keep us in business. The alternative would be a tragedy. Thomas-wa (Helen Thomas, UPI White House bureau chief)
All
A voice from overseas folks: eye’m not affected by tt 35 percent cut, but volunteering myself for tt. If there is need, eye’m also willing to sacrifice my paycheck for a month. Let’s save UPI. Let’s not let a great tradition of journalism die. Otherwise, next generation will never forgive us for letting down UPI — a company for which we hv worked so hard and a company tt has given us so much. Eye hv met so many local staffers, stringers overseas and all of them want UPI to survive. Let’s have faith, faith, faith, faith. Rgds.
Mishra-mexico city
All
Say no to the pay cuts. Enough is enough already.
We’re not signing the death warrant to UPI
We’re not putting the last nail to the coffin.
Goddamn it. They have bled us to death for years and now they’re trying to tell us that it’s up to u and me to save the company.
We have done our shares for veterans, you should be proud of the illustrious careers for the young turks, move on from this magnificent chapter of our lives
Chrs
Hai-do-ktp (Albany pictures)
All
I am echoing my colleague Bill Harwood’s message. Suicide is not painless. I possess no false illusions about UPI’s future. But a simple call this morning to my unemployment office provided me a sobering dose of recession economics. A gamble on UPI’s future is, in my opinion, preferable in the short-term than a long wait in an unemployment line for about $225 a week of taxable income. I will only say that ballot decisions should be based on facts, not on emotion. Best wishes to all.
Navias-mh (Miami)
Navias
U guys down in fla got it made. In virginny, it tops out at $178/wk.
Grant-rv (Richmond)
All
Since we seem to be having a flurry of First Amendment writing today let me add a few thoughts for what they are worth. And this is from someone who came into this place back in 1966. The only way I can ask us to keep UPI on life support any longer are the following:
1. no employee is paid more than top scale for the duration of the crisis. And I mean no one. If we’re all going to be in this sinking lifeboat together then we should truly be in it. Nono favorite deals for consultants, buddies, old friends, or anyone else. Nono cushy expense accounts, etc. let’s even this playing field now, once and for all. It is about time all of the top managers get down to the bomb shelter with the rest of us. And I don’t mean the middle managers who have faithfully helped the rank and file hold the place together all these years. It’s put up or shut up time, folks.
2. if there is to be any pay cut it is to be considered exactly as what it is, a loan from the employees to UPI. And it is to be repaid, and I mean repaid, as the first item of any proceeds from a sale. None of this “cooking the books” accounting, please. Up front and all in one piece. Everyone else can hard-scramble for their share of whatever pie is found, but the employees are going to be first in line. After all, we are the ones who are going to have to tell our families why the holidays are going to be less festive then they have been in the past. If you’re unable to accept these two items, then at least let us go out in the same style that has always represented UNIpress. Honor, dignity, heads held high, pencils sharpened and ready for the use, and more honesty than the next person. chris graham, uprfin (national radio, Chicago, financial)
all
gee, there must be an election the way the campaigning on the msg (message) wire is rolling. Eye hesitated to do this, but graham-uprfin’s msg inspired me. Eye urge all of you to read it.
Eye can only say eye wholeheartedly agree with his msg in total. To say that the guild employees’ fingers are on the trigger is completely unfair to those out there in the countryside who have worked many extra hours for free, overlooked expenses, differentials, suffered medical cuts et payment delays, holiday cuts, vacation cuts, additional workload, having our work turned over to stringers, etc, etc, etc. If all of these concessions made no difference, why shud the next concession be any different? In all honesty, what motivated us in the idealistic sense to take a pay cut in ’84 is not there today. Eyem sure eye don’t have to spell it out. Eye do not like being put in the position of executioner, unless there are others with UPI — from top down — who will make the same sacrifices.
Rgds-paul-wasports (Washington sports)
Navias
Fyi, unemployment in the District of Columbia is $291 a week — which makes UPI pay cut look a lot less attractive. P.S. payments come via mail.
Danderson-wa
All
To my dear colleagues, union members and non-union members: dignity is a 7 letter word, which my kids can’t eat. The only reason to vote “no” on the 35-percent pay cut is if you believe the top management at UPI is telling a lie about the situation … and given the track record there is a strong chance of that. However, if you would like a couple more weeks to look for work elsewhere, if you would like to use all the means at your disposal to do that, and if are interested in putting off your own creditors a few more weeks, then your best interests are served with a “yes” vote. Just weigh the options while looking at this with a logical eye, rather than a “take this job and shove it” emotional eye. I pay union dues, although this union has done little over the years. In fact, it’s ironic that the union is taking a “no” vote stance now. It’s getting tough about two years too late.
Brill-hca (Los Angeles audio)
All
As long as the msg wire is being used to promote 35 percent pay cut plan, eye would like to say, Unipressers have repeatedly given up economic benefits in past efforts to bail out the company. Nothing has changed except the monetary position of employees — for the worse. If the current situation is so bad Chapter 7 was a real possibility by wed. then 35 percent pay cuts won’t save us. We earn our pay and should maintain every penny. Our jobs are not hobbies, they are hard work and deserve compensation.
Maclean-sxc (San Francisco)
All
We’re all loyal unipressers. We all take pride in the tradition of journalism that is UPI. And we all have worked hard under skeleton staffing, long, often unpaid hours and no real recognition for our efforts … except givebacks.
We’ve had cuts in pay, benefits and staff time and time again with no positive results.
We’re asked to sympathize with previous owners whose efforts to keep us afloat were often shady and left us with nothing but less staff, less wages and more work.
Now — when we have the best picture yet of UPI’s financial condition, when we have lost so many clients we’re hardly regarded as a serious contender — we are asked to give again. 35 percent. With no promise of a real future. With no promise of getting that 35 percent back again.
I love this place, but I think we’ve given enough. And we’ve had nothing in return except anxiety, uncertainty and false promises.
I think we should all vote in our own long-term financial interests because that is what is really at stake. The fate of the company seems — in every scenario — out of our hands.
Rgds, Wilson-bh (Boston)
Unipressers
I just can’t let it go.
When I walked out of the bureau yesterday afternoon, I was full of anger that there are those who are threatening to liquidate “this thing of ours.” My mind was to vote against the salary cutback; let them shut us down and end the pain and let us all get on with the rest of our lives. My resolve was totally supported by my family.
After 30 years, I was told it was time to get out, find something else, make some money for a change.
I considered the choices: unemployment, going over to rox (the Associated Press) (uggh), working for a daily, p-r, the ski business, tourism, making furniture, painting, etc. I am confident that somewhere, somehow, I could survive.
I considered what brought me into UPI in the first place. They are the same reasons why you all have stayed despite repeated attacks on our paychecks. Those reasons are still valid, perhaps even more so.
Everyone has to make a choice based on their own needs and beliefs.
Our company may indeed come to an end in the very near future.
Our company may yet survive.
Whatever the outcome of this current crisis, so be it.
I remain dedicated to trying to save UPI. I cannot bring myself to vote no on the pay cut, as painful as that may be. Our union leaders urge us to reject the pay cut. It is NOT their company.
UPI must survive.
Rgds
Haskell-bh (Boston)
All
Spurred on by Dave Haskell-bh’s poignant and sincere missive, allow me to think out loud. I too am angry. How many times are we going to pay the price only to find out we have to pay it again, only steeper? I don’t know. We don’t know. “They” don’t know. This year has been extremely painful as we have said goodbye (not goodby or good-bye — stylebook page 70) to many friends, many of whom were forced to pay a much stiffer price. Simple math will not provide a solution. Weighing the difference between unemployment checks and staying the course with a 35 percent pay cut doesn’t provide much incentive either way. The only alternative left is to take unemployment while searching for another job, or bring in about the same and try one more time to breathe life into this company. I tend to side with Dave, but I’ll argue with myself right up to the moment I have to make the decision.
Rosso-wa
Haskell-bh
ii. eye’m with u: voting “yes” fer the same reasons.
Dias-nxf
Haskell-bh
You and a few others have made my day. I felt the same way as you did. Fuck the union, (excuse the French) but they do not give one good shit what happens to us as long as they continue to draw their blood from us.
I listened to keane’s (wire service union president) bull on the phone monday, and told him to go and shoot his mouth off at his new wife at his new house.
I am not going to let somebody else shoot my family at UPI. If we have to die, let’s die with a smile on our face and take the 35 percent less. 65 percent is a lot better than unemployment for the holidays. You got my yes
Schnaue-nxf (New York financial)
Unipressers
Lets keep talking to each other about this decision … good, bad, otherwise … and we’ll come to the right decision.
Eye don’t know if UPI should survive or not … my heart fights on valiantly with my head today. My head keeps insisting my heart consider …
1. if we approve, are we saving UPI? Or are we saving “something” to sell for “somebody” to make a profit and get out of a whole mess of trouble?
2. given the fact UPI’s nuked so many, many bureaus and states is there a UPI to save??? Is the damage too severe to be Undone? What exactly is UPI right now?
3. we have NO guarantees a sale is the salvation of UPI. It could just as easily spell the end.
4. are we being told the whole truth … there are so many Unanswers. Do not forget the hassle over the last contract.
I agree with rosso-graham … wholeheartedly. Nobody hates the idea of having a ROX-world more than eye. But nobody likes being played for a fool … so, if we’re going to put up our Christmas presents, our rent, our car payments, our food budget and everything else that this cut entails … lets make sure we’re going to come out of this with more than bad memories. Let’s demand more than just a casual “maybe.”
Chrs-zyduck-hx (Chicago)
All
I want UPI to survive et I am willing to bite the bullet once more. But the operative word here is “UPI”—not the bastard child it has been turned into. I think the guild should issue a statement in support of the pay cuts—with the proviso that any 9th floor denizen associated with “I” content and “journalistic overlay” (ie vanbennekom et al) immediately resign at conclusion of the vote. I refuse to have my vote interpreted as support for his-their ethical corruption. Fasbinder-hc (Los Angeles)
All
Eye’m voting yes, but tt shudnt come as a surprise to those of u who already kno how insane me et the biker babe truly are. After all, we jes got married on Halloween knoing full well wot cud be coming down the pike alongside tt 18-wheeler. So maybe it’ll mean me postponing buying tt new 8-HP stihl chainsaw; the biker babe’s got plenty of spike heels eneway. Eye aint trying to convince enebody wot to do; eye jes foloing my own star toward wotever lies ahead.
What ho!
Dias-nxf
Unipressers
You may have noticed that the message traffic the past two days on the proposed 35 percent wage cut for guild-covered employees has been decidedly in favor of a “yes” vote. While I appreciate the feelings outlined by some of my colleagues, I think the message wire is an inappropriate forum for discussing this issue. The reason is simple: those who might be in the “no” camp may feel they risk being penalized by management or criticized by their colleagues if they state their position for all to see. The message traffic, therefore, would tend to lean toward the management position. As journalists, we are all interested in fairness. I humbly suggest that as a professional courtesy such comments be kept off the message wire. This is just my opinion. I want UPI to survive as much as the next person, but ultimately this vote is a personal decision that should not be clouded by unbalanced appeals over our internal mailbox. There are other forums for debating the important arguments on both sides of this issue. Besides, we have work to do. Rgds, snyder-wa
All
Eye intend to vote no to the pay cut and eye’m doing it with economic realities in mind. Eye don’t want to “just leave” as some have suggested because eye’d like to at least have unemployment while eye look for other work. But eye do have some pride and refuse to willingly lean over and get kicked again by a management that has repeatedly lied to us. If they really intend to liquidate why did they refuse during eight hours of negotiations to compromise with the union? Eye also don’t enjoy the thought of us taking yet another bite so that yet another management team can walk off with the money in their pockets while leaving our company devastated. Eye’m particularly upset by tuesday’s mistaken (we meant to do it a week later) firing of Billy Ferguson. Do we really want to have dealings with a group of people who axe someone several months from retirement with no severance … when just one week ago he would have had something in the neighborhood of a year? Wherez our pride? Kate Gibson-upr
Haskell-bh
Kate not here. But yes they did. By puralator, then called him and said sorry, you’re not fired till next week. Guess what he told them. Rgds-mcnally-upr
Mcnally-upr
I certainly hope billy gave them an earful. Yda I msgd around my reasons for voting yes, but after hearing this and others express their opinions, I’m reconsidering my position. Rgds. Haskell-bh
Haskell-bh
I think you should. A yes vote is a vote to save infotech, not UPI. Rgds. Mcnally-upr
Unipressers
An informed decision about wages and unemployment benefits is important if you are to cast an informed vote in the upcoming election.
The first thing you might do is call your state unemployment agency and ask what your benefits would be if UPI goes under. Find out how long you would receive those benefits and if you get more for dependents.
Compare that figure with 65 percent of your current salary. Ask yourself if you would be willing to show up and work for 40 hours a week for the difference between the two or whether you would prefer to let the government subsidize your search for alternate employment. Also ask yourself what kind of atmosphere you would be working in for those 40 hours a week.
UPI has had no problem firing managers with 40 years of experience without severance pay. Is this a company that deserves your loyalty? Think about it carefully. Vote boldly, but not out of fear. Mvw-wap
All
If you need to know, and according to bankruptcy lawyer:
Chapter 7 gives a company the option to file for liquidation proceedings or can be forced into liquidation by its creditors when bills remain unpaid for more than 90 days.
Many creditors, however, are reluctant to quickly push for a chapter 7 filing with companies such as UPI which have virtually no assets except their receivables.
Under the proceedings, management surrenders total control of the company to a bankruptcy court trustee whose main task is to list assets and claims.
As usual, first in line is the IRS.
Then comes the secured creditors, which in this case could include Infotech, if the parent company, as previously said, has in fact lent money to UPI under a secured debt structure.
Follows priority creditors, mainly the employees owed any money for work already done, expenses, medical claims, benefits, vacations, etc. …
Payments to employees, however, are prorated on whatever money the trustee can collect or raise TO A MAXIMUM OF $2,000 per employee, regardless of the amount owed to any individual employee.
Chapter 7 benefits a company to the extent that it wipes out its liabilities, while the ones picking up the loss are the creditors and employees.
In the particular case of a parent company with little prospects of selling its assets for a good price, chapter 7 is a better deal, because not filing for chapter 7 would mean the company remains liable for what it owes and could also be the subject of various suits or class actions.
Clary-nxf
All
A quick prayer for our folks overseas and a quicker vote no. there are differences between excuses and reasons, and reasons for a no abound.
Anybody else see comparisons with S&L bailouts? We’ve got charges of stock fraud, embezzlement and cooked books (see Barrons) from a company tt has a higher priority than us when it comes to getting chapter 7 money. Now we’re being asked to balance books we’re not allowed to see.
Anybody else think it sounds like our money is needed but we aren’t? we’ve had no input on how this company is scaled back (wouldn’t pay cuts have made more sense than sending half our talent base out the door?) and in return for a yes vote, we get no say in how the company is run or how it is sold. We don’t get priority for repayment. We don’t get stock. We get a chance a buyer can be found, but let me ask you this — what does this company have to sell besides a name and a computer system, and how does a pay cut affect the value of those items in any way?
If there’s a buyer, sell it. If there’s no buyer, liquidate it. The pay cut does more than buy us time to look for work. It buys Infotech time to get a higher price, a price at our expense.
Eye love this old dog et thru it all it’s been a great nine years. But it’s also 584 years old in dog years, and even when you love those old hounds, sometimes you gotta put ‘em down.
my tnx to management for letting these msgs fly freely the last few days. Rgds et gud news to you.
Gl-marshall-rv
Unipressers
Not surprisingly, emotions are running high over the latest management offer to gouge employees’ paychecks. But consider one or two stubborn facts.
1. management claims there are several expressions of interest in UPI. Do you believe ‘em? I don’t. banks all across America think they’re a bum risk, and for good reason. The most likely eventuality, even WITH the pay cut, is that UPI will still be liquidated. And Unipressers will need every bit of cash they can get their hands on between now and then to carry us and our families through the job search.
2. there IS a rumored offer of $10 million for the UPI name alone, which may or may not be true, but which could mean discarding all of us. If something like that happens in a situation other than Chapter 7, we would want our severance at its CURRENT level, not at 65 percent. Even in the event of Chapter 7, there are provisions in the tax law to write off compensation you should have received but didn’t. It’s another reason to keep your rate of compensation as high as possible.
3. Management says the pay cut would last only 90 days. Ridiculous. If by some miracle someone actually does buy UPI, do you REALLY think they’re going to immediately boost salaries by 35 percent?
4. The emotional issues of two-agency journalism (you know; the old “we’re-needed-to-keep-ROX-honest”) and the survival of what once was a great journalistic institution (yeah, us) were decided some time ago. The publishers and broadcasters who left us in droves stated quite clearly that our services are NOT needed; and the idea that the kind of coverage to which we’ve been reduced would cause the slightest concern to the AP is laughable.
5. Finally, let’s be realistic. UPI is not a shrine. It’s a business. We’re supposed to work here, not worship here. We are dedicated professionals who have spent years being the targets of gross personal and professional insults by our employers, who have grown weary of the constant battle to maintain life support systems that are continuously ripped away by UPI’s callous and inept owners. Enough is enough. Vote against the pay cut.
Small-waradio
Unipressers
I’m not sure I want to get involved in all this hand-wringing over the upcoming vote, but I do believe your vote should be informed. Bill Small’s note about tax benefits could be misleading. According to a tax expert — Wally Head, the chief of tax practice at Arthur Anderson and co. — there’s no way to deduct severance pay you didn’t receive from income you did receive. The provisions are for deductions of legitimate expenses uncompensated as a result of bankruptcy, and in some cases for compensation packages funded in part by the beneficiary. The provisions also would apply if a severance settlement was declared as a lump sum for tax purposes and for some reason paid out over time — and the full payment was not made. But he could think of no circumstances where those provisions would apply in our case.
Also, the note related, you should remember that unemployment benefits are taxable. There will be no withholding, but the payments must be declared as income and are taxed as ordinary income. I forgot to ask about social security taxes but will presume that it wouldn’t apply, as we’ve probably already paid in more than enuf to cover what our income would be if we folded and lived out the rest of the year on unemployment. In fact, I suspect there mite be some tax credit for overpayment of social security but can’t be sure. Cheers. Lesar-hxf
All
To those of you who want to reject the pay cut (and I count myself), there may be an alternative. From what we’ve been able to determine in BH, staffers in Massachusetts are free to quit and still collect unemployment, even if the pay cut is accepted voluntarily, because the loss of 35 percent of your pay is considered a major change in your working conditions. I suspect the rule is the same in many of the states where we still have bureaus.
In such states, that would allow staffers who have had it with UPI and its empty promises the freedom to accept the pay cut, or at least abstain from voting, and then leave and start looking full-time for another job if they so wish.
It would also allow the people who need to stay on for financial reasons, at least for a while, to do so.
I understand everyone’s anger and disgust with the company, but personally I find it hard to vote to shut UPI down immediately — if indeed that is what a rejection would do — when there are so many who desperately need to hang on for a few more months in hopes of finding another job.
Especially when there may be an alternative in your state. At least, I think it’s worth checking into.
In the end, I guess I would only urge that we vote in our own financial interests and those of our colleagues, and not allow our rightful rage at the Bozos who got UPI into this mess to lead us into doing something which might only cause more harm to ourselves or those we’ve worked with for so many years. I realize it’s a no-win situation, but I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Best regards to all
Reed-bh
Graham-upr
Eye endorse ur point one. They put it into effect et eye’ll vote for tt sucker. It wasn’t my writing tt got us into trouble, it was their management. A 35 percent pay cut from $10 leaves them with $6.50. a 35 percent pay cut from $1 leaves us with 65 cents. Tt’s the difference between belt tightening and real hardship. If there are people with contracts who are not not taking the cuts, their names should be on the msg wire so we will kno who they are. If u haven’t spoken to the guild about this, do so. Have them open talks immediately. After all, u have come up with a way to convince the most skeptical of us tt mgt mite be willing to share the pain. Tnx for thinking of it. Rgds-sab-miller-sxr
All
Voting to save UPI at the expense of our paychecks is not a realistic proposition. Those of you who have been around UPI for a long time should know that it already has ceased to exist. Ask yourself if you still feel like you are providing clients with what they need. Are you proud of the compromises you are forced to make daily? It is a real tragedy to have owners who try to lay the fate of a once-great company on the desks of those who have kept it going all these difficult years. UPI still exists only because its owners want to make one more withdrawal from the company bank by trying to dump UPI off on some other owner. Haven’t we had enough? UPI already is lost. It has been ruined by years of mismanagement and gouging. Let’s preserve our dignity and self respect by not allowing ourselves to be raped again by this set of owners, and the next if there are to be more.
Voting for these pay cuts may gain you a few more weeks of pay, or it may get you many more months of misery. In the meantime, it will be more and more embarrassing for UPI and the memory of what it once was. Follow the example of howard beal and say “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”
Rgds. Mcnally-upr
Sab-miller-sxr
ii. if the jerks who ran this place (past tense) into the ground don’t have the guts (read any other body part u want) to join the rest of us in the fireboat drill then to $?&_/** with them. Keep the faith. Keep in touch. Ur great.
$$$$
All
I recommend a vote to keep our “one-lung” news agency breathing for a few more months. I’d hate to be on the breadline at Christmas time. Let’s wait till valentine’s day to take the bullet! Delgiudice-wa
Unipressers
As I look at all these messages encouraging us to accept the 35 percent pay cut, I can only say that I have never seen so much affirmation of p.t. barnum’s wisdom in my life. When the horse dies, get off. Chrs et fond rgds. Schweers-ta (Tallahassee)
Unipressers
Now is the time to face reality and say no to the current salary proposal
Earl Brian and his management team hve bled this company for far too long and now we are being asked to finance his economic errors with our paychecks and our reputation.
All of us deserve better than this! Are times tough out there? You bet they are, but unemployment checks are better than nothing. In WA unemployment is worth close to $300 a week. New top scale would be about $400. is it worth it to labor in a company where morale will never be lower — if that’s possible — for not much more than $100 a week? I think not.
The old UPI died years ago — all that remains is people with talent and a management team that has no idea what a wire service is. They have squandered opportunities and make us a classic case study for the Harvard business school in how to mismanage an organization. Hold your heads up high and in words of Nancy Reagan, “just say no!”
Von wehrden-wap
All (who are left)
Eye’d like to add my two cents worth in support of a “yes” vote — not to take UPI on life support, but to keep those with no immediate job prospects warm a little longer this winter. Even if eye had a new job paying zillions a year all lined up (which eye don’t) eye could not press the button on my colleagues. the guild can’t endorse a 35 percent cut because it is a collective bargaining organization — and probably because it happens to be in contract negotiations with rox. Sure, there’s a slim chance UPI may survive; it has overcome some pretty incredible odds in the past. With all the recent layoffs, eye suppose the veterans who have helped keep this concern breathing will make the choice. But it makes absolutely no sense to sign the death warrant now. For those hell bent on voting ”no,” vote another way — leave.
Zverina-ducars (Detroit auto writer)
Allpoints
The following is not meant to interfere with anyone’s right to vote his/her will, or anger, or conscience in the upcoming guild ballot on whether to toss the wire another lifesaving line or the baby out with the bathwater. (there’s much anger on the message wires these days about the pickle we’re in — again — and I share it) no, this is meant only as a reminder to stateside staff from one on the international wires that: outside the continental united states there are score upon score of full-time staff — editors, correspondents, computer technicians, etc. — and score on score more stringers. They cannot vote. Outside the states, they’re outside the guild. How they would vote if they could, I cannot say. But from those who have talked with me on the matter, I get the impression they would vote for life support if they could (eye blv their pay already has been cut by 35 percent, without any vote, thank you very much). Some have phoned the I-slot. Others have messaged. One signed off tonight: “chinupkeepingly.” They show lots of pluck out there, and I thought all of us back here in the U.S. ought not forget them, whatever our feeling about the proposed cuts, about the wire. That’s all. Thnx et rgds. Miller-wai (Washington international)
Nov. 9, 1990
Unipressers:
i believe there are compelling reasons to reject the latest scheme by yet another UPI management – a 35 percent pay cut that will apply to most of us, but not to some of the senior managers who are its champions. the decision, to be sure, is very personal, as it should be, but i believe a reasoned, careful examination of the facts argues strongly for a "no" vote. there are at least five key reasons to vote "no."
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fairness
not everyone will take the 35 percent cut if it is approved. some senior UPI managers have been shifted off UPI's books, sparing them the pay cut. one of them reportedly includes anne kott, the labor relations aide who helped engineer many of our highly regressive contract provisions -- including only 10 days of sick leave a year, not a penny contributed to the union pension fund since 1987 and drastically reduced severance pay.
some foreign personnel also will not suffer the pay cuts, for legitimate legal reasons.
during a staff meeting in washington last week, pieter vanbennekom conceded there would be "some exceptions." what exceptions? well, he didn't say. just who is taking this pay cut anyway? and what are their salaries and job responsibilities?
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accountability
this pay cut proposal is being sold by the same failed, discredited senior management that has disembowled UPI, throwing hundreds of our colleagues out of work and closing bureaus in some 35 states. UPI is essentially unsaleable because of what they have done. this senior management has lurched from one bad idea to another, always claiming there was "a plan." in fact, the senior management has never produced a single consistent, cogent, sensible idea -- much less "a plan."
now, in an effort to save their own highly paid jobs, members of this senior management have spent a great deal of time, and UPI's money, trying to sell this pay cut. approval would certainly position them as "heroes" in the eyes of a new buyer. that may be fine for them, but should we use a significant portion or our pay checks to save the jobs of a failed management?
the guild has not even been allowed to see UPI's books. employees have no way of knowing the salaries of top executives -- or even if those salaries were quickly inflated in anticipation of the pay cut campaign.
i have also been disturbed by heavy-handed management lobbying for this scheme. i believe those managers, and UPI, may have federal legal problems because of how far they have gone, using UPI money, by interjecting themselves into a union vote. i anticipate exploring that issue in the near future with the appropriate federal agency.
i also believe this pay cut is a clever attempt to absolve the parent company, Infotechnology, of severance and other contingent liabilities related to a shutdown.
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pragmatism
i believe the only "buyers" for UPI are a few fringe "cherry-pickers" who want UPI's name and, perhaps, a few isolated assets. those assets do not include UPI's employees, in my opinion. at any rate, management's refusal to identify any "buyers" to employees or the union -- or to involve us in the process -- raises serious suspicions.
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something for nothing
the idea of a 25 percent pay cut in 1984 made sense. there was an organization to save and sell, not to mention almost 900 union jobs. the company has since been eviscerated. the 1984 wage-cut deal also contained legally binding incremental salary increases, in 5 percent segments, that culminated with a 5 percent pay increase.
employees got 6.5 percent of the stock of the parent corporation -- although management reneged and the stock was never turned over to unipressers. the union also got a significant package of concessions from the company that enabled it to ultimately become the most powerful part in federal court during the subsequent bankruptcy in 1985.
this time, the company offers nothing to employees in return for the pay cut. not a single guarantee or sign of good faith. UPI management even refused to allow employees on the board of directors to monitor the fairness and adequacy of attempts to find a buyer. why?
why does the senior management of this company want to wring more money out of the employees, without even a minimal stock guarantee in exchange? the stock would undoubtedly be worthless, but such a move would show a glimmer of good faith.
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deal only with a buyer
it is utter folly to give a 35 percent pay cut to a management on its way out. if a deal is to be made, it should be negotiated with a buyer, if there is one. otherwise, a new buyer will regard a 35 percent pay cut as a given -- and then demand more concessions.
why make two deals instead of one? why cut down your negotiating base? are you willing to take a 45 percent pay cut? a 50 percent pay cut? give up all vacation or severance pay?
regardless of your view, such decisions should be made on an informed basis. we all should know who the buyer is, what he has in store for UPI, and for us, and then make a decision based on those facts. we certainly should know, also, where all UPI's money went -- something reportedly being examined by the securities and exchange commission and at least one u.s. attorney.
a pay cut also is premature. because any sale of UPI is contingent on a new audit, we could take a pay cut and then find out the company cannot be sold under any circumstances.
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ultimately, you must make your own decision. there have been many eloquent messages on the wire on both sides. many of you have talked it over with your loved ones and will take that into account.
it is a personal choice and i urge you to consider my viewpoint carefully.
i have invested 20 years of my life in UPI -- 10 of them as secretary-treasurer of the guild -- although i eventually quit in disgust, warning publicly about many of the things that have since transpired with almost frightening accuracy.
i suggest that a vote for this pay cut is a new march down a never-ending trail -- that is, concessions inevitably beget more concessions and it will never end until there is nothing left in salaries or benefits.
sincerely, dan carmichael, washington
11-09-90
The Guild members voted by 62 percent to accept the pay cut. According to the Wire Service Guild, the pay cut reduced top-scale weekly salary from $690 to $448 ($17.25 to $11.20 per hour). First-year journalists' pay was cut from $360 to $234 a week ($9 to $5.85 per hour).
Dan Carmichael left the company shortly thereafter and shortly after that, he left his colleagues.
The 1990 35 percent pay cut debate
In 1990, the farewell messages were interrupted — but not halted — by an energetic debate over whether the employees should accept another pay cut requested by the company. Six years earlier, in 1984, the company hit us with a 25 percent pay cut and the layoff of 200 employees. At the time, management had told us that conditions were so bad that the company would have to lay off 300 employees and slash salaries by 10 percent. This time, the company was seeking a 35 percent pay cut for 90 days, saying it was the only way UPI would survive and once we were in better condition we would recoup what we gave up. The company was asking us to “vote for seemingly instant death or for yet another chance at life.” The company also stated that it had at least six possible buyers of all or parts of UPI.
UPI had buttons made sporting the UPI logo to advertise the company. The guild members had buttons of their own. One read: HIRE THEM CHEAP. USE THEM UP. THROW THEM OUT. Another showed Wire Service Guild loyalty: WSG HERE TO STAY. UPI. And another read: Undaunted Proud Insulted. The guild had voted one strike in the company's history. That was in the spring of 1974. It lasted 23 days.
The internal message wire became a forum for Unipressers from all ranks to express their views on the matter. No punches were pulled.
Unipressers:
In the next few days, those of you that are members in good standing of the Wire Service Guild will be receiving ballots for the most important vote in UPI’s history.
The company — with the union now agreeing to submit the request to you — is asking union-covered employees to assume a temporary wage reduction of 35 percent for a period of three months so that, during that period, we may operate UPI on revenue solely from outside the Infotechnology family. You know, of course, that exempt employees already took the same cut as of this past Sunday, and that they also lost their rights to notice and severance pay under company policy, something we are not asking from Guild-covered employees.
In the next few days, I will be traveling to UPI bureaus around the country to speak to the greatest possible number of Unipressers to try to explain the issues in the yes-or-no vote and to address your concerns. Because of the time constraints, I will not be able to reach all of you, so I want to provide a few thoughts in advance.
A “no” vote to the company’s request will simply mean that after Nov. 16, 1990, when the ballots are counted, we cannot ensure that we will have enough cash on hand to meet the payroll and other life-and-death obligations for the next two weeks. Therefore, we will have to take the once unthinkable step of putting UPI into liquidation. In such a scenario, it is virtually certain that there will be no assets left to satisfy obligations such as severance pay, because we all know UPI is a franchise service company, not an enterprise that has acquired physical assets over the years. It means we will not have time or opportunity to pursue to the fullest the possibilities that have arisen to find a new owner for UPI that understands our tradition and values our work product.
Your “yes” vote doesn’t guarantee UPI will be successfully sold. The only thing it guarantees is that we will be able to take the process to its conclusion, giving us vital breathing room to find the best possible home for UPI.
I realize full well it’s an impossible choice. We’re asking you to vote for seemingly instant death or for yet another chance at life, but no one can assess those chances at this moment. Meanwhile, engaging in public speculation as to the likelihood of any sale prospect and the desirability of various potential buyers is the best way to make sure that NO deal can ever be struck.
I understand that you’re probably angry. It’s a natural reaction for us who have emotionally invested so much into UPI to vent our frustrations and to feel that it’s got to be somebody’s fault. Those of you who have been around a long time may feel that it’s all the fault of Scripps-Howard, people who tried valiantly to honor the tradition of UPI founder E. W. Scripps, the best way they knew how — leaving the stewardship of UPI only to in-house management.
Some may feel it was all the fault of Doug Ruhe and Bill Geissler, who tried to do the best they could. Doug is selling jewelry in Connecticut and Bill is about to go down for the third time in his life in a business venture. They have paid a great deal.
Mario Vasquez Rana is back in Mexico where he knows how to run his business, after pumping more than $50 million of his personal money into UPI.
Earl Brian did the best he could to fit UPI into a grand information strategy and lost operating control of his empire in a chain of unfortunate events. The financial restructuring team of Alan Hirschfield and Allan Tessler are left with no choice but to mandate that the operating companies come immediately to cash flow self-sufficiency in order to buy the time to find a purchaser.
UPI in its last few decades never had a real chance at taking its rightful place among the successful giants of the growing information industry. It is up to us now to make sure we get a real chance.
I believe we share a dedication to the future of UPI. For my part, after 22 years as a Unipresser, I will not rest until this struggle is settled. On behalf of UPI, I ask your support and pledge continued efforts to be worthy of it.
Pieter VanBennekom
Executive Vice President
5 Nov. 1990
Coincidentally, the following moved on the UPI wire the day before VanBennekom’s plea:
iraq-paycuts 11-4
Arafat orders pay cuts for PLO bureaucrats, fighters
CAIRO (UPI) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat ordered his officials and troops Sunday to take cuts in pay of up to 30 percent to compensate for the halt in Gulf Arab aid to the organization, Cairo Radio said.
waforn
eye note the Palestinians are only getting 30 percent pay cut. how do we join their union? Chiz.
Schweisberg-beijing
The next day an anonymous writer produced the following attempt at humor, which didn’t make the wire, but did the rounds of the Washington newsroom
WASHINGTON, Nov 5 -- United Press international today unveiled a new wave of action designed to bring the troubled wire service to cash self-sufficiency.
UPI 2001, as the new program is known, goes beyond previous policies, because, UPI spokesman Milt Capps explains, "our previous actions apparently were not stern enough."
This time UPI is cutting staff in half, reducing the length of stories to 150 words, and relying more heavily on outside sources for news.
"Basically we will rewrite CNN," Capps said.
In addition, hearing rumblings that Wire Service Guild personnel might not vote to accept pay cuts, UPI is making a stronger threat than before if this happens.
"Originally, we said that we would declare Chapter 11," Capps said. "But many employees enjoyed our previous bankruptcy and remember, the judge in that receivership ordered the company to keep operating and pay salaries before other bills."
Accordingly, the spokesman announced, "we are now saying that if employees do not vote to accept pay cuts we will send Ann Kott to visit each of them in person!"
Similarly, since clients have responded less than enthusiastically to calls for them to pay higher fees for reduced services, "We are now saying that if they do not pay more, we will shoot Helen Thomas!"
All
Once more into the breach. I hope and pray that all Unipressers will vote to give UPI another chance to survive. I have never lost faith that we could make a comeback and I know the sacrifices everyone is being asked to make are very tough. But I also know that none of us want news agency journalism to be a monopoly in this country. We have never let the UPI down in our work or dedication. I am appealing to all to vote to keep us in business. The alternative would be a tragedy. Thomas-wa (Helen Thomas, UPI White House bureau chief)
All
A voice from overseas folks: eye’m not affected by tt 35 percent cut, but volunteering myself for tt. If there is need, eye’m also willing to sacrifice my paycheck for a month. Let’s save UPI. Let’s not let a great tradition of journalism die. Otherwise, next generation will never forgive us for letting down UPI — a company for which we hv worked so hard and a company tt has given us so much. Eye hv met so many local staffers, stringers overseas and all of them want UPI to survive. Let’s have faith, faith, faith, faith. Rgds.
Mishra-mexico city
All
Say no to the pay cuts. Enough is enough already.
We’re not signing the death warrant to UPI
We’re not putting the last nail to the coffin.
Goddamn it. They have bled us to death for years and now they’re trying to tell us that it’s up to u and me to save the company.
We have done our shares for veterans, you should be proud of the illustrious careers for the young turks, move on from this magnificent chapter of our lives
Chrs
Hai-do-ktp (Albany pictures)
All
I am echoing my colleague Bill Harwood’s message. Suicide is not painless. I possess no false illusions about UPI’s future. But a simple call this morning to my unemployment office provided me a sobering dose of recession economics. A gamble on UPI’s future is, in my opinion, preferable in the short-term than a long wait in an unemployment line for about $225 a week of taxable income. I will only say that ballot decisions should be based on facts, not on emotion. Best wishes to all.
Navias-mh (Miami)
Navias
U guys down in fla got it made. In virginny, it tops out at $178/wk.
Grant-rv (Richmond)
All
Since we seem to be having a flurry of First Amendment writing today let me add a few thoughts for what they are worth. And this is from someone who came into this place back in 1966. The only way I can ask us to keep UPI on life support any longer are the following:
1. no employee is paid more than top scale for the duration of the crisis. And I mean no one. If we’re all going to be in this sinking lifeboat together then we should truly be in it. Nono favorite deals for consultants, buddies, old friends, or anyone else. Nono cushy expense accounts, etc. let’s even this playing field now, once and for all. It is about time all of the top managers get down to the bomb shelter with the rest of us. And I don’t mean the middle managers who have faithfully helped the rank and file hold the place together all these years. It’s put up or shut up time, folks.
2. if there is to be any pay cut it is to be considered exactly as what it is, a loan from the employees to UPI. And it is to be repaid, and I mean repaid, as the first item of any proceeds from a sale. None of this “cooking the books” accounting, please. Up front and all in one piece. Everyone else can hard-scramble for their share of whatever pie is found, but the employees are going to be first in line. After all, we are the ones who are going to have to tell our families why the holidays are going to be less festive then they have been in the past. If you’re unable to accept these two items, then at least let us go out in the same style that has always represented UNIpress. Honor, dignity, heads held high, pencils sharpened and ready for the use, and more honesty than the next person. chris graham, uprfin (national radio, Chicago, financial)
all
gee, there must be an election the way the campaigning on the msg (message) wire is rolling. Eye hesitated to do this, but graham-uprfin’s msg inspired me. Eye urge all of you to read it.
Eye can only say eye wholeheartedly agree with his msg in total. To say that the guild employees’ fingers are on the trigger is completely unfair to those out there in the countryside who have worked many extra hours for free, overlooked expenses, differentials, suffered medical cuts et payment delays, holiday cuts, vacation cuts, additional workload, having our work turned over to stringers, etc, etc, etc. If all of these concessions made no difference, why shud the next concession be any different? In all honesty, what motivated us in the idealistic sense to take a pay cut in ’84 is not there today. Eyem sure eye don’t have to spell it out. Eye do not like being put in the position of executioner, unless there are others with UPI — from top down — who will make the same sacrifices.
Rgds-paul-wasports (Washington sports)
Navias
Fyi, unemployment in the District of Columbia is $291 a week — which makes UPI pay cut look a lot less attractive. P.S. payments come via mail.
Danderson-wa
All
To my dear colleagues, union members and non-union members: dignity is a 7 letter word, which my kids can’t eat. The only reason to vote “no” on the 35-percent pay cut is if you believe the top management at UPI is telling a lie about the situation … and given the track record there is a strong chance of that. However, if you would like a couple more weeks to look for work elsewhere, if you would like to use all the means at your disposal to do that, and if are interested in putting off your own creditors a few more weeks, then your best interests are served with a “yes” vote. Just weigh the options while looking at this with a logical eye, rather than a “take this job and shove it” emotional eye. I pay union dues, although this union has done little over the years. In fact, it’s ironic that the union is taking a “no” vote stance now. It’s getting tough about two years too late.
Brill-hca (Los Angeles audio)
All
As long as the msg wire is being used to promote 35 percent pay cut plan, eye would like to say, Unipressers have repeatedly given up economic benefits in past efforts to bail out the company. Nothing has changed except the monetary position of employees — for the worse. If the current situation is so bad Chapter 7 was a real possibility by wed. then 35 percent pay cuts won’t save us. We earn our pay and should maintain every penny. Our jobs are not hobbies, they are hard work and deserve compensation.
Maclean-sxc (San Francisco)
All
We’re all loyal unipressers. We all take pride in the tradition of journalism that is UPI. And we all have worked hard under skeleton staffing, long, often unpaid hours and no real recognition for our efforts … except givebacks.
We’ve had cuts in pay, benefits and staff time and time again with no positive results.
We’re asked to sympathize with previous owners whose efforts to keep us afloat were often shady and left us with nothing but less staff, less wages and more work.
Now — when we have the best picture yet of UPI’s financial condition, when we have lost so many clients we’re hardly regarded as a serious contender — we are asked to give again. 35 percent. With no promise of a real future. With no promise of getting that 35 percent back again.
I love this place, but I think we’ve given enough. And we’ve had nothing in return except anxiety, uncertainty and false promises.
I think we should all vote in our own long-term financial interests because that is what is really at stake. The fate of the company seems — in every scenario — out of our hands.
Rgds, Wilson-bh (Boston)
Unipressers
I just can’t let it go.
When I walked out of the bureau yesterday afternoon, I was full of anger that there are those who are threatening to liquidate “this thing of ours.” My mind was to vote against the salary cutback; let them shut us down and end the pain and let us all get on with the rest of our lives. My resolve was totally supported by my family.
After 30 years, I was told it was time to get out, find something else, make some money for a change.
I considered the choices: unemployment, going over to rox (the Associated Press) (uggh), working for a daily, p-r, the ski business, tourism, making furniture, painting, etc. I am confident that somewhere, somehow, I could survive.
I considered what brought me into UPI in the first place. They are the same reasons why you all have stayed despite repeated attacks on our paychecks. Those reasons are still valid, perhaps even more so.
Everyone has to make a choice based on their own needs and beliefs.
Our company may indeed come to an end in the very near future.
Our company may yet survive.
Whatever the outcome of this current crisis, so be it.
I remain dedicated to trying to save UPI. I cannot bring myself to vote no on the pay cut, as painful as that may be. Our union leaders urge us to reject the pay cut. It is NOT their company.
UPI must survive.
Rgds
Haskell-bh (Boston)
All
Spurred on by Dave Haskell-bh’s poignant and sincere missive, allow me to think out loud. I too am angry. How many times are we going to pay the price only to find out we have to pay it again, only steeper? I don’t know. We don’t know. “They” don’t know. This year has been extremely painful as we have said goodbye (not goodby or good-bye — stylebook page 70) to many friends, many of whom were forced to pay a much stiffer price. Simple math will not provide a solution. Weighing the difference between unemployment checks and staying the course with a 35 percent pay cut doesn’t provide much incentive either way. The only alternative left is to take unemployment while searching for another job, or bring in about the same and try one more time to breathe life into this company. I tend to side with Dave, but I’ll argue with myself right up to the moment I have to make the decision.
Rosso-wa
Haskell-bh
ii. eye’m with u: voting “yes” fer the same reasons.
Dias-nxf
Haskell-bh
You and a few others have made my day. I felt the same way as you did. Fuck the union, (excuse the French) but they do not give one good shit what happens to us as long as they continue to draw their blood from us.
I listened to keane’s (wire service union president) bull on the phone monday, and told him to go and shoot his mouth off at his new wife at his new house.
I am not going to let somebody else shoot my family at UPI. If we have to die, let’s die with a smile on our face and take the 35 percent less. 65 percent is a lot better than unemployment for the holidays. You got my yes
Schnaue-nxf (New York financial)
Unipressers
Lets keep talking to each other about this decision … good, bad, otherwise … and we’ll come to the right decision.
Eye don’t know if UPI should survive or not … my heart fights on valiantly with my head today. My head keeps insisting my heart consider …
1. if we approve, are we saving UPI? Or are we saving “something” to sell for “somebody” to make a profit and get out of a whole mess of trouble?
2. given the fact UPI’s nuked so many, many bureaus and states is there a UPI to save??? Is the damage too severe to be Undone? What exactly is UPI right now?
3. we have NO guarantees a sale is the salvation of UPI. It could just as easily spell the end.
4. are we being told the whole truth … there are so many Unanswers. Do not forget the hassle over the last contract.
I agree with rosso-graham … wholeheartedly. Nobody hates the idea of having a ROX-world more than eye. But nobody likes being played for a fool … so, if we’re going to put up our Christmas presents, our rent, our car payments, our food budget and everything else that this cut entails … lets make sure we’re going to come out of this with more than bad memories. Let’s demand more than just a casual “maybe.”
Chrs-zyduck-hx (Chicago)
All
I want UPI to survive et I am willing to bite the bullet once more. But the operative word here is “UPI”—not the bastard child it has been turned into. I think the guild should issue a statement in support of the pay cuts—with the proviso that any 9th floor denizen associated with “I” content and “journalistic overlay” (ie vanbennekom et al) immediately resign at conclusion of the vote. I refuse to have my vote interpreted as support for his-their ethical corruption. Fasbinder-hc (Los Angeles)
All
Eye’m voting yes, but tt shudnt come as a surprise to those of u who already kno how insane me et the biker babe truly are. After all, we jes got married on Halloween knoing full well wot cud be coming down the pike alongside tt 18-wheeler. So maybe it’ll mean me postponing buying tt new 8-HP stihl chainsaw; the biker babe’s got plenty of spike heels eneway. Eye aint trying to convince enebody wot to do; eye jes foloing my own star toward wotever lies ahead.
What ho!
Dias-nxf
Unipressers
You may have noticed that the message traffic the past two days on the proposed 35 percent wage cut for guild-covered employees has been decidedly in favor of a “yes” vote. While I appreciate the feelings outlined by some of my colleagues, I think the message wire is an inappropriate forum for discussing this issue. The reason is simple: those who might be in the “no” camp may feel they risk being penalized by management or criticized by their colleagues if they state their position for all to see. The message traffic, therefore, would tend to lean toward the management position. As journalists, we are all interested in fairness. I humbly suggest that as a professional courtesy such comments be kept off the message wire. This is just my opinion. I want UPI to survive as much as the next person, but ultimately this vote is a personal decision that should not be clouded by unbalanced appeals over our internal mailbox. There are other forums for debating the important arguments on both sides of this issue. Besides, we have work to do. Rgds, snyder-wa
All
Eye intend to vote no to the pay cut and eye’m doing it with economic realities in mind. Eye don’t want to “just leave” as some have suggested because eye’d like to at least have unemployment while eye look for other work. But eye do have some pride and refuse to willingly lean over and get kicked again by a management that has repeatedly lied to us. If they really intend to liquidate why did they refuse during eight hours of negotiations to compromise with the union? Eye also don’t enjoy the thought of us taking yet another bite so that yet another management team can walk off with the money in their pockets while leaving our company devastated. Eye’m particularly upset by tuesday’s mistaken (we meant to do it a week later) firing of Billy Ferguson. Do we really want to have dealings with a group of people who axe someone several months from retirement with no severance … when just one week ago he would have had something in the neighborhood of a year? Wherez our pride? Kate Gibson-upr
Haskell-bh
Kate not here. But yes they did. By puralator, then called him and said sorry, you’re not fired till next week. Guess what he told them. Rgds-mcnally-upr
Mcnally-upr
I certainly hope billy gave them an earful. Yda I msgd around my reasons for voting yes, but after hearing this and others express their opinions, I’m reconsidering my position. Rgds. Haskell-bh
Haskell-bh
I think you should. A yes vote is a vote to save infotech, not UPI. Rgds. Mcnally-upr
Unipressers
An informed decision about wages and unemployment benefits is important if you are to cast an informed vote in the upcoming election.
The first thing you might do is call your state unemployment agency and ask what your benefits would be if UPI goes under. Find out how long you would receive those benefits and if you get more for dependents.
Compare that figure with 65 percent of your current salary. Ask yourself if you would be willing to show up and work for 40 hours a week for the difference between the two or whether you would prefer to let the government subsidize your search for alternate employment. Also ask yourself what kind of atmosphere you would be working in for those 40 hours a week.
UPI has had no problem firing managers with 40 years of experience without severance pay. Is this a company that deserves your loyalty? Think about it carefully. Vote boldly, but not out of fear. Mvw-wap
All
If you need to know, and according to bankruptcy lawyer:
Chapter 7 gives a company the option to file for liquidation proceedings or can be forced into liquidation by its creditors when bills remain unpaid for more than 90 days.
Many creditors, however, are reluctant to quickly push for a chapter 7 filing with companies such as UPI which have virtually no assets except their receivables.
Under the proceedings, management surrenders total control of the company to a bankruptcy court trustee whose main task is to list assets and claims.
As usual, first in line is the IRS.
Then comes the secured creditors, which in this case could include Infotech, if the parent company, as previously said, has in fact lent money to UPI under a secured debt structure.
Follows priority creditors, mainly the employees owed any money for work already done, expenses, medical claims, benefits, vacations, etc. …
Payments to employees, however, are prorated on whatever money the trustee can collect or raise TO A MAXIMUM OF $2,000 per employee, regardless of the amount owed to any individual employee.
Chapter 7 benefits a company to the extent that it wipes out its liabilities, while the ones picking up the loss are the creditors and employees.
In the particular case of a parent company with little prospects of selling its assets for a good price, chapter 7 is a better deal, because not filing for chapter 7 would mean the company remains liable for what it owes and could also be the subject of various suits or class actions.
Clary-nxf
All
A quick prayer for our folks overseas and a quicker vote no. there are differences between excuses and reasons, and reasons for a no abound.
Anybody else see comparisons with S&L bailouts? We’ve got charges of stock fraud, embezzlement and cooked books (see Barrons) from a company tt has a higher priority than us when it comes to getting chapter 7 money. Now we’re being asked to balance books we’re not allowed to see.
Anybody else think it sounds like our money is needed but we aren’t? we’ve had no input on how this company is scaled back (wouldn’t pay cuts have made more sense than sending half our talent base out the door?) and in return for a yes vote, we get no say in how the company is run or how it is sold. We don’t get priority for repayment. We don’t get stock. We get a chance a buyer can be found, but let me ask you this — what does this company have to sell besides a name and a computer system, and how does a pay cut affect the value of those items in any way?
If there’s a buyer, sell it. If there’s no buyer, liquidate it. The pay cut does more than buy us time to look for work. It buys Infotech time to get a higher price, a price at our expense.
Eye love this old dog et thru it all it’s been a great nine years. But it’s also 584 years old in dog years, and even when you love those old hounds, sometimes you gotta put ‘em down.
my tnx to management for letting these msgs fly freely the last few days. Rgds et gud news to you.
Gl-marshall-rv
Unipressers
Not surprisingly, emotions are running high over the latest management offer to gouge employees’ paychecks. But consider one or two stubborn facts.
1. management claims there are several expressions of interest in UPI. Do you believe ‘em? I don’t. banks all across America think they’re a bum risk, and for good reason. The most likely eventuality, even WITH the pay cut, is that UPI will still be liquidated. And Unipressers will need every bit of cash they can get their hands on between now and then to carry us and our families through the job search.
2. there IS a rumored offer of $10 million for the UPI name alone, which may or may not be true, but which could mean discarding all of us. If something like that happens in a situation other than Chapter 7, we would want our severance at its CURRENT level, not at 65 percent. Even in the event of Chapter 7, there are provisions in the tax law to write off compensation you should have received but didn’t. It’s another reason to keep your rate of compensation as high as possible.
3. Management says the pay cut would last only 90 days. Ridiculous. If by some miracle someone actually does buy UPI, do you REALLY think they’re going to immediately boost salaries by 35 percent?
4. The emotional issues of two-agency journalism (you know; the old “we’re-needed-to-keep-ROX-honest”) and the survival of what once was a great journalistic institution (yeah, us) were decided some time ago. The publishers and broadcasters who left us in droves stated quite clearly that our services are NOT needed; and the idea that the kind of coverage to which we’ve been reduced would cause the slightest concern to the AP is laughable.
5. Finally, let’s be realistic. UPI is not a shrine. It’s a business. We’re supposed to work here, not worship here. We are dedicated professionals who have spent years being the targets of gross personal and professional insults by our employers, who have grown weary of the constant battle to maintain life support systems that are continuously ripped away by UPI’s callous and inept owners. Enough is enough. Vote against the pay cut.
Small-waradio
Unipressers
I’m not sure I want to get involved in all this hand-wringing over the upcoming vote, but I do believe your vote should be informed. Bill Small’s note about tax benefits could be misleading. According to a tax expert — Wally Head, the chief of tax practice at Arthur Anderson and co. — there’s no way to deduct severance pay you didn’t receive from income you did receive. The provisions are for deductions of legitimate expenses uncompensated as a result of bankruptcy, and in some cases for compensation packages funded in part by the beneficiary. The provisions also would apply if a severance settlement was declared as a lump sum for tax purposes and for some reason paid out over time — and the full payment was not made. But he could think of no circumstances where those provisions would apply in our case.
Also, the note related, you should remember that unemployment benefits are taxable. There will be no withholding, but the payments must be declared as income and are taxed as ordinary income. I forgot to ask about social security taxes but will presume that it wouldn’t apply, as we’ve probably already paid in more than enuf to cover what our income would be if we folded and lived out the rest of the year on unemployment. In fact, I suspect there mite be some tax credit for overpayment of social security but can’t be sure. Cheers. Lesar-hxf
All
To those of you who want to reject the pay cut (and I count myself), there may be an alternative. From what we’ve been able to determine in BH, staffers in Massachusetts are free to quit and still collect unemployment, even if the pay cut is accepted voluntarily, because the loss of 35 percent of your pay is considered a major change in your working conditions. I suspect the rule is the same in many of the states where we still have bureaus.
In such states, that would allow staffers who have had it with UPI and its empty promises the freedom to accept the pay cut, or at least abstain from voting, and then leave and start looking full-time for another job if they so wish.
It would also allow the people who need to stay on for financial reasons, at least for a while, to do so.
I understand everyone’s anger and disgust with the company, but personally I find it hard to vote to shut UPI down immediately — if indeed that is what a rejection would do — when there are so many who desperately need to hang on for a few more months in hopes of finding another job.
Especially when there may be an alternative in your state. At least, I think it’s worth checking into.
In the end, I guess I would only urge that we vote in our own financial interests and those of our colleagues, and not allow our rightful rage at the Bozos who got UPI into this mess to lead us into doing something which might only cause more harm to ourselves or those we’ve worked with for so many years. I realize it’s a no-win situation, but I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Best regards to all
Reed-bh
Graham-upr
Eye endorse ur point one. They put it into effect et eye’ll vote for tt sucker. It wasn’t my writing tt got us into trouble, it was their management. A 35 percent pay cut from $10 leaves them with $6.50. a 35 percent pay cut from $1 leaves us with 65 cents. Tt’s the difference between belt tightening and real hardship. If there are people with contracts who are not not taking the cuts, their names should be on the msg wire so we will kno who they are. If u haven’t spoken to the guild about this, do so. Have them open talks immediately. After all, u have come up with a way to convince the most skeptical of us tt mgt mite be willing to share the pain. Tnx for thinking of it. Rgds-sab-miller-sxr
All
Voting to save UPI at the expense of our paychecks is not a realistic proposition. Those of you who have been around UPI for a long time should know that it already has ceased to exist. Ask yourself if you still feel like you are providing clients with what they need. Are you proud of the compromises you are forced to make daily? It is a real tragedy to have owners who try to lay the fate of a once-great company on the desks of those who have kept it going all these difficult years. UPI still exists only because its owners want to make one more withdrawal from the company bank by trying to dump UPI off on some other owner. Haven’t we had enough? UPI already is lost. It has been ruined by years of mismanagement and gouging. Let’s preserve our dignity and self respect by not allowing ourselves to be raped again by this set of owners, and the next if there are to be more.
Voting for these pay cuts may gain you a few more weeks of pay, or it may get you many more months of misery. In the meantime, it will be more and more embarrassing for UPI and the memory of what it once was. Follow the example of howard beal and say “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”
Rgds. Mcnally-upr
Sab-miller-sxr
ii. if the jerks who ran this place (past tense) into the ground don’t have the guts (read any other body part u want) to join the rest of us in the fireboat drill then to $?&_/** with them. Keep the faith. Keep in touch. Ur great.
$$$$
All
I recommend a vote to keep our “one-lung” news agency breathing for a few more months. I’d hate to be on the breadline at Christmas time. Let’s wait till valentine’s day to take the bullet! Delgiudice-wa
Unipressers
As I look at all these messages encouraging us to accept the 35 percent pay cut, I can only say that I have never seen so much affirmation of p.t. barnum’s wisdom in my life. When the horse dies, get off. Chrs et fond rgds. Schweers-ta (Tallahassee)
Unipressers
Now is the time to face reality and say no to the current salary proposal
Earl Brian and his management team hve bled this company for far too long and now we are being asked to finance his economic errors with our paychecks and our reputation.
All of us deserve better than this! Are times tough out there? You bet they are, but unemployment checks are better than nothing. In WA unemployment is worth close to $300 a week. New top scale would be about $400. is it worth it to labor in a company where morale will never be lower — if that’s possible — for not much more than $100 a week? I think not.
The old UPI died years ago — all that remains is people with talent and a management team that has no idea what a wire service is. They have squandered opportunities and make us a classic case study for the Harvard business school in how to mismanage an organization. Hold your heads up high and in words of Nancy Reagan, “just say no!”
Von wehrden-wap
All (who are left)
Eye’d like to add my two cents worth in support of a “yes” vote — not to take UPI on life support, but to keep those with no immediate job prospects warm a little longer this winter. Even if eye had a new job paying zillions a year all lined up (which eye don’t) eye could not press the button on my colleagues. the guild can’t endorse a 35 percent cut because it is a collective bargaining organization — and probably because it happens to be in contract negotiations with rox. Sure, there’s a slim chance UPI may survive; it has overcome some pretty incredible odds in the past. With all the recent layoffs, eye suppose the veterans who have helped keep this concern breathing will make the choice. But it makes absolutely no sense to sign the death warrant now. For those hell bent on voting ”no,” vote another way — leave.
Zverina-ducars (Detroit auto writer)
Allpoints
The following is not meant to interfere with anyone’s right to vote his/her will, or anger, or conscience in the upcoming guild ballot on whether to toss the wire another lifesaving line or the baby out with the bathwater. (there’s much anger on the message wires these days about the pickle we’re in — again — and I share it) no, this is meant only as a reminder to stateside staff from one on the international wires that: outside the continental united states there are score upon score of full-time staff — editors, correspondents, computer technicians, etc. — and score on score more stringers. They cannot vote. Outside the states, they’re outside the guild. How they would vote if they could, I cannot say. But from those who have talked with me on the matter, I get the impression they would vote for life support if they could (eye blv their pay already has been cut by 35 percent, without any vote, thank you very much). Some have phoned the I-slot. Others have messaged. One signed off tonight: “chinupkeepingly.” They show lots of pluck out there, and I thought all of us back here in the U.S. ought not forget them, whatever our feeling about the proposed cuts, about the wire. That’s all. Thnx et rgds. Miller-wai (Washington international)
Nov. 9, 1990
Unipressers:
i believe there are compelling reasons to reject the latest scheme by yet another UPI management – a 35 percent pay cut that will apply to most of us, but not to some of the senior managers who are its champions. the decision, to be sure, is very personal, as it should be, but i believe a reasoned, careful examination of the facts argues strongly for a "no" vote. there are at least five key reasons to vote "no."
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fairness
not everyone will take the 35 percent cut if it is approved. some senior UPI managers have been shifted off UPI's books, sparing them the pay cut. one of them reportedly includes anne kott, the labor relations aide who helped engineer many of our highly regressive contract provisions -- including only 10 days of sick leave a year, not a penny contributed to the union pension fund since 1987 and drastically reduced severance pay.
some foreign personnel also will not suffer the pay cuts, for legitimate legal reasons.
during a staff meeting in washington last week, pieter vanbennekom conceded there would be "some exceptions." what exceptions? well, he didn't say. just who is taking this pay cut anyway? and what are their salaries and job responsibilities?
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accountability
this pay cut proposal is being sold by the same failed, discredited senior management that has disembowled UPI, throwing hundreds of our colleagues out of work and closing bureaus in some 35 states. UPI is essentially unsaleable because of what they have done. this senior management has lurched from one bad idea to another, always claiming there was "a plan." in fact, the senior management has never produced a single consistent, cogent, sensible idea -- much less "a plan."
now, in an effort to save their own highly paid jobs, members of this senior management have spent a great deal of time, and UPI's money, trying to sell this pay cut. approval would certainly position them as "heroes" in the eyes of a new buyer. that may be fine for them, but should we use a significant portion or our pay checks to save the jobs of a failed management?
the guild has not even been allowed to see UPI's books. employees have no way of knowing the salaries of top executives -- or even if those salaries were quickly inflated in anticipation of the pay cut campaign.
i have also been disturbed by heavy-handed management lobbying for this scheme. i believe those managers, and UPI, may have federal legal problems because of how far they have gone, using UPI money, by interjecting themselves into a union vote. i anticipate exploring that issue in the near future with the appropriate federal agency.
i also believe this pay cut is a clever attempt to absolve the parent company, Infotechnology, of severance and other contingent liabilities related to a shutdown.
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pragmatism
i believe the only "buyers" for UPI are a few fringe "cherry-pickers" who want UPI's name and, perhaps, a few isolated assets. those assets do not include UPI's employees, in my opinion. at any rate, management's refusal to identify any "buyers" to employees or the union -- or to involve us in the process -- raises serious suspicions.
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something for nothing
the idea of a 25 percent pay cut in 1984 made sense. there was an organization to save and sell, not to mention almost 900 union jobs. the company has since been eviscerated. the 1984 wage-cut deal also contained legally binding incremental salary increases, in 5 percent segments, that culminated with a 5 percent pay increase.
employees got 6.5 percent of the stock of the parent corporation -- although management reneged and the stock was never turned over to unipressers. the union also got a significant package of concessions from the company that enabled it to ultimately become the most powerful part in federal court during the subsequent bankruptcy in 1985.
this time, the company offers nothing to employees in return for the pay cut. not a single guarantee or sign of good faith. UPI management even refused to allow employees on the board of directors to monitor the fairness and adequacy of attempts to find a buyer. why?
why does the senior management of this company want to wring more money out of the employees, without even a minimal stock guarantee in exchange? the stock would undoubtedly be worthless, but such a move would show a glimmer of good faith.
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deal only with a buyer
it is utter folly to give a 35 percent pay cut to a management on its way out. if a deal is to be made, it should be negotiated with a buyer, if there is one. otherwise, a new buyer will regard a 35 percent pay cut as a given -- and then demand more concessions.
why make two deals instead of one? why cut down your negotiating base? are you willing to take a 45 percent pay cut? a 50 percent pay cut? give up all vacation or severance pay?
regardless of your view, such decisions should be made on an informed basis. we all should know who the buyer is, what he has in store for UPI, and for us, and then make a decision based on those facts. we certainly should know, also, where all UPI's money went -- something reportedly being examined by the securities and exchange commission and at least one u.s. attorney.
a pay cut also is premature. because any sale of UPI is contingent on a new audit, we could take a pay cut and then find out the company cannot be sold under any circumstances.
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ultimately, you must make your own decision. there have been many eloquent messages on the wire on both sides. many of you have talked it over with your loved ones and will take that into account.
it is a personal choice and i urge you to consider my viewpoint carefully.
i have invested 20 years of my life in UPI -- 10 of them as secretary-treasurer of the guild -- although i eventually quit in disgust, warning publicly about many of the things that have since transpired with almost frightening accuracy.
i suggest that a vote for this pay cut is a new march down a never-ending trail -- that is, concessions inevitably beget more concessions and it will never end until there is nothing left in salaries or benefits.
sincerely, dan carmichael, washington
11-09-90
The Guild members voted by 62 percent to accept the pay cut. According to the Wire Service Guild, the pay cut reduced top-scale weekly salary from $690 to $448 ($17.25 to $11.20 per hour). First-year journalists' pay was cut from $360 to $234 a week ($9 to $5.85 per hour).
Dan Carmichael left the company shortly thereafter and shortly after that, he left his colleagues.
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