After months of protests and negotiations with Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. (PNI) management, and an apparent victory on some personnel matters, the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia Local 10 now has a dissenter within its ranks. Shortly after the Guild executive board voted 10-2 in favor of taking a negotiated agreement to the membership -- which would, among other things, rescind the layoffs of 10 part-time editorial assistants slated for dismissal this month -- one of the board members who voted against issued a scathing, accusatory missive discouraging passage of the new agreement.

"The agreement that was reached was negotiated by a 4 member [sic] subcommittee appointed by the Executive Board to negotiate the layoff of the EA's [sic] on Editorial," reads the e-mail memo, written by Guild Vice President Linda Dooling. "I believe they expended [sic] their area of responsibility when they started negotiating the Mactive System and raising the Commission Cap in Advertising.... I urge you to veto this agreement. [They] have sacrificed 80 jobs (17 FT & 63 PT) to save 5-10 part time Editorial Assistants. While I do not want to see anyone loss [sic] their lively hood [sic] but this is not a good deal."

Dooling, who has acknowledged that she's not the best speller in the building, says that although she sits on an executive board comprised of 12 people from various departments of both newspapers, she had no hand in the final phases of the agreement.

The entire membership, which includes staffers from both The Inquirer and the Daily News, is expected to vote today on whether to ratify the tentative agreement drafted early last week between the union and PNI. The agreement will impact members of the advertising staff by shifting caps on sales commissions and supporting the implementation of a new operating system that would bring automation into the newsroom.

"I was not informed by Henry [Holcomb, Guild president] that he was negotiating these issues," says Dooling, a 24-year advertising staffer. "Now, as a result, there are going to be 80 jobs lost in 2004. I don't see how Henry could've done this. Advertising is paying dearly to save those 10 jobs. I urge the membership to vote in favor of saving advertising."

At issue for Dooling is language in the agreement that allows for new accounts to be made available to commissioned sales staff. In addition, Dooling says she's concerned about the implementation of an automated advertising tool, called Mactive, that will ultimately replace the need for certain tasks done manually by advertising staffers for years.

Dooling's e-mail, written last Wednesday, was followed a day later by an e-mail written by union board member Cynthia Burton.

"An angry and inaccurate e-mail is rumbling around the building about the tentative agreement between the Guild and PNI," it reads. "VOTING FOR THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT CAUSE MEMBERS TO BE LAID OFF."

"Trading 10 people for 80 people? That's just absurd," Holcomb says. "I disagree with [Dooling] 100 percent. That may be her opinion, but it's wrong. Most of the issues affect everybody. If the newsroom had tolerated those layoffs [of the EAs], there would've been other layoffs."

"A resounding 'no' on Thursday says our membership will not put up with this poor deal," she says. "Union people need to support each other and we supported the EAs. But it always seemed like the battle was really between Henry and [editor Walker] Lundy. Henry has not really been forthcoming. And, in my opinion, because of his own agenda he couldn't see the forest for the trees."

Diane Mastrull, an executive board member, a member of the negotiating team and also the chair of The Inquirer/Daily News unit, says that Dooling may have her facts wrong.

"Linda is saying these [80] layoffs are a certainty, but the only certainty is the 10 people that we have to save right now," Mastrull says. "Misinformation is dangerous and our focus now is making sure that people have accurate information. It'll be a big mistake if we give this one up. The Guild needs to think of this newspaper as a whole and I think we've worked hard on what are going to be some pretty significant improvements."