Members of the six unions at the Honolulu Advertiser will meet next Sunday (Sept. 14) to vote on a “Memorandum of Agreement” regarding medical plans and pay schedule.

The unions announced agreements had been reached on these two items at the end of last month, although no contact settlement has been reached.

The Star-Bulletin reported:

If approved by union members, the agreement will become part of the contract extension under which members are currently working – but not necessarily part of the new contract now being negotiated, according to a union official.

One Advertiser employee pointed to “tons of confusion” over the deal and its impact on ongoing bargaining.

Another source commented: “To say that morale at the Advertiser is low is an understatement. Many people are looking for part-time jobs and there have been several well-known instances of employees in trouble for substance abuse, primarily alcohol.”

Specifically mentioned as evidence of newsroom tensions were comments by sports reporter and blogger (Warrior Beat) Steven Tsai on the latest blog strike. Tsai’s blog entry announcing the one-week hiatus named several Newspaper Guild activists who Tsai describes as “those who try to direct from the shadows”.

Also making it my was was a copy of an email making the rounds at the Advertiser last week. The August 29 email from Sandy Oshiro, Advertiser managing editor for digital and multimedia, is addressed to a student intern from UH who chose to honor the recent 1-week blog strike, but similar emails have reportedly been received by other bloggers.

In her email, Oshiro accuses union members of sending “tons of porn spam and obscene anti-Advertiser comments” to those who kept blogging during the blog stoppage.

“Those are the kinds of people you chose to side with,” Oshiro wrote.

Strong language from a former reporter turned Gannett editor.

Oshiro seems to raise the possibility that Gannett could close the Advertiser and leave Hawaii.

Unfortunately, we cannot survive as a company if our financial situation doesn’t change. Actions like the blog strike clearly are aimed at hurting us when we are suffering as an ongoing operation. That is the cause you chose to join.

If we do not win this fight to survive, the community will lose the best journalistic voice that it has, the only one that puts public service journalism at the top of its priorities. I hope you think about the role you played in all of this.

Meanwhile, Editor & Publisher noted last month that the Akron Beacon Journal, which is owned by Star-Bulletin owner David Black, is trying to cut 20 positions with an early retirement offer.

The nearby Akron Beacon Journal is offering buyouts to all newsroom employees and early retirement packages to newsroom employees 55 and older. Other details of the offers were not released.

[The Plain Dealer reports: “Also on Tuesday, the Akron Beacon Journal rolled out a buyout and early retirement program designed to reduce its newsroom staffing by 20. It’s offering up to 54 weeks of pay to those taking a buyout, based on years of service. ‘We are doing this because of the economic downturn in our industry,’ said Editor Bruce Winges. ‘The Beacon Journal is no exception. We believe these packages are a generous alternative to layoffs.'”]

Here’s another Akron blogger regarding the Akron buyouts.

And you certainly don’t want to miss the piece in Columbia Journalism Review, “Gannett vs. the Gannett Blog“.