With unions currently negotiating contracts with the new owners, Tierney's group, Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, has proposed that the Guild make several concessions, and the move has seemingly started to fracture union solidarity.

The new owners have proposed ending a longtime provision that guaranteed pension contributions equal to 6 percent of salaries. They also want to cut paid sick leave from a maximum of 40 weeks to 26 weeks, while also cutting full-leave pay to 65 percent of salary. Add proposals to reduce seniority protections in layoffs and put more ad-sales workers on commission rather than salary, and the contract talks started off sounding more like the old Knight Ridder battles.

After bargaining leader Diane Mastrull, an Inquirer writer, took that case to members via e-mail, the union's executive committee voted unanimously on July 25 to withdraw from the 11-member Philadelphia Newspaper Council of Unions, a consortium that has negotiated salary and wage issues since the Annenberg days. Now, the Guild has more time to negotiate pension contributions rather than being cornered in the last days and possibly outvoted by the other 10 unions in the council on the overall wage and benefit package, said Guild president Henry Holcomb. (The Guild represents newsroom staff, ad-sales workers and many in the circulation department. The other unions represent drivers and most workers in the press room, mail room and support departments, such as janitors.)

While he said the move wasn't made to distance the Guild from the other unions, some are concerned. No matter how the Guild bargains on its pension package, the company won't give them a different amount than the other unions, says John Laigaie, president of the Teamsters Local 628, which represents another 540 newspaper workers, most of whom are truck drivers.

"They can't get any more than anyone else," he maintains.

Joe Lyons, a retired Teamsters local president who heads the Council, says many think the Guild committed the cardinal sin of violating solidarity. "It's a monumentally stupid decision," he states.

Inquirer and Daily News publisher Joe Natoli, who announced Tuesday that he's leaving for a job at the University of Miami, says the new owners are looking for more cash to fund a variety of projects, including a $20 million upgrade of the color printing presses, to attract more readers. It was unclear Tuesday what effect Natoli's departure, and Tierney's assumption of the publisher's role, would have on the negotiations. In an e-mail to the staff announcing the move, Natoli maintained that the new owners "want business results that provide a fair return on investment and resources to invest in future growth." Tierney emphasized that he had wanted Natoli to stay.

One way to raise the cash is to cut company costs. "The majority of costs relate to people and paper," he notes. The goal is "to have contracts that are fair, that still allow us to be competitive."

Holcomb said the Guild understands the need to attract more readers, but his union doesn't want a repeat of the past; the loss of 400 workers through buyouts has decimated news coverage and cost the papers readers. Holcomb said the Guild would still cooperate with the unions on other issues, such as a uniform contract length.

"If they put up a picket line, we won't cross it,' he promised.

All of the union contracts expire on Aug. 31, but representatives in all camps expect to be bargaining beyond that date. For the moment, nobody's talking about a potential strike by the papers' 2,650 union workers.