Times failed to take names out of union ad

By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

A Teamsters official attempted last week to correct the content of an advertisement before it appeared in Seattle's two daily newspapers and embarrassed both the union and Republican members of the Metropolitan King County Council.

However, The Seattle Times advertising department did not make the requested change, and representatives of the newspaper and the labor union didn't notice that omission in a subsequent meeting.

The ad, which appeared in The Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspapers on Friday, listed the six Republican County Council members as calling for Darigold and WestFarm Foods to end their lockout of 200 workers in a labor dispute.

Five of the six council members complained about the ad, saying they wanted both sides to work toward a resolution but did not want to assign blame to either side.

Kerry Coughlin, spokeswoman for The Seattle Times, said she apologized for the newspaper's part in the error during a phone conversation yesterday with Teamsters International Vice President Garnet Zimmerman.

Coughlin and Zimmerman said the Teamsters are likely to produce a follow-up ad that would run at the newspapers' expense. Coughlin said the newspaper also will contact the Republican members of the County Council to explain the error.

Zimmerman said he looks forward to The Times contacting the council members because it will help "mend those fences" and show that Teamsters weren't trying to misrepresent the officials' position on the lockout.

Officials of Teamsters Local 66 and The Seattle Times yesterday said Teamsters realized three days before publication that a proof of the ad erroneously listed the Republicans, along with the County Council's Democrats and other regional leaders, as calling on Darigold to end the lockout.

Teamsters Secretary-treasurer Mark Jones called ad representatives at The Seattle Times and the King County Journal last Tuesday, asking them to delete the names of the six County Council Republicans and substitute the names of six other prominent citizens who had signed a petition asking the dairy company to end the lockout. Jones also faxed the requested changes to the newspapers.

The King County Journal made the changes in the ad it published Friday. The Seattle Times, which handles advertising for both The Times and the Post-Intelligencer, added the new names but failed to take out the old ones.
 
A Seattle Times ad representative met with a Teamsters official Thursday to go over the ad, but neither of them noticed the error, Coughlin said. Coughlin and Zimmerman said they didn't know about Jones' request to correct the ad when they were asked about the error Friday.

County Council members Jane Hague, Steve Hammond, David Irons Jr., Kathy Lambert and Rob McKenna issued a statement Friday clarifying their position on the lockout. Pete von Reichbauer, who had signed an earlier Republican statement on the dispute, did not sign Friday's statement because his colleagues were unable to reach him at the time.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company