We had the Metro Spirit printed a day early and it arrived last night from Charlotte. A few of the issues were delivered before it became too unsafe to be on the roads. I am having our delivery guys hold off until Thursday to deliver the rest of the issues after the roads are safe and passable.
Newspaper carriers work very hard for little pay. Most of them deliver for multiple companies and have second and even third jobs to help make ends meet. And as daily circulation continues to drop, they are quite aware their job opportunities are drying up.
But there is something I’d like to share that gets under my skin.
A note from an AC carrier received this afternoon:
“Do you realize that The Augusta Chronicle is requiring it’s carriers to get out on the roads tonight and deliver the papers? We can refuse, but we must find our own substitute? If we don’t then we are docked $200 for not delivering the papers. In what world is that right?” We’ll leave the authors name out.
I called around and indeed it’s true. Another carrier I spoke with said if you refuse to run your route, the AC will dock you $200 or they may even pull the route from you altogether. That is a lot of money for these employees. And the threat of basically losing your job is preposterous.
How employees are treated says a lot about a company. How the lowest rung employees are treated says even more about a company in my opinion. My advice would be to keep these men and women off the roads until it is not a danger to them.
We’ll certainly update you on any reports we receive of docked pay and pulled routes.
Joe White
Publisher/Owner
