You heard it here first: Confidential memo from Strib publisher comes true in Teamsters contract meltdown

We continue to move forward with the Guild, but talks have unfortunately stopped with the other major unions.

The scoop was ignored by some, pooh-poohed by others (a notable exception was the Business Journal), but today it has become a reality:

According to a source close to the union, "All three contracts are dead in the water, and management has to start over at the beginning." The pressman's union, GCC1-M, rejected the deal by a vote of 77 to 27, while the drivers (Local 638) and mailers (Local 120) voted to approve, 83 to 27 in favor and 92 to 42 respectively. Prior to the vote the unions agreed that unless all three locals voted to approve, the contract would die.

"The pressmen are heroes," says the source. "They're the first union to reject Avista's concessions" -- the New York private-equity firm that bought the paper in 2007.

One of the unions explains why it voted down the contracts here:

“Everyone knows the newspaper industry is having tough times, and members are rightfully worried about our jobs and our future. But our union has to be about more than just fear,” said Rick Sather, a Local 638 driver.

“That’s our job, to show that when we work together, we can have some hope.”

It was just a little more than a week ago that newsroom workers agreed to a new contract that was draconian, though perhaps pragmatic considering the current state of the industry:

The deal includes a 16-month wage freeze, followed by three semiannual raises ranging from 1 percent to 1.5 percent. It also shifts a greater share of health care costs to employees but maintains the company's pension plans.

The Star Tribune will cut six newsroom jobs by offering voluntary buyout packages.

So the Strib will have a lot of journalism, just no way to put it on paper and distribute it door to door. Might this hasten the transition to an online-only newspaper?