As contract talks stagger on without a settlement, employees at the Pioneer Press have found a novel way to relieve the tension. They?re taking a break -- together.

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, more than 100 of the newspaper?s workers began crowding elevators and filtering outdoors. There, they mingled around the paper?s main entrance on Cedar St., chatting, smoking, and comparing bargaining bulletins from the previous day?s negotiating session between the Knight-Ridder newspaper and the Minnesota Newspaper Guild/Typographical Union.

Kelly Blaiser, an advertising sales assistant who is on the Guild?s bargaining committee, said participation in the 3 o?clock break keeps growing and is having a unifying effect. ?People are talking to different people from different parts of the building. They?re not staying in their own little groups.?

Jane McHattie (right), who works in product planning and advertising production at the Pioneer Press, talks with co-workers during the Guild's 3 o'clock break Wednesday. Union Advocate photo

The Guild represents more than 450 workers at the paper, who have been without a contract since last July 31 and who have gone more than 20 months without a raise. Bill Weyandt, on leave from the newspaper?s technology department to handle strike preparations for the Guild, said workers expect to take their breaks together until they get a new contract.

A settlement continues to be hung up on three issues, according to the Guild: wages, the newspaper?s attempt to shift more health insurance costs onto employees, and the newspaper?s insistence that the Guild eliminate union solidarity language that allows it to honor other unions? picket lines.

Negotiators met with a federal mediator for 11 hours Tuesday, finally breaking at midnight without a settlement. Weyandt said both sides agreed to schedule additional sessions, but are having difficulty arranging the logistics: The Pioneer Press is also in negotiations with three other unions, and the Guild is also in negotiations with the Star-Tribune, where its contract expires at the end of July.