John Laigaie, the president of Local 628, said his members were delighted that Philadelphia Media Network's purchase had fallen apart.
"The way they look at it, they now have another chance to fight another day," he said of his members.
Local 628 was the only one of 16 unions to not reach a contract agreement with Philadelphia Media Network.
The Newspaper Guild, which represents editorial employees at the papers, issued a harshly worded statement after the decision to hold another auction was announced, saying the drivers had jeopardized "thousands of jobs and the entire company by hijacking and derailing the closing process."
Raslavich scheduled the new auction for 10 a.m. Sept. 23. The sale will be in his courtroom in the Robert N.C. Nix Sr. Federal Building at Ninth and Market Streets. He said he expected the sale to be quick, with final closing by mid-October.
He said that one difference from the company's first auction, in April, would be the absence of a provision to allow the successful bidder to walk away from the sale if it could not reach contract agreements with the company's unions.
The recent sale of the company collapsed because there was such a provision.
The prospective new owners, operating as Philadelphia Media Network Inc., bought Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. at the April auction for $139 million.
Philadelphia Media Network included many of the company's largest creditors, including Angelo, Gordon & Co.; Credit Suisse, and the Alden Capital Group. As a group, the creditors were owed $318 million.
Fred S. Hodara, lead attorney for Philadelphia Media Network, said his clients intended to bid for the company at the coming auction.
