Dave Umhoefer is the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s new health and safety coordinator. The local’s Executive Board has named Umhoefer, a Politifact Wisconsin reporter, to deal with any concerns about ergonomics, air quality or other health and safety issues affecting union-represented workers in the Journal Sentinel’s downtown newsroom and Wisconsin bureaus. He fills a post that […]
In voting Tuesday, Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members approved a package of vacation changes, 55 to 5. Guild leaders and Journal Sentinel Inc. management representatives expect to sign the agreement within the next few days, retroactive to Jan. 1. As an immediate result, members of our bargaining unit will be able to take two key changes […]
Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members will vote Tuesday on a package of vacation changes proposed by Journal Sentinel management. We’ll hold our quarterly membership meeting the same day. Most of the proposed changes are improvements — two extra days off each year for full-timers; three more months to use our vacation; and restoration of the fifth […]
The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s Executive Board has named Tom Content as a steward leader. Content, a Journal Sentinel business reporter, replaces Mary Louise Schumacher in overseeing stewards, contract enforcement, membership and mobilizing for the business news, features/entertainment, photo and opinions staffs. Schumacher, the newspaper’s art and architecture critic, did not seek reappointment to a second […]
The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has launched a campaign to urge Journal Sentinel Inc. management to restore our bargaining-unit members’ wages to the point they were at before last year’s 6.6% pay cut. “Our sacrifice has been great,” newly elected Guild President Tom Silverstein wrote in one of two recent letters to members. “We lost a […]
Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members chose Tom Silverstein as our new president Tuesday. Silverstein, a Journal Sentinel sportswriter, is a longtime steward who was a member of our most recent bargaining committee. He succeeds Greg Pearson, who decided not to seek re-election. Pearson, a copy editor, served more than two years as president, after nearly four […]
The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has completed settlements for Journal Sentinel newsroom employees who were laid off in August 2009. The last three settlements were signed in late July and early August. We had filed grievances on behalf of 19 employees who were laid off last year despite ranking higher in seniority than others who were […]
The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s leadership recently cleared the way for Journal Sentinel newsroom employees to receive a 2% bonus, but not without a reminder that we still expect management to restore our wages to what they were before last year’s 6.6% cut. On July 21, Journal Communications CEO Steve Smith announced a lump-sum bonus for […]
Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. representatives signed a new contract last week, covering our bargaining unit through 2011. A small number of newsroom workers will receive raises as a result of the contract. That’s the group who were due to move up on the pay scale, but who were frozen at their previous […]
Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members ratified a new contract with Journal Sentinel Inc. by a vote of 54-10 on Thursday. The pact, which runs through 2011, preserves several key protections from previous contracts, including our severance and notice pay in case of downsizings and our cap on the percentage of health care costs we must pay, […]