51: february 2006

With the new contract pay rates in place, last year’s discretionary bonuses remain
Guild acts as the watchdog protecting members in disputes with management
Can’t get enough Guild news?
Company will pay up to 75% of your higher-ed fees
Column: Does it really make sense to punish the reporters who went to see Springsteen?
If you like to eat lunch, help us out

By the time you read this, everyone in the Guild bargaining unit should have received the first installment of back pay from our new 2005-’08 contract.

Money from 1.5% across-the-board raises and new minimum pay levels for 2005 was in the Jan. 19 paychecks for most workers (and Feb. 2 paychecks for just four). Everyone also should have received 1.5% raises for 2006 or should have been raised to at least the new 2006 minimum levels, whichever is greater; only a few people hired late in 2005 would have been exempt from the across-the-board raise.

Still to come are the lump-sum payments in lieu of 2005 discretionary raises. Most workers will receive that money in another check. Those figures have yet to be calculated, and it might take until March for those to be paid out. Guild representatives are conferring with management about how the lump sums will be determined.

Even though this money isn’t being added to our base pay, the contract requires that it be treated in all other respects like a discretionary raise. That means you should have the same discussions with your supervisor that you would with any discretionary raise, to find out how managers arrived at this figure and what it means about how they view your performance.

Other news about how the contract is being implemented:

* Some people may be able to take even more vacation than expected. The contract set up "transitional vacation accounts" with extra vacation for everyone hired from 1995 through 2005. Officially, you can take up to one week of that extra vacation each year from now through 2011, or until it's used up. But some managers might be flexible about letting you take more than a week if scheduling needs permit. So ask, and you may receive.

* Speaking of vacation, the “floating holiday,” also known as the “personal day,” also known as the “birthday,” is now known as just another vacation day. So if you had three weeks of vacation and one floating holiday, for example, now you have three weeks and one day of vacation. This contractual change was requested by Journal Sentinel accountants, who apparently wanted fewer varieties of beans to count.

* Our bargaining unit has grown by one. The contract required management to eliminate one of 58 positions excluded from contractual protection at the beginning of the year. As a result, the Database Editor was moved into the unit, resolving long-standing Guild concerns about whether bargaining-unit work was being done in that position. Two more excluded jobs are to be eliminated, one by July 1 and one by next Jan. 1.

* Guild and management representatives are preparing to confer about how to design a study of discretionary pay. Guild negotiators pushed for both sides to collaborate on a contractually required study, after our own study last year found pay discrepancies by gender, race and age that could not be explained by differences in experience alone.

Guidelines for a new study will be set by a six-member joint committee; the Guild delegation is led by board member Amy Hetzner and includes Larry Sandler and Marie Rohde, while newsroom management will be represented by senior editors Carl Schwartz, Marilyn Krause and Paul Sevart. The same committee will discuss the study’s results and forward recommendations to the newsroom’s top management

By definition, a labor union is an alliance formed by individuals for mutual interest or benefit, such as the recent contract negotiations. And Local 51 is no different.

But not only does the Guild use its strength for the benefit of all, it also uses that power and experience to support individuals through disputes and conflicts with management.

The most common grievance is when a person’s job is in danger, says Greg Pearson, who is beginning his third year as the Guild’s first vice president, the position that handles grievance matters.

“This can take several different forms - mass layoffs or buyouts, as happened at the merger; the elimination of a single job or two, as happened in late October with the two part-time police reporting jobs, or over a disciplinary matter, which is rare but does happen from time to time,” he said.

Pearson says the first step in the resolving a conflict is to attempt an amicable resolution.

“I suggest that a member talk to his or her supervisor to see whether they can resolve the issue amicably,” he said. “Sometimes it may just have been a misunderstanding between the two people.”

But if that fails, “someone from the Guild might talk to the supervisor to argue the case for the employee,” he added. “On more severe matters, as in when an employee is being disciplined, the steps are more formal.”

When no compromise can be easily reached and the Guild believes the action taken by management is inappropriate and/or in violation of the contract, a grievance would be filed, which basically is a challenge to the company's action, said Pearson.

Representatives from the Guild will then meet with management to see whether a resolution can be reached. If the Guild and member are not satisfied, the union can seek arbitration in the case, which leads to a hearing where both sides present their case to an arbitrator. This action is rare.

“Grievances aren't common, but we probably have averaged two or three a year in recent years,” Pearson said. “Taking a case to arbitration is very rare. It's an expensive process ­ the company and the Guild usually split the cost ­ and it's also time-consuming as both sides have to prepare evidence and talk to witnesses. A recent case was on the verge of going to arbitration … but the matter was settled to the member's satisfaction shortly before the hearing date.”

If cases go further, Pearson may turn to a number of knowledgeable Guild leaders and others for advice and consultation.

“On more complicated cases, I will touch base with Darren Carroll from the International's office and our Guild lawyer, Barbara Zack Quindel, whose number is permanently etched in my brain,” Pearson added.

The time it takes to resolve different cases varies greatly.

“Some issues are resolved in a few weeks, but others can take months and months,” he said. “We recently settled a case that took more than a year to resolve.”

Once a conflict or grievance is settled, Pearson or other Guild representatives follow-up with the member to make sure they are satisfied and that the problem has not re-occurred.

While grievances and arbitration are rare, both were more frequent in Local 51’s early years, when the company took a hard-line position against many of the issues raised by the new union, said longtime activist Larry Sandler.

“Our relationship with management has developed to the point where many issues are resolved through informal discussions,” Sandler said. “It was our willingness to fight, and our success at it, that helped convince management it was more productive to deal with us in a more conciliatory manner.”

Pearson also offered the following advice for bargaining unit members:
If you are called into a meeting with your supervisor and/or management representatives, and the meeting turns to discussion of a disciplinary action, stop the meeting immediately and request a Guild representative. You can find a list of steward leaders on Guild bulletin boards and on the Guild Web site.

This is important because:
- It's good to have someone representing you who can take notes and provide a report on what was said.
- Your head likely will be swimming with details about what the problem and punishment is. Another person may be able to provide some clear thinking.
- The Guild representative should have a working knowledge of the contract or point you in the direction of someone who does.
- Two heads always are better than one - another person may raise points or ask questions you didn't think of.

Can’t get enough Guild news?

Is once a month just not enough for you? Now you can get your Guild news as it breaks, without waiting for this newsletter.

The fastest way to find out what’s happening in the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild Local 51 is by checking out the postings on our blog, or by visiting this newsletter.

And the fastest way to find out when the blog has been updated is to subscribe to it. In the right-hand column of the blog, you’ll find a subscription form. All you have to do is fill in your e-mail address and click on “subscribe.” First you’ll get an e-mail with a password you can use to change or cancel your subscription.

Then you’ll get an e-mail each time the blog is updated with a new posting. Just like that.

Also, you can find the complete text of our 2005-'08 contract now on this site. If you'd like to compare it with our previous contract, that's still posted as well.

Also on this site, you can find a current list of Guild leaders and stewards; general information about the Guild; handy links to labor organizations; and current and previous newsletters.

Still to come is an updated list of benefits available to union members.

Our new contract extends for the first time company-paid educational assistance to some part-time staffers and continues this benefit for all full-time bargaining unit members, although at a lower level than in previous contracts.

Under the new contract language, part-time employees in the bargaining unit with at least five years of service are eligible to have the company pay 50 percent of the cost of tuition, fees, books and other required materials up to $3,000 per employee per calendar year for undergraduate courses and up to $4,000 per employee per calendar year for graduate classes.

Every full-time employee in the bargaining unit is eligible to be reimbursed by the company for 75 percent of these educational costs up to the same maximums per employee and per calendar year.

The previous contract had called for the company to reimburse 100 percent of educational costs for full-timers up to the same maximum levels. To receive the reimbursement, the employee's application for the educational assistance must be approved by management.

During contract negotiations, management representatives indicated considerable leeway had been used in the past in granting these requests based on the types of educational courses employees were taking.

Still, company records reviewed by the Guild bargaining committee showed that over the last five years, very few staffers had taken advantage of this contract benefit.

Does it really make sense to punish the reporters
who went to see Springsteen?

Let me first say that I consider myself an ethical person. My husband sometimes says that I’m law-abiding to a fault: Like the time we found the grocery store bagger accidentally gave us a cart that had a huge candy bar hidden under an advertisement. It was clearly the property of either the store or some other shopper, so I returned it. I try not to speed and I always stop for yellow lights. If I’m given too much money in change, I give it back.

As the company video we all had to watch said over and over again, “Ethics is doing the right thing.” I believe in doing the right thing. But there is a dangerous new trend at newspapers that is being sold as ethics. I’m not buying it. I guess it’s part of the ugly aftermath of the Jayson Blair debacle. But it’s not the “right thing.” We need look no further than to our Guild brothers and sisters in the Minnesota local for some of the most egregious examples of a bad idea gone worse.

Jennie Tunkieicz

In September, a part-time copy editor with the St. Paul Pioneer Press was suspended from work for three days without pay for attending a peace rally in Washington, D.C., organized by his Catholic church.

The decision, according to a story from City Pages, a non-union Twin Cities weekly alternative paper, left Mahoney and many of his colleagues flummoxed. “There is an issue of conscience, of religion,” he says. “I’m not trying to put myself forth as any kind of pious person at all. I’m not. But it’s a matter of personal belief. It seemed to me ­ and still does ­ completely harmless to the interests of the Pioneer Press.”

Mahoney’s personal knowledge of warfare makes the decision even more galling, the City Pages story said. He served as a rifleman in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War.

“It’s sort of where I learned that wars are not pretty and that you better be fighting for something worthwhile because a lot of very bad things happen,” he says. “I learned that firsthand.”

Last year, two reporters who do not cover politics were suspended for three days without pay for attending Bruce Springsteen’s Vote for Change tour in Minneapolis. The suspensions got national attention for the two reporters and the newspaper. People wrote to the Pioneer Press calling the decision “Orwellian,” “frightening,” “outrageous,” idiotic,” “ridiculous” and “dishonest.” Hmm. That went over well with readers.

The Minnesota Guild has reached a confidential settlement in the Springsteen case and is fighting Mahoney’s suspension.

I’d like to see our discussions concentrate on the ethics of good journalism, like Bob Steele’s “Ask These 10 Questions to Make Good Ethical Decisions” at www.poynter.org.

Do I think our government reporters should have candidate bumper stickers on their cars? No. Should I run for the Racine County Board? Definitely not.

But how does it make sense to suspend a part-time copy editor and Vietnam veteran for going to a rally with his church, or to punish Springsteen fans who don’t cover politics? That’s not ethics; that’s bullying.

Jennie Tunkieicz is the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild president. What do you think? E-mail her at jenniet@sbcglobal.net.

Ever wonder how old that sandwich is in the vending machine? Want to see some new menu selections in the cafeteria? How about some healthier snacks in the machines?

Our recently signed contract calls for the creation of a new joint committee composed of Guild and management representatives to conduct a survey of cafeteria services and recommend to the company and the cafeteria manager any suggested improvements.

The committee then will help implement the recommendations and continue to monitor cafeteria hours, service and vending machine operations.

So, we're looking for a few foodies, cafeteria regulars or occasional take-out orderers, vending machine devotees or sometime-snackers or anyone interested in the cafeteria and vending operations to be Guild representatives on the new cafeteria committee.

Service on the committee should not involve a great deal of time or eating.

Please contact Amy Rinard at (262) 650-3184 or e-mail for more information or to volunteer.