Negotiators agreed Thursday to keep two job security provisions unchanged in the next contract between the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc.
But the deal does not affect the most crucial job security issue on the table: severance and notice pay during an economic downsizing. That question remains to be negotiated.
One of Thursday’s tentative agreements focuses on a different kind of severance. The contract provides one week of severance pay for each year of service when employees are terminated for reasons other than economic reductions in force, gross misconduct, excessive absenteeism or excessive tardiness. Management had sought to eliminate that payment.
The other agreement deals with probation periods. The Guild had sought to reduce the probation period for newly hired journalists from six months to 12 weeks, the same as for non-journalists. In a package deal, Guild negotiators agreed to drop our probation proposal and management negotiators agreed to drop their individual severance proposal.
Later in the talks, negotiators will tackle the larger severance provision, which calls for employees who lose their jobs in a downsizing to receive two weeks of severance pay for each year of service, plus 60 days’ notice or 60 days’ pay. The company is seeking to cut the severance pay from two weeks to one week per year of service, and to eliminate the notice pay altogether. The Guild is seeking to keep both parts of the provision intact.
We also discussed contract provisions dealing with columnists Thursday. The next bargaining sessions are set for Oct. 1 and Oct. 2.