Talkin’ ’bout the next generation’s editors

Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators will meet soon to discuss how much bargaining-unit work MKE managers should be allowed to do. In the main Journal Sentinel newsroom, the contract limits bargaining-unit work by managers. Because MKE is a new operation, the Guild agreed not to file any grievances over bargaining-unit work by the publication’s […]

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Guild elections coming up

You haven’t seen any campaign commercials for this election, but you still have candidates to vote for. The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild will elect its next Executive Board at the membership’s annual meeting, at noon Sept. 18 at Turner Hall. At stake are 10 offices, all with one-year terms starting Oct. 1: President (our top leader […]

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Fascinating facts about your retirement options

Here are some things you might not have realized about the retirement options being offered by Journal Sentinel Inc. — unless you read all the fine print: * If you take the option of freezing your pension benefits at the current level and taking the 3% annual employer contribution to your 401(k), the company won’t […]

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New Guild leaders named

Four Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members have stepped up to take on new responsibilities, replacing colleagues who have left our bargaining unit. The Guild’s board has confirmed Mike Johnson as wage data coordinator and Amy Rodenburg as newsletter editor. Johnson, a Waukesha Bureau reporter and steward, will be responsible for checking payroll information to ensure that […]

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Pension grievance leads to talks

Journal Sentinel Inc. has agreed to negotiate with the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild over changes to the Journal Communications pension plan, after the Guild filed a grievance on the issue. That grievance protests the company’s decision to offer veteran employees a choice of retirement plans — continuing in the pension plan or freezing current benefits in […]

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Again with the subscriptions

We really think it’s fixed now. Repeated problems have interfered with people receiving e-mail reminders when new items are posted on this blog. We thought we had this fixed before, and we asked people to sign up again, but that didn’t work. So we have now changed subscription services altogether, from bloglet.com to blogarithm.com. Subscriptions […]

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Pension tension?

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild leaders plan to review an abrupt change in the company’s pension plan. Many Journal Sentinel Inc. employees have received letters from the company in recent days, announcing the pension changes. The letter says that current employees will have a “choice” (the letter puts that word in quotes twice, as if corporate executives […]

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New Guild leaders elected

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members elected Amy Hetzner as treasurer and Mark Johnson as an at-large board member at Local 51’s membership meeting Monday. Hetzner, a Waukesha Bureau reporter, was appointed interim treasurer by the local’s Executive Board last month, after longtime Treasurer Bob Helbig was named to the management position of Journal Sentinel deputy business […]

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Time to renew your subscription

OK, let’s try this again. If you’d like the latest news about what’s happening in the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s bargaining unit, please scroll down the right side of this blog, type in your e-mail address and hit “subscribe.” You’ll get an e-mail reminder each time this blog is updated. And if you already did it […]

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Same time, same place next month

Our next membership meeting will be in our usual spot on the second floor of Turner Hall, at noon Monday, May 8. This meeting will feature a special election for treasurer and at-large board member (along with a free lunch). After Treasurer Bob Helbig was named to a management job, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s Executive […]

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