The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has now reached settlements for all but three of the 19 employees who filed grievances over last year’s downsizing. In late March, JSOnline producer Emmett Prosser returned to the newsroom, the only one of the group to date who has won back his job. Earlier this week, another employee reached a […]

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has set Thursday as the date to vote on a tentative agreement for our 2009-2011 contract with Journal Sentinel Inc. But first, we will hold our regular quarterly membership meeting at noon Wednesday at Turner Hall. International Representative Darren Carroll and Bargaining Committee members will be present to answer any questions […]

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has scheduled two more meetings for members to discuss the tentative agreement reached on our next contract with Journal Sentinel Inc. Those sessions have been set from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, and again from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. the same day. Both will be in the Journal Sentinel’s Abert […]

Negotiators for the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. reached tentative agreement Thursday on a new contract that would last through 2011. Reflecting our membership’s priorities, the deal would keep our current two weeks of severance pay per year of service in layoffs; require the company to offer buyouts before layoffs; call for the […]

None of the 39 Journal Sentinel Inc. employees laid off Monday came from the newsroom staff represented by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild. In a letter to employees, Publisher Betsy Brenner said the affected workers were taken from circulation, advertising and other business departments. She characterized the layoffs as the final staff cuts of 2009, a […]

Tom Held and Mary Louise Schumacher are the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s newest steward leaders. Our local’s Executive Board named Held, a Journal Sentinel metro reporter, and Schumacher, the newspaper’s art and architecture critic, to the posts for terms that started in October. Both had been stewards. Held now oversees contract enforcement, membership, mobilizing and stewards […]

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members have selected Meg Kissinger as our local’s second-in-command. Kissinger, a Journal Sentinel metro reporter, was elected 1st vice president, in charge of contract enforcement. She fills a position that had been vacant since letters editor Sonya Jongsma Knauss left the paper to become editor and general manager of MilwaukeeMoms.com. Over the […]

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has filed multiple grievances challenging the involuntary downsizing of 35 employees of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom. All of those workers were notified Aug. 4 that they would lose their jobs in early October. They are receiving full pay and benefits during the 60-day notice period required by our contract. One […]

Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators have withdrawn a contract proposal to schedule reporters or photographers to be “on call.” As originally submitted, the plan would have allowed the company to pay some staffers a $40 premium to be available for 12 hours on weekends or holidays, without being in the newsroom. But anyone who was called […]

On Tuesday, Journal Sentinel Inc. announced it had cut its staff by 92. This reduction included the permanent layoffs of 34 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom employees represented by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild, as well as the voluntary buyouts taken by 32 members of our bargaining unit and five managers. It was the largest layoff and […]