51: january 2006

Members approve 2005-08 contract
JS agrees on severance for two part-time reporters
Column: There’s lots not to like in the contract, but it was the best deal we could get
Let's Party: Social Events

We have a new contract.

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators signed a 2005-2008 contract Friday with Journal Sentinel Inc. Last month, members ratified the pact, 116-25.

Although the margin was decisive and the turnout impressive, that was still the most "no" votes ever cast against a contract recommended by the Executive Board and the Bargaining Committee, reflecting dissatisfaction with the combination of the smallest wage package in years and rising health-care costs. This was also the first time that members conducted active “vote no” and “vote yes” campaigns, contributing to a vigorous and serious debate on the issues.

So what happens now? The Guild will be posting the new contract soon on our Web site, milwaukeenewsguild.org. Management plans to distribute paper copies of the contract, and the Guild will consider publishing the contract in booklet form.

Most terms and conditions of the new contract took effect immediately upon signing, while some were retroactive to either Jan. 1, 2005, or Jan. 1 of this year and a few will take effect in future years. Here’s a look at some key provisions:

Jump to:
Wages
Differentials
Health Care
Vacation
Other time off
Tuition Reimbursement

“When do I get my money?” is, not surprisingly, the most frequently asked question from our members.

We should see some of it on the next paycheck. If all goes well, management has said it hopes that our Jan. 19 paychecks reflect our new pay rates.

For most of us, that will be two 1.5% raises -- one retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, and one effective Jan. 1, 2006 -- which will be just slightly more than 3% because of compounding.

Back pay could take several weeks to calculate and distribute; management says the payments are likely to be divided into several pieces, with the last piece (possibly as late as March) being the one-time lump-sum bonus that the contract provides in lieu of a 2005 discretionary raise.

Future 1.5% across-the-board raises are set for Jan. 1 of 2007 and 2008. Discretionary raises will return to their normal form -- i.e., added to our wage rates - this year and in 2007 and 2008.

While much discussion about the proposed new contract understandably focused on the 1.5% across-the-board raise, changes in the minimum wage scales are expected to bring larger guaranteed raises to about one-quarter of our bargaining unit. The Guild leadership estimates that nearly 70 of the approximately 270 workers covered by our contract -- ranging from part-time score-takers to full-time Senior Journalists -- will receive raises larger than 1.5% in at least one of the contract's four years as a result of these changes, not counting discretionary or "merit" raises.

First, a quick review of how minimums work. Each job classification is divided into at least two pay steps, based on experience or seniority; journalists, editorial assistants and News Information Center workers also have "senior" classifications based on responsibility or performance. The contract sets a minimum wage for each level, and that minimum rises at the beginning of each year. Under the old contract, part-timers could be paid 80% of the applicable full-time hourly minimum for their first two years as a journalist or their first three years as a non-journalist.

Therefore, you get raises through the minimums if your pay is below the new minimum for your classification at the beginning of the year; if you move up to a higher pay step or a higher classification; or if you move up from the 80% level to 100% parity as a part-timer. In the first case, at the beginning of the year, you would get either the across-the-board raise or the amount needed to bring you up to the new minimum, whichever is greater.

What changes in the new contract? For one thing, minimums rise by 2% in 2005 and 2006 and 2.5% in 2007 and 2008, with slightly larger increases for a few classifications. While it's normal for minimums to rise more than the rate of the across-the-board raise, and this is a smaller bump than in most past contracts, the combined impact of unusually small across-the-board raises and smaller discretionary raises magnifies the impact of the minimum increases. The Bargaining Committee estimates that will put more than $40,000 in our members' pockets beyond what the 1.5% raises would produce.

For the largest group of employees, full-time journalists, weekly minimums would rise from $750 in 2004 to $765 in 2005 and $780 this year at the first step (less than three years in the business); from $865 in 2004 to $882 in 2005 and $900 this year at the second step (more than three years in the business); from $963 in 2004 to $982 in 2005 and $1,002 this year at the third step (based on seniority at this paper); and from $1,113 in 2004 to $1,135 in 2005 and $1,158 this year for Senior Journalists (based on responsibilities or merit).

Also, part-time minimums will rise from 80% to 90% of the full-time hourly minimum after the first year of service, a significant boost for most score-takers and some editorial assistants. Finally, the lowest-paid classification, Messenger, will be abolished and merged into the higher-paid Clerk classification, and a change in the Senior Editorial Assistant definition has already helped one employee move up. Those changes also could amount to hundreds of dollars a year more for each of the workers affected.

Several changes in differential pay took effect Jan. 1.

Online producers and designers became eligible for the 65-cent-an-hour production differential on night and weekend shifts. Holiday differential rose from $5 to $7. Pay for filling in for managers rose from $15 to $20. And callback pay (for sudden schedule changes) rose from $8 to $9.

More differential increases are ahead in future years. Night differential and weekend differential will each rise by 5 cents an hour in 2007 and again in 2008. Production differential, holiday differential and callback pay all will rise next in 2008.

Nothing changes right away. That means we’re still paying lower premium rates than everyone else in the company for the next few months. But when the new plan year starts on April 1, we will be subject to the same rate increases as all other Journal Sentinel employees.

The same will be true for the plan years starting April 1 of 2007 and 2008. The best we were able to do for those years was to guarantee the company will pay at least 65% of the Standard Plan premium cost; management had sought to eliminate all contractual guarantees on premiums.

Even before the contract was signed, Guild representatives were fanning out across the newsroom to ensure that the vacation provisions will be properly administered.

Stewards and steward leaders are verifying vacation totals for everyone hired from 1995 to now. The union needs this information to check whether the company is depositing the correct amount of vacation in "transitional vacation accounts" that are being set up for all less-senior staffers.

Starting Jan. 1, the new contract changed the way vacations are earned by this group of workers. Until now, all of us have earned our vacations the year before we took them. Anyone hired before 1995 remains on that system, but everyone hired afterward (in practice, everyone hired since the Journal and Sentinel merged) moves onto a new system of earning vacation the same year they take it.

Obviously, a year's worth of vacation would have fallen through the cracks if people just moved straight from one system to the other. To prevent that from happening, the contract sets up the special accounts, or TVAs, with the same amount of vacation that each employee will have for 2006, be it two, three or four weeks. Workers can then take up to one week per year of that extra vacation between now and 2011.

For more senior employees, the only change is in the rate at which the fifth week of vacation is paid out if you roll it over until you leave the company. Employees hired from now on will no longer be able to earn a fifth week of vacation after 20 years of service.

Effective immediately, funeral leave for the deaths of aunts and uncles rises from two to three days off for full-timers and from one to two days off for part-timers, the same as for most other relatives. Part-timers become eligible for paid time off for jury duty. And new employees become eligible immediately for the paid portion of maternity leave, instead of waiting until they’ve been on staff for six months.

Starting Jan. 1, reimbursement for educational courses dropped from 100% to 75% for full-timers, but rose from zero to 50% for part-timers with at least five years of seniority at the Journal Sentinel.

Questions? Ask one of the Bargaining Committee members -- Jennie Tunkieicz, Larry Sandler, Amy Rinard, Janine Ghelfi or Dave Kirner -- or another Guild representative.

The Guild recently worked out an agreement to settle a grievance over the layoffs of part-time reporters Adam Bergstrom and Linda Hanig. Adam and Linda were told Oct. 31 they had 60 more days to work as part-time, weekend police reporters for the Journal Sentinel.

The company cited economic reasons. Each was working one night a week, handling the busiest – and least-desirable – shifts: weekend nights.

The Guild filed a grievance, protesting the layoffs. After a grievance hearing and discussions with Adam and Linda, a settlement was reached both found satisfactory.

While they will not be returning to work, they will receive two weeks of severance pay per each year worked, as well as some additional benefits. These settlements also do not set precedent for future cases.

Two contractual benefits the Guild's negotiating team fought long and hard to retain were factors in Adam and Linda's case. They were given the required 60-day notice, and received the two weeks of severance per year. Management had sought to eliminate the 60-day notice and reduce the severance pay in the new contract, but those benefits will continue for newsroom employees represented by the Guild.

One side note: Reporters from throughout the local news operation now will be filling their shifts, which usually run until 1:30 a.m. If you are assigned to work the late police shift either Sunday or Saturday and are expected to show up any earlier than 11:30 a.m. Monday, there's extra money coming your way. That's because the contract sets a minimum turnaround time of 10 hours between consecutive shifts, or 34 hours if a day off intervenes. If you have a shorter turnaround, the difference is paid at the overtime rate of time-and-a-half. For example, if you are required to come in at 9 a.m. Monday, that would be 2.5 hours short of the minimum turnaround, so you would fill out an OT card to be paid time-and-a-half between 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and mark it “turnaround.”

If you are in this position, you may be able to work out an arrangement with your editors to come in late that Monday, which would reduce the turnaround pay but increase your sleeping time.

There’s lots not to like in the contract,
but it was the best deal we could get

It's over. After more than 18 months, the contract has been settled and it was approved by an overwhelming margin, with one of the highest voter turnouts in the Guild's 22-year history.

I think many of you were like me: You voted for it, but with your fingers tightly holding your nose from the stench of the economic and health care package. So, I won't be a cheerleader for the contract we approved. But, I also won't apologize for it. The bargaining committee – Larry Sandler, Amy Rinard, Janine Ghelfi, Dave Kirner and Newspaper Guild International Representative Darren Carroll – worked very hard to get the best agreement possible. I can say, without hesitation, that this was the best agreement possible.

Jennie Tunkieicz

Thank-you is hardly adequate for the time, sweat, heartache and sometimes tears that the bargaining committee put into this process.

Special thanks go to Larry Sandler for the countless hours he spent on research, formulating proposals, perfecting language and generally keeping me in line. I'm so glad that Janine Ghelfi and Dave Kirner agreed to serve on the bargaining committee because we needed their experience and knowledge. This was the first time Amy Rinard served on a bargaining committee and I know she found it was quite an eye-opening experience. Her insight was greatly appreciated and she really contributed to the whole process. We knew these negotiations would be among the toughest in Guild history and that's why we asked for help from the Newspaper Guild. We're grateful for Darren Carroll's guidance as we maneuvered through these difficult waters.

There are many others who helped in many ways throughout the bargaining process. Thanks go out to: Amy Hetzner and Karen Samelson for their research help; various “guest” negotiators, Linda Spice, Emmett Prosser, Meg Kissinger, Gina Barton, Jan Uebelherr and Carol Deptolla; and the Referendum Committee, Bob Helbig, Kawanza Newson and Amy Rodenburg.

You have already heard about the good, the bad and the ugly in this contract. It was laid out very well prior to the vote.

As Bob Helbig put it, “This contract contains many good things.” It does.

And, as Mark Johnson said, “You deserve better than this contract.” You do.

Bargaining “officially” started on April 28, 2004. Early on in the process, the company referenced what they said would be a “less than traditional wage increase” and then they proposed a 1% across-the-board wage increase for all employees. Flip ahead to the company's “last, best and final” offer in December 2005: They increased that amount by only half of a percentage point.

I've been on the labor side of contract negotiations for more years than I care to think about. This was the first time that I've seen a wage proposal come up only half of a percentage point after more than 18 months of wrangling. But, this is also the first time that I've been at the bargaining table during such precarious times in the newspaper industry.

Make no mistake: This newspaper is making money. The company has never pleaded poverty. But, double-digit profits are apparently not enough.

Many of us have friends at other newspapers and we're hearing their horror stories. We know about the layoffs in Chicago, New York, San Francisco...the list goes on.

Now we have made our sacrifice to this newspaper. I hope the company understands what that means and appreciates it. We want this newspaper to succeed, and we want job retention and protection.

And, to me, what all of this means is that the Guild has never been more important.

Heywood Broun, founder of what was then called the American Newspaper Guild, said the following in 1935 and it rings true here today:
“(Newspapermen and women) will realize today, as never before, that improvements will come not out of the generosity of the publishers, but by themselves working together, inside the Guild.”

Jennie Tunkieicz is the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild president.

Following the success of a Guild-sponsored comedy performance by local comedian John McGivern, more social events are being planned for members this year. About 65 Guild members and their guests attended the Nov. 6 show at ComedySportz, which was preceded by drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

McGivern, a Milwaukee native and former Journal and Sentinel paperboy, visited the newsroom before the show. His performance, tailored to the Guild crowd, included his hilarious outsider's take on the afternoon news meeting and a cheer for unions from a union actor.

Other social events being considered for this year include a Milwaukee River boat cruise and an outing to a Brewers game. If you have any ideas for other events, please contact Social Committee Chairwoman Vikki Ortiz.