51: August/September 2006

Guild to elect new Executive Board
Local 51 files grievance over vacation payout
Column: Contract helps ensure fairness in newsroom
Talking It Out: MKE managers’ bargaining-unit under review
SAY CHEESE: Sending a message in Toledo
Stewards will train in October
Company, Guild to negotiate pension changes
4 members take on new tasks

Guild to elect new Executive Board

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 and public spokesperson), 1st vice president (in charge of grievances and other forms of contract enforcement), 2nd vice president (in charge of membership, mobilizing and communications), secretary (in charge of the Guild office and taking notes at meetings), treasurer (our chief financial officer) and five board members (all expected to be active in committee work and attending board meetings).

If you’re interested in seeking any of those offices, contact President Jennie Tunkieicz or Secretary Kawanza Newson. Nominations also will be accepted from the floor.

Also at the membership meeting, we’ll vote on whether to keep dues at their current low level. And we’ll decide how many delegates to send to the international Guild’s 2007 sector conference, elect those delegates (and maybe some alternates) and pick one of them to represent us at the Communications Workers of America’s international convention as well.

Local 51 files grievance over vacation payout

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has filed a grievance and continues to work on a case involving vacation payout.

The case in question involves the Transitional Vacation Accounts, which affect employees hired since the merger.

Management wanted those people to be placed on an earn-as-you-go vacation system. Thus, those workers no longer accrue vacation in the previous year; they accrue it during the current year. The big difference under the new system: If an employee leaves the job on June 30, he or she would be eligible for only half of that year's vacation pay, not the full amount as had been the case under the old system.

To compensate these people, the TVAs were established to provide some payback to employees who had their vacation accrual system changed.

Problems arose when Waukesha Bureau reporter Reid Epstein recently left the company. Epstein would have qualified for a third week of vacation later this year. The Transitional Vacation Accounts language says, “Each account will contain the same amount of vacation as the affected employee would be entitled to take during 2006.”

The Guild argues that Epstein should receive three weeks from his TVA because that's the amount of vacation he would have received in 2006.

The company argues Epstein should get only two weeks from his TVA because that’s what he was eligible for when he left.

Further, Epstein had taken more than two weeks of vacation already in 2006, figuring he had three weeks coming this year. The company deducted the days in excess of two weeks from the amount that was paid out from his Transitional Vacation Account.

The Guild feels this violates the contract provision that states employees will not be required to reimburse the employer for taking more vacation than was earned at the time of departure.

A grievance hearing was held recently, and the grievance was denied. That denial has been appealed.

Contract helps ensure fairness in newsroom

In Kenosha, the Newspaper Guild sells bags of peanuts at the annual Labor Day Picnic in Columbus Park. They joke that it’s a tongue-in-cheek representation of their wages. But the workers at that small, union newspaper know that their counterparts at non-union newspapers across the United States would be lucky to be able to afford 50 cents to buy that bag of Kenosha Newspaper Guild peanuts. When non-Guild members at our newspaper ask how unions are relevant in today’s society, I have to answer with a question of my own, “Have you ever worked at a non-union newspaper?”

Jennie Tunkieicz

Some of them have, but frequently I find that after their time at a union paper such as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, they have forgotten about the low wages, lack of overtime or time-off compensation, the willy-nilly firings and erratic management.

I’ve been blessed to work at two union newspapers, but I have heard the horror stories from people I’ve met who have not been so lucky.

When I was a city editor, I hired a young man from another Wisconsin paper. He was so grateful to get the job because his living conditions were awful, he said. His full-time income at that paper was so low that he had to live in a subsidized housing project and said he was always worried about his safety.

A woman I met from a non-union paper in Florida said she had to work two part-time jobs to supplement her full-time reporter salary. But, she said, it was tough to keep those part-time jobs because her hours were so irregular at the paper. And, no, she didn’t get overtime pay.

A contract guarantees fairness. It’s that simple.

Please take a few minutes sometime in September to think about what it means to be at a union paper.

If you are not currently a member, and you have questions about the union, the contract and why these should be important to you, please ask me. I would love to talk to you about it.

For all of you members, I want to thank you for making this a better place to work. Without yoU, there is no Union! I love a cheesy joke.

Happy Labor Day!

Talking It Out: MKE managers’ bargaining-unit under review

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 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 three managers through late October. That was similar to the treatment of JS Online in its early years. The company has requested an extension of this temporary exemption, triggering the upcoming talks.

Journal Sentinel management has taken some positive steps this year to address Guild concerns about bargaining-unit work by newsroom managers, mainly through a contract provision that calls for gradually reducing the number of jobs excluded from contractual protection. In July, the company moved the vacant position of News Information Center manager into the bargaining unit. That followed a similar January move for the database editor. The Guild had repeatedly objected to the amount of bargaining-unit work handled by both of those managers.

As a result of those moves, the number of excluded positions has dropped from 58 last year to 56 this year. One more excluded job is to be moved into the bargaining unit by Jan. 1, followed by further negotiations on the issue next summer.

Say Cheese

During a visit for a Tri-Council meeting in May, Amy Rinard, Jennie Tunkieicz and Jerry Ziegler let the management at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, know what the Guild thinks about their tactics. The Blade has locked out a third of its union workers in a contract dispute. The three unions locked out represent about 200 workers, including the drivers who deliver papers to drop-off sites, workers who process advertisements and mailers who assemble the papers. Eighteen workers with the paper’s engravers and handlers unions were locked out this spring.

Stewards will train in October

Steward leaders and stewards will be asked to attend a two-hour training session in early October.

What is a Guild steward, you ask? The steward should be your first line of contact if you have a problem, contract question or other Guild-related issue. At the Milwaukee Local, we have one steward assigned for every eight to 10 people in the bargaining unit. There are four steward leaders who assist the stewards with any questions or issues that arise.

“I really appreciate the time that both the stewards and the steward leaders have given in making the Guild stronger,” President Jennie Tunkieicz said. “Through this training session, we are looking to strengthen the steward system to make sure we are giving people the best possible representation.”

The stewards will be contacted in coming weeks and asked to sign up for one of four training sessions that will be offered.

Company, Guild to negotiate pension changes

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 exchange for a 3% company contribution to the 401(k) plan — but to replace traditional pensions with 401(k) contributions for everyone hired after May 1 of this year. The grievance argues the changes, particularly for new hires, were too drastic for the company to impose without bargaining with the Guild.

At this writing, it was not clear how the changes would affect part-timers who are not yet vested in the pension plan. Guild leaders are seeking more information on that point.

Meanwhile, the company has been mailing out information and is setting up meetings this month to discuss the pension changes with employees.

The Guild urges you to pay close attention to how the changes would affect you. Your financial circumstances will determine whether you should stay in the traditional plan or take the 401(k) contribution.

Here are some things you might not have realized about the retirement options being offered by Journal Sentinel Inc.:
- 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 give you anything toward your retirement next year. The company’s pension contributions would end in 2006, but the first 3% contribution won’t show up in your 401(k) until 2008.
- That 3% annual contribution would be in addition to — not instead of — any match that you're already getting on your 401(k) or that you might get in the future. But, like the match, the annual contribution would not be guaranteed. At first, company brochures said the annual contribution would be dependent on company profits, like the match. A later brochure said it would not be dependent on company profits, but the company still reserves the right to change it later. Pensions, by contrast, enjoy certain protections under federal law.

The Guild’s bargaining team is led by board member Dave Kirner, a former Local 51 president and a veteran union leader in both our local and our sister Communications Workers of America local in the composing room. First Vice President Greg Pearson and Jerry Ziegler, a steward leader and board member, will join him.

4 members take on new tasks

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 everyone in our bargaining unit is being paid what the contract requires. This job was handled for many years by Bob Helbig in conjunction with his role as treasurer and his former roles as vice president and president. The board decided this should be separate from the treasurer’s job. Johnson will join vice presidents and steward leaders on the Grievance & Representation Committee.

Rodenburg, a night copy editor and steward, will handle production of Fifty-One as a key member of the Communications Committee. She replaces Reid Epstein, who resigned to take a job at Newsday. Rodenburg and Johnson will complete terms that expire at the October board meeting, when the newly elected board decides whether to reappoint or replace appointed leaders.

The Grievance & Representation Committee has named Pat McIlheran and Dave Lee as our newest stewards. McIlheran, an editorial page columnist, will represent the Editorial Board, replacing editorial writer Dick Foster, who retired. Lee, an MKE copy editor, will represent the MKE staff, replacing MKE reporter Nikki Sweeney, who resigned to take a job at Marquette University. Both McIlheran and Lee will complete terms that expire Oct. 18, a month after the Sept. 18 meeting, when the new Grievance & Representation Committee decides whether to reappoint or replace stewards.