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Fifty-One: January/February 2011
Vacation agreement grants 2 more days
Newsroom staffing rebounds a bit
Health care deadlines
New appointments
TVA time must be used before the end of this year
Guild gets festive with holiday party, food
New vacation not a restoration of pay
Vacation agreement grants 2 more days
The Journal Sentinel's full-time newsroom employees now have two extra days off each year, as a result of an agreement approved, 55-5, by Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members.
That agreement amends our contract to incorporate several changes that management sought to bring us closer to a uniform vacation policy throughout Journal Communications Inc.
In addition to the extra days off, the deal gives all workers an extra three months to take their vacation time and restores the fifth week of vacation, after 20 years of service, for the least senior full- timers. On the downside, some employees now will need to pay back the company if they leave after taking more vacation than they "earned."
Here are the key points:
Floating holidays: We used to have one floating holiday for full-timers. A couple contracts ago, that became a vacation day, so every full-timer with three weeks of vacation, for example, has had three weeks and one day since then. This agreement turns that day back into a floating holiday and adds two more, for a total of three floating holidays every year, retroactive to Jan. 1.
Like the personal days we received in 2009 and 2010, unused floating holidays cannot be cashed out if you leave the company, whereas unused vacation can be cashed out. Therefore, if you think you might leave the company, it's your advantage to use your floating holidays earlier and your vacation later.
Short-term rollover: Under this agreement, we can take our vacation as late as March of the following year. For example, we could take unused 2011 vacation sometime in the first quarter of 2012. The rollover would not apply to the floating holidays.
The change is of particular importance this year for employees who were hired between 1995 and 2006 and who may have time remaining in their transitional vacation accounts. Because the TVA is supposed to be scheduled before the end of 2011, the change will allow affected employees to use up TVA first and roll over some 2011 vacation to early 2012. Guild representatives have personally contacted each affected employee to be sure they know how much TVA they have and how it must be used.
Fifth week: Most of our bargaining-unit members get five weeks of vacation after 20 years. In the 2004-'08 contract, we reluctantly gave up the fifth week for those hired in 2006 and later. This deal restores that fifth week for full-time employees.
Although our part-timers would not get the fifth week back, they would continue to get more vacation than those in any other department. The Guild contract lets newsroom part-timers earn vacation on the same schedule as full-timers. The rest of the company's part-timers must work here five years before they get any vacation, and then they're capped at 52 hours (slightly more than two weeks for those who work 24 hours a week).
Payback: Full-timers hired after 1994 are on the "earn-as-you-go" vacation system, in which they accrue vacation during the current year. Our previous contract language prohibited requiring people to repay the company if they left after taking more vacation than they had "earned." This change requires payback.
However, after our Executive Board voiced concerns about docking departing employees who had not planned to leave, management gave us on- the-record assurances that they never had done this to anyone who was involuntarily downsized or took a buyout, and they didn't intend to do so in the future.
For those affected by this change, using the floating holidays early in the year gives you a way to take time off without using vacation days not yet "earned." And starting next year, carrying over time from the year before also can be a way to take vacation early in the year without worrying about whether it has been "earned."
Newsroom staffing rebounds a bit
Journal Sentinel newsroom workers escaped the most recent round of downsizing and are finally starting to see our ranks grow a bit.
In other Journal Sentinel Inc. departments, however, an undisclosed number of employees lost their jobs late last year.
That included the last remnant of the composing room staff, whose work had been shifted to other employees or eliminated by technology. The company negotiated a deal with their union — an arm of the Communications Workers of America, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild's parent union — to buy them out of their contract's lifetime job guarantees.
Some non-union advertising and circulation employees also were downsized.
By contrast, the newsroom recently posted — and in some cases, has already filled — jobs for one full-time reporter, a couple of full-time online staffers, two part-time copy editors and a part-time editorial assistant.
For some of those jobs, that could be a tacit admission that the 2009 downsizing cut too deeply into needed positions. But it also reflects attrition since then, as well as an apparent financial rebound for the company in 2010. (Journal Communications had not released final year-end financial results as of this writing.) But the modest job gains of early 2011 don't come close to replacing the losses of two years ago.
Let's take a closer look by job category:
Online staff: Of the two full-time producers laid off, one moved to another part of the company and one won his job back through a Guild grievance. At this writing, jobs were posted for a producer and a multimedia editor, both full-timers.
Copy desk: The 10 full-time and eight part-time jobs lost were the largest single component of the 2009 cuts. Now two of the departed copy editors are returning as part-timers, at the same time two full- time copy editors are voluntarily going part-time.
Metro reporters: None of the eight full-time and two part-time reporters who left in the layoffs and buyouts were replaced. But the company has moved to fill two of the three full-time vacancies from reporters who left after the downsizing, by hiring a Madison Bureau reporter and posting a police reporter vacancy.
Support staff: Originally, six part-time score- takers were cut, but the company canceled two layoffs. Also, the company recently hired a part-time editorial assistant, after layoffs and buyouts took the jobs of nine editorial assistants, four photo techs and three archivists (10 full-timers, six part-timers).
Health care deadlines
The deadline to make your insurance selections is Feb. 11. Beware: If you don't enroll, the default is the $4,950 deductible plan for a single person, at the smoker rate. Also, don't forget to take the health survey and complete other wellness programs if you want the company contribution to your health savings account. The deadline for those items is Feb. 28.
New appointments
The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild's Executive Board has named business reporter Kathleen Gallagher as benefits coordinator and PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter Dave Umhoefer as health & safety coordinator. Gallagher will be our point person on health care, 401(k) accounts, pensions and other fringe benefits, while Umhoefer will deal with ergonomics, air quality and other health and safety issues.
TVA time must be used before the end of this year
A year-end deadline is approaching for dozens of newsroom employees to use additional vacation time called TVA.
Because of recent changes in our contract's vacation rules, employees have more flexibility to do that.
There are about 30 newsroom employees who are entitled to transitional vacation account time. Those employees were hired between Jan. 1, 1995, and Jan. 1, 2006. The TVA system was established through collective bargaining as a way to move some employees to an earn-as-you-go system of accruing vacation rather than earning vacation a year ahead of time, which is what pre-1995 hires do.
Through the TVA system, employees were given extra vacation, an amount equal to what they earned in 2006, representing what would have been lost in the transition between systems. In return, they were placed in the earn-as-you-go system. It reduces the amount of vacation time that Journal Sentinel Inc. must pay out to workers when they leave the company.
The contract specifies that TVA time must be used by the end of 2011. For many employees, using that time has proved difficult, given staff cutbacks that increased workloads combined with additional personal time off given in return for pay cuts.
Our advice: As you take time off this year, use up your TVA time before vacation time. The recent change in our contract's vacation provisions allows workers to roll over vacation into the next year as long as it is used by the end of March.
Management is insisting, per the contract, that TVA time cannot be rolled over. For a handful of employees who were entitled to four weeks of TVA time, the contract states that they can be compensated in cash for the fourth week if it can't be scheduled.
Work with your supervisor, or whoever handles the accounting of vacation in your department, to make sure that your time off is recorded properly.
As always, if you have any questions, please see a Guild representative.
Guild gets festive with holiday party, food
Jim Hoehn and Gary Markstein perform at the Guild holiday party Dec. 16 at Buck Bradley's.
After another tough year, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild's Executive Board decided it was high time to have a holiday party and let members kick up their heels.
New Local 51 President Tom Silverstein wanted to emphasize unity among members, and extended the invitation to the whole newsroom. Close to 60 people attended, including nonmembers and managers, and even our Madison bureau reporters escaped the Capitol to hold a special session with their Milwaukee colleagues.
The party in the upstairs room at Buck Bradley's on Dec. 16 came complete with smoked salmon and festive warm appetizers from Buck's, Sciortino's cookies and free beer and wine.
Guild member and 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Raquel Rutledge was gracious enough to contribute some of her hard-earned winnings toward making the party more festive.
Revelers were treated to live music by two talented guitarists with CDs to their names, online producer Jim Hoehn and local musician Kevin Mulvenna. They got an assist from former Journal Sentinel cartoonist and graphic artist Gary Markstein.
Even Santa Claus, who was once a union member himself, made a special appearance. He had been watching the boys and girls all year, or at least reading their bylines and blogs, and gave out Ho Hos to those he thought had been good. (Hint: He seemed to know members of the business staff quite well.)
Silverstein toasted Rutledge and the staff for all the hard work everyone had put in over the year and stressed the need for togetherness and support.
Special thanks also go to social chair Jan Uebelherr for arranging the party and Zeina Makky for designing eye-catching invitations.
Recognizing that many people in the Milwaukee area are hurting, the Guild encouraged newsroom members to take nonperishables to the party. A total of 120 pounds of food and a little cash was donated to Hunger Task Force.
Christmas workers thanked
The board also made a point to thank the staffers who worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The Guild provided cheese and appetizer trays for the several dozen people who produced the paper on those two days. Thanks to all who worked the holidays, helped with the party or contributed to the food drive.
New vacation not a restoration of pay
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| Tom Silverstein |
As reported on the front page of this newsletter, our membership overwhelmingly approved a vacation proposal that adds two more days off, allows us an extra three months to use our yearly vacation and restores a fifth week of vacation for all full- timers with 20 or more years of service.
I voted with the Local 51 board to recommend approval of the changes and it was good to see a healthy turnout at the polls. All in all, I think we all benefit from the proposal even though I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of people having to pay back used vacation time regardless of the situation.
All of us can use the extra two days off. We've been working harder than we've ever worked, for less pay than we once made and with little indication from management that either of those things are going to change.
What I would like to make clear to everyone is that this is not a reimbursement in any way of the 6.6% pay reduction we took in 2009.
This is a completely separate issue from pay restoration and should not be confused as such. Journal Communications wanted to make vacation policy uniform throughout the company and it just happened that it benefited us this time.
The three floating holidays are something we fought for in previous negotiations to no avail and the company chose for its own reasons to grant them in mid-term of the current contract.
What is clear is that Local 51 leadership remains committed to getting our 6.6% pay cut restored immediately and that our priority will not change until it is restored. The company had a solid third-quarter earnings report, should have an even better fourth- quarter report and is making a great deal of money off the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl run.
I met with Publisher Betsy Brenner in December to let her know that, through the survey we sponsored in the fall, the task membership set out for us was to get our 6.6% back. Betsy knows now — and she will be reminded again — that we made a huge sacrifice when the company was down and it's time to reward us for it.
Through the 6.6% committee we established, we plan to find new ways to push the company to give us full restoration of our wages. I hope to meet with Betsy again in the coming weeks to discuss the company's plans to make things right, and I assure you I won't stop prodding management until we get what we want.
I encourage everybody who is interested in being part of the 6.6% committee to send me an e-mail or attend the next meeting so I can hear your ideas on how we can move forward with our cause. We showed great unity in organizing and attending the holiday party and it's important that we continue to build our ranks so that we have maximum strength in the newsroom.
Let's keep the ball rolling.