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51: Summer 2009

Buyout, layoff take a third of Guild staff
Save the date
Picnic with the Guild
Several board positions open after cuts
Contract negotiations moving slowly
Membership rate near top
News in brief
Dark days and hopes for a brighter future

Buyout, layoff take a third of Guild staff

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in recent weeks has cut 69 more jobs of employees represented by the Guild — just about one-third of our workforce. The reduction included 32 people who took a buyout, the fourth offered by the company in a little more than two years.

This time, though, another 34 employees lost their jobs involuntarily. This was the first of the four buyouts to be followed by involuntary dismissals.

A few also left outside the buyout.

The 69 job losses, plus six managers who left, were the most since the 1995 merger. The cuts made — either through buyouts or dismissals — included most of the newsroom’s part-time workers, the entire News Information Center staff, most newsroom editorial assistants and all but two of the sports department’s score takers.

The cuts also claimed some of the longest-serving newsroom employees. Job losses since the first buyout in 2007 now total 125.

What happens now? Departments will have to do their jobs with fewer people. Staffs will be stretched thin. Filling slots on weekends and holidays will be harder than ever.

Guild leaders have been meeting with our attorney, Barbara Zack Quindel, and our international representative, Darren Carroll, to consider what actions to take to challenge the involuntary cuts.

Save the date

Membership meeting:

• Noon
  Tuesday, Sept. 29
  Turner Hall
  Lunch will be provided.

Picnic with the Guild

To honor the dozens of talented people who have left the Journal Sentinel in the last two rounds of downsizing, Local 51 is planning a picnic from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.

We’ve reserved the shelter at Gordon Park, at Locust St. and Humboldt Blvd. on the Milwaukee River in Riverwest. The Guild will provide soda, water, plates, silverware and napkins. Please bring your own meat/ veggies to grill and a dish to pass. If you want harder beverages, you’re welcome to bring your own.

Bring your family or a friend. This is open to members, nonmembers and former members of the bargaining unit, so spread the word.

For details, see Karen Samelson or Jan Uebelherr.

Several board positions open after cuts

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has never needed you more.

And now you will have your chance to serve. Guild members will meet at noon Sept. 29 at Turner Hall to elect a new Executive Board for our local and to vote on bylaws changes and other issues. By mid-October, the newly elected board will fill most of the appointed posts that help keep the union running.

Many Guild positions are now vacant. This year’s combination of two buyouts and a layoff have claimed more current and former Guild activists than we can list in this article; we’ll say goodbye to them in the next newsletter.

But we will mention the highestranking leader to depart: our second-incommand, 1st Vice President Sonya Jongsma Knauss. After being told her job as letters editor was being eliminated, Knauss quickly won a transfer to MilwaukeeMoms.com, where she has taken over as editor and general manager. The move kept her at Journal Sentinel Inc., but unfortunately not in our bargaining unit.

Over the past three years, Knauss rose from board member to 2nd vice president to 1st vice president, never completing a full term in any position, as she moved up in the wake of other departures. Most recently, she assisted our bargaining committee in negotiations.

At this writing, the board was seeking an interim replacement for Knauss, who was in charge of grievances and other contract enforcement efforts. But any appointment would last only until the election, when all 10 board seats are at stake.

In addition to a 1st vice president, members will elect a president (our chief executive officer and spokesperson), 2nd vice president (in charge of membership and mobilizing, communications, and social events), secretary (managing our office and taking minutes), treasurer (our chief financial officer) and five at-large board members (all expected to be active in other Guild roles). All will serve one-year terms, starting Oct. 1.

Positions to be filled in October include steward leaders (each overseeing grievances, membership and stewards for part of our unit); chairs and members of the Communications, Social, Health & Safety, Human Rights and Organizing committees; a newsletter editor; Webmaster; technology coordinator (in charge of our office equipment); and Grievance & Representation Committee members to enforce wage provisions and handle posting and jurisdiction issues. Steward leaders and vice presidents will then name stewards.

Also on the agenda Sept. 29:

• Members will vote on two bylaws amendments, both in response to the shrinkage of our bargaining unit. One would reduce the board from 10 to eight members, with three at-large members instead of five, effective with the September 2010 election (unless vacancies occur before then). The other amendment would change the number of steward leaders from four to “up to three,” leaving the board to decide whether to name two or three.
• An annual vote will determine whether to keep the dues rate at its current level of 1%, a discount from the normal rate set by the international.
• Members will decide how many delegates to send to the international Guild sector conference, then elect those delegates, one of whom would also represent us at the international convention of our parent union, the Communications Workers of America.

The meeting is open only to dues-paying members. Lunch will be served.

Contract negotiations moving slowly

By August, contract negotiations between the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. were right on track — right on track with where we expected to be last December or January.

From mid-November through most of April, the talks were interrupted first by a four-month hiatus imposed by the company, then by emergency discussions over a buyout, followed by a wage cut, under threat of layoffs.

After we approved a 6.6% wage cut, in exchange for a limited no-layoff guarantee, both sides returned to the bargaining table in late April. But it didn’t take long before negotiations were again interrupted by a company-imposed twomonth hiatus, followed by discussions over another buyout, and then actual layoffs.

Our team was able to persuade the company to sweeten the latest buyout for full-timers with less than 15 years of seniority and for part-timers. The deal attracted 32 members of our bargaining unit, up from nine in the spring buyout, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the layoffs of 34 others, effective in early October.

All that aside, we have continued to bargain for a contract to replace the one that was supposed to expire at the end of last year. While negotiations continue, all provisions of the old contract have been automatically extended, although some provisions were modified by the wage-cut agreement. Among the developments this summer:

On-call system: Management proposed, then withdrew, a system for scheduling some reporters or photographers to be “on call” on weekends and holidays. Staffers would have been paid a $40 premium to be available for 12 hours on weekends or holidays, but they would have been compensated in time off, not cash, for hours worked if they were called in. The proposal collapsed after Guild bargainers questioned whether requiring people to work for comp time only in such cases would violate federal overtime laws.

Unpaid interns: The company proposed allowing the Journal Sentinel to hire up to 12 interns a year who would work for college credit rather than pay. Guild negotiators rejected the idea after our members told us they would not accept college students working for free in a newsroom that has laid off 34 of our colleagues from paying jobs.

Other issues: Both sides reached tentative agreement on jurisdiction language that allows editors to post brief online items that are either links to other online material or don’t require any reporting that normally would be done by bargaining-unit members. We also agreed to keep current language on drug and alcohol testing, discipline and union membership, and to make minor changes in several vacation provisions.

Other vacation issues remain open, including Guild proposals to provide the fifth week of vacation after 15 years, rather than 20, and to restore the fifth week for employees hired after 2005, as well as a management proposal to require departing employees to repay the company for taking more vacation than they have earned under the “earn-as-you-go” system. We also have discussed provisions dealing with health care, sick leave, pensions, 401(k) plans, tuition reimbursement, holidays, family leave, personal days, online columns and positions excluded from the bargaining unit.

Neither side has presented a complete wage proposal, and discussions have not yet turned to long-term job security issues. The next negotiating sessions are set for Sept. 2-3.

Committee changes: At its Aug. 5 meeting, our local’s Executive Board named sportswriter Tom Silverstein to the bargaining committee. Silverstein, a longtime steward, replaces editorial assistant Janine Ghelfi, who departed in the buyout. Ghelfi helped negotiate the last three contracts, in addition to serving a record 12.5 years as a steward leader and about 10 years on our board.

Membership rate near top

With all of the bad news at the Journal Sentinel lately, here’s a bit of good news: With membership recently at about 70%, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild had one of the highest membership rates among open-shop newspaper unions in the country.

That is according to an informal survey of open-shop papers and according to Darren Carroll, our international representative.

The figures were compared prior to the buyouts in July and the layoffs in August, which changed both our membership and the size of the unit we represent.

The Milwaukee Guild’s membership rate is the envy of most open-shop newspapers around the country, Carroll said.

“Guild activists in Milwaukee have developed a model approach to building membership, and the proof is in the numbers,” Carroll said. He cited the “nuts and bolts of good organizing,” including one-to-one contact, consistency and follow-through.

The informal survey found that the Milwaukee local’s membership rate exceeded that of open-shop Guild locals that represent the Washington Post; Indianapolis Star; the Sacramento, Fresno and Modesto Bees in California; and the Detroit News.

The locals that represent the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and the Detroit Free Press reported membership rates comparable to Milwaukee’s.

News in brief

Jobs board created

To help our colleagues who left the Journal Sentinel through buyouts and layoffs, the Guild has created a Google Groups jobs board where people can post job openings and tips. This is open to nonmembers as well. To get an invitation, e-mail ksamels@aol.com.

Newsletter wins award

Fifty-One, the newsletter of the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild, and its editor, Jen Steele, received second-place honors in the General Excellence Award for Print Communications competition sponsored by the Communications Workers of America.

The honor was announced last month. Fifty-One won in the category for CWA locals with fewer than 500 members.

Dark days and hopes for a brighter future

Greg Pearson

From the president

This has been a grueling six months for all of us.

The most recent round of buyouts and dismissals has left us with 69 fewer Guild-represented co-workers.

That’s a stunning number. The word I heard most frequently was “staggering.” Others have referred to the recent developments as “surreal.”

And it follows a spring vote to reduce our pay 6.6% in an effort to avoid more job cuts.

That effort didn’t last long. The Guild bargained for a guarantee of no layoffs through Sept. 30 when the pay cut was presented. Journal Sentinel management gave us notice of the next round of cuts as early as it could — clearly not wanting to wait beyond the end of the no-layoff period. Those dismissed in early August will be off the payroll by Oct. 3.

The speed and size of the cuts surprised many of us.

We all know about the economic downturn and seismic forces that have rocked the industry.

Still, I can’t help feel we deserved better than this.

I felt that way when one co-worker who was dismissed earlier this month told me, “This is the only place I ever wanted to work.”

I felt that way when another employee, also let go, told me he will probably lose his house now that he’s lost his job.

I felt that way when I talked with an editorial assistant, one of those folks who do the behind-the-scenes work too many of us take for granted. This person struggled for days with the decision about whether to take the buyout. Why? Because this person liked being here, liked the job and the co-workers, worked hard and was good at making our jobs easier.

The people who make up this newsroom have worked hard in careers they’ve loved. They’ve dedicated themselves to getting the story, cleaning up the copy, designing the pages, capturing the perfect photo.

For many of our co-workers, those opportunities are gone. We’ve now lost more than 130 of them in a little more than two years.

We know most, if not all, will never work at a newspaper again.

These are trying times. We’ve seen the boxes packed, the tearful goodbye hugs shared. We know the kind of talent that we’ve lost again and again. We’re mad that this is happening, frustrated by an industry that can’t seem to right itself. We worry about what will happen next — to us and to our desk mates.

My wish is this — that better days are ahead for all of us, whether you recently departed your job or you are continuing to work here.

Let’s hope there’s at least some improvement on the horizon for the industry.

Let’s hope our departed friends and co-workers land on their feet quickly.

But, no matter what awaits, know the Guild is here, both to assist those who have left and those who continue to work.