Newsletter of the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild
Membership meeting
WHEN: Noon, Tuesday, Dec. 4.
WHERE: Turner Hall
AGENDA: Update on cellphone policy. Lunch will be served.
Wellness activity deadline approaching
Don’t forget: For those covered by Journal Communications health insurance, all wellness activities must be done by Feb. 28, and the survey must be completed to get any wellness credits.
3 new officers elected to executive board
Three new officers have joined the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s leadership team.
At our annual meeting Sept. 25, the local’s members elected online producer Jenn Amur as 1st vice president, in charge of contract enforcement; page designer Zeina Makky as 2nd vice president, in charge of membership and mobilizing; and business reporter Tom Content as secretary.
Amur has been a board member, bargaining committee member and human rights coordinator. She succeeds former feature writer Mary-Liz Shaw, who left the paper in a buyout this year.
Makky has been a board member, communications chair and steward. She succeeds copy editor Karen Samelson, who was elected to an at-large board seat after a record four full terms and one partial term as our membership chair.
Content is a two-term steward leader who also has served as a bargaining committee member and steward. He succeeds metro reporter Annysa Johnson, who was elected as an at-large board member after one term as secretary.
Members also re-elected sportswriter Tom Silverstein, to his third term as president; copy editor John Schumacher, to his first full term as treasurer; and metro reporter Jan Uebelherr, to her sixth full non-consecutive term as an at-large board member.
Once in office, the new Executive Board handed new responsibilities to two of our most experienced leaders.
Greg Pearson, a former Local 51 president who was also our longest-serving grievance vice president, has been named postings and exclusions coordinator. Pearson, a copy editor who served three full terms as 1st vice president, two full terms as president and one partial term in each office, succeeds former metro reporter Larry Sandler, who left the Journal Sentinel staff in a buyout.
Samelson, meanwhile, is our new communications chair, trading places with Makky.
The board also picked Annysa Johnson as health and safety coordinator, filling a post that had been vacant since Schumacher moved up to treasurer late last year, and page designer Sara Martinez as human rights coordinator, replacing Amur.
All three steward leaders were reappointed, with the same jurisdictions as in the 2011-’12 term: copy editor Russ Maki, to a fifth term in charge of contract enforcement, membership, mobilizing and stewards for news operations, JSOnline, photo and graphics; Pearson, to a sixth non-consecutive term handling union issues in sports, features/ entertainment and opinions; and Content, to a third term as the top Guild representative for the local news, business and watchdog teams.
Also reappointed were Uebelherr, as social chair; investigative reporter Gina Barton, as good and welfare chair; PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter Dave Umhoefer, as wage data coordinator; copy editor Mike Johnson, as benefits coordinator; copy editor Jen Steele, as newsletter editor; and JSOnline production coordinator Craig Nickels as webmaster.
In other action at the annual meeting, members:
- Elected Silverstein and Amur as our delegates to The Newspaper Guild’s 2013 international sector conference, with Makky, Content, Samelson and Uebelherr as alternates.
- Picked Silverstein as our delegate to the 2013 international convention of our parent union, the Communications Workers of America, with Amur, Makky, Content, Samelson and Uebelherr as alternates.
- Renewed the rebate provision that keeps our dues at 1% of our base pay.
Guild agrees to temps for projects
Two projects, the transition to NewsGate and a redesign of the newspaper to fit a smaller format, have led the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild to grant management’s request to make exceptions to the temporary employee provisions of our contract.
The Guild has agreed to let two temporary employees stay for eight months each and one for 10.5 months; the eight-month positions have been filled with part-time employees already on the newsroom staff.
This is a one-time waiver of a provision in the contract that limits the length of a temporary employee’s employment to six months.
In the new agreement, the Guild also is allowing the Journal Sentinel to have a maximum of five temporary employees on staff rather than the normal contractual limit of three.
The new agreement replaces an earlier agreement in which the Guild granted a request for six concurrent temps for just one month. The Guild had also agreed to let two temporary employees stay for seven months each but had reserved judgment about whether anyone could stay longer, while encouraging management to work out a solution that provided more hours to part-timers already on staff.
The new agreement also specifies that this is the final exception the Guild will allow for these special projects. The projected completion date for these projects is mid-May.
Health care help available for part-timers
If you’re a part-timer paying for your own health insurance, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild may be able to help out a little.
The Guild has a policy by which it will pay up to $500 per year to reimburse eligible part-timers for part of their insurance premiums.
The Guild chose to do so 10 years ago, since part-timers aren’t eligible for company health insurance. For years the Guild has tried to get coverage during contract negotiations, but the company has refused to budge.
Although no members have requested reimbursement in recent years, the Guild wants to make sure that part-timers who are members or thinking about joining know that the Guild understands their plight.
Here’s how it works:
- To be eligible, an employee must work at least an average of 12 hours per week but less than 40 hours per week for Journal Communications. He or she also must be a member of the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild at the time the insurance is purchased (premium paid) and still be a member when reimbursement is requested.
- The employee must not be eligible for health insurance through or be covered by a spouse’s or parent’s plan, Medicare or Medicaid.
- Reimbursement will be made for health insurance premiums only, including premiums for vision and/or dental insurance.
For full details, see Karen Samelson.
Celebrate the holidays with the Guild
You work hard and you deserve a party. So once again, we’re making that happen.
The Guild’s annual Holiday Party is set for 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 14, at Buck Bradley’s on Old World Third St.
We’ll serve a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings, plus lots of hot and cold appetizers and drinks. We’ll have live music, too: Legendary Milwaukee musicians John Sieger and Greg Koch will perform. And just like last year, we’ll have a cash raffle with a top prize of $100.
This party is open to all – members and non- members alike – as well as spouses and significant others.
Watch for an Evite and flyer, and please RSVP. Questions? Ask your friendly steward.
Guild members and their guests enjoy dinner and celebrate Halloween — some more festively than others — at the Guild’s party at the Old German Beer Hall.
2 members fill vacant steward positions
Milwaukee Newspaper Guild leaders have named two new stewards to fill vacancies.
PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter Dave Umhoefer, who also serves as wage data coordinator, will serve as steward for metro columnists and the watchdog and PolitiFact staffs. Online producer Emmett Prosser, a former steward and bargaining committee member, returns to serve as steward of the JSOnline staff. Umhoefer replaces PolitiFact reporter Tom Kertscher. Prosser replaces former producer Jim Hoehn, who left in a buyout. All other stewards were reappointed.
For a complete list of stewards, see the leadership page on our website.
Our Guild community is thriving
From the president
As we look back at the past year, it’s easy to lose perspective about all the difficult times we’ve been through.
Buyouts, distasteful contract negotiations, a top-down reward system and no sign of relief from heavy workloads are some of the things that can be most pervasive in our memories. For more than three years, the Guild has been on the defensive as the company lays the burden of financial solvency on our backs.
I, for one, was as discouraged as I’ve ever been after a year of contract negotiations in which we were told our efforts did very little for the bottom line and we were not as worthy as top executives when it came to financial rewards.
But after reflecting on those negotiations — and it took me awhile to get to where I could do more than just get angry — I came to the conclusion that not only did we survive the company’s best shot, we built a lot of strength within our ranks.
We have lost so many dedicated Guild members through layoffs and buyouts that I often wondered whether we would survive. But we’ve done more than that.
Our membership numbers are strong despite all the losses, thanks mostly to the recruiting efforts of our most dedicated members. What’s more, we’ve brought into leadership roles younger members like Jenn Amur and Zeina Makky, our two new vice presidents, both of whom bring energy and fresh ideas to our organization.
It’s important that we continue to build our membership numbers, and we’ll be focusing our attention on that as we move forward into 2013. If you haven’t already talked to someone new or someone on the fence about joining, consider doing it right away. We’ll soon have some tools to help you recruit others to join us.
If for no other reason, joining the Guild allows us to be part of a newsroom community where there’s more concern for your well being than for how much overtime you’re going to claim. From our commitment to building camaraderie through regular social events to the interest our Good and Welfare committee takes in making sure our members never feel alone in tough times, we’re in this for more than just contract negotiations.
I was reminded of exactly that when a longtime employee who didn’t become a Guild member until about two years ago left the company. I received an email thanking me for the assistance we had provided and a farewell card we had sent. Many of the reporter’s sources over the years had offered their best wishes, as the Guild had done, but there was not a single card, phone call or message from someone in management.
Maybe that’s not the way it ends for everybody, but if you’ve ever wondered whether someone will recognize all you’ve done for the newsroom when you leave or be there in a pinch, know that the Guild will.
So, while I have the opportunity to do so, I want to encourage everybody to come to our annual holiday party Dec. 14 at Buck Bradley’s and celebrate together with your fellow workers. Members and non-members alike (as well as spouses) are invited.
Make sure you join us. You won’t be alone.