Milwaukee Newspaper Guild leaders are working to ensure that Journal Sentinel newsroom employees have complete information about the company’s latest buyout offer before the April 10 deadline. On Wednesday, the company presented the buyout package to our bargaining unit. The buyout is open to both full-timers and part-timers and offers two weeks of severance pay […]

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members will meet Tuesday to discuss voluntary buyouts and unpaid furloughs as an alternative to involuntary job cuts. Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators told the Guild last week that the company wants $1.2 million in payroll reductions from our bargaining unit — raising the prospect of cutting newsroom jobs — as part of […]

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild is providing three very different forums to respond to the latest grim financial news from Journal Sentinel Inc. A recent letter from Publisher Betsy Brenner said the company would seek wage freezes and raised the possibility of unpaid one-week furloughs. It’s important for all Guild-represented workers to understand that all such […]

Another round of layoffs hit Journal Sentinel Inc. employees last week, but no one from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom was affected. Management has declined to confirm details of the latest downsizing. However, various sources have told Milwaukee Newspaper Guild leaders that anywhere from 20 to 50 workers were cut. It’s possible the larger number […]

Journal Sentinel Inc. has temporarily suspended contract talks with the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild. Management negotiators said the economic downturn had prompted the company to ask all departments to review their 2009 budgets, and that bargaining would not resume until that review is completed. They indicated this is a companywide bargaining freeze that also affects the […]

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members will vote Dec. 2 to elect a new at-large Executive Board member to replace Dani McClain, who recently left her job as a metro reporter to join an advocacy organization in California. The special election will be at our regular quarterly membership meeting, at noon on the second floor of Turner […]

Russ Maki is the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s newest steward leader. The Guild’s Executive Board has appointed Maki, a night copy editor, to take charge of contract enforcement, membership, mobilizing and stewards for the copy desk, night design and graphics desks, opinions staff, national desk and downtown metro editorial assistants. He replaces restaurant critic Carol Deptolla, […]

Negotiators for the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. reached tentative agreement this week on new contract language that recognizes the importance of continued staff training as the nature of our jobs change with changing technology in an evolving newspaper industry. Under the contract provision, the company would be required to give the Guild […]

Negotiators agreed Thursday to keep two job security provisions unchanged in the next contract between the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. But the deal does not affect the most crucial job security issue on the table: severance and notice pay during an economic downsizing. That question remains to be negotiated. One of Thursday’s […]

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members chose three new Executive Board members Monday in the first contested board election in several years. The membership also handed full terms to four officers who had stepped up to new responsibilities last month after former President Amy Rinard left the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the recent buyout. They are Greg […]