51: October/November 2008

Agreements set on training, other issues
3 new members elected to board
Save the date: Membership meeting
Our newsroom continues to shrink
Party honors co-workers who took buyout
I'm taking on a new role, and so can you

Agreements set on training, other issues

A new approach to staff training in our changing industry highlights tentative contract agreements reached in recent months of bargaining between the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc.

Other deals cover involuntary shift changes, timing of merit raises, ethics and diversity, among other issues. Negotiators continue to follow the pattern of working through the issues in order of difficulty, leaving the major wage, benefit and job security questions to come.

The new training language recognizes the importance of continued staff training as the nature of our jobs changes with changing technology in an evolving newspaper industry. It calls for discussions between the company and the Guild on training and other procedures for dealing with significant changes in equipment, computer programs or processes. All training would be done on company time and at company expense, including transportation.

The language acknowledges that because not all employees need to be trained at the same time or in the same manner on every new process or piece of equipment, newsroom managers would have to inform individual staffers of what training they are expected to have to do their jobs. The company would have to provide sufficient training to allow employees to meet those expectations and perform their jobs properly. Employees could volunteer for additional training, but that would be subject to approval by management.

In addition, the provision states that it is generally the company’s intention that employees who take on duties requiring entirely different skills, such as reporters shooting video or still photography, should continue to do so voluntarily. But management would reserve the right to assign those duties. Job performance would have to be judged primarily on the basis of an employee’s core skills, such as writing and reporting for reporters. But employees would be expected to participate in required training and make a good-faith effort to perform new duties assigned.

Management negotiators did not agree to Guild proposals to make training available to all interested staffers and to ensure that the company did not penalize employees who failed to catch on to new technology and equipment that wasn’t part of their original job descriptions. Current contract language provides only notice of new technology and calls for any training to be done on company time and at company expense.

Other tentative agreements from August through October would:

--Allow newsroom employees to appeal involuntary transfers to different shifts. Management negotiators did not accept Guild proposals to prohibit involuntary transfers across journalistic specialty lines (such as from reporter to copy editor); require mutual consent for transfers from the Madison or Washington bureaus to the Milwaukee area; and give employees more of a choice about filling in for managers.

--Permit management to give merit raises to all newsroom employees on the same date, instead of a year from our last merit raise. Management negotiators sought the change, although top newsroom editors have not yet agreed to this idea. Raises would be prorated in the year the change is implemented, if it happens.

--Resolve a long-standing point of contention by explicitly stating that our contract takes precedence whenever it differs from corporate and newsroom ethics codes, and any discipline for alleged ethics code violations must follow the contract and meet its standard of just cause. In return, the Guild agreed that bargaining-unit members should sign acknowledgements of receiving the ethics codes and/or any required training on them.

--Provide a similar solution for the company’s noharassment policy. In return, management negotiators dropped their attempt to wipe out all contractual protections against discrimination and harassment and to replace them with language stating only that the company would follow state and federal laws.

--Exempt full-time journalists with more than five years of prior experience from a requirement that all new employees be assigned mentors.

For more details on these and other agreements, and for the latest updates, follow our blog by clicking on “latest news” at www.milwaukeenewsguild.org. Guild members can also contact Bargaining Chair Larry Sandler or 2nd Vice President Karen Samelson to sign up to receive e-mail updates ahead of the blog postings, or contact Sandler to attend a bargaining session.

3 new members elected to board

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members have chosen three new Executive Board members in the first contested board election in several years.

Meeting in September, the membership also handed full one-year terms to four officers who had stepped up to new responsibilities in August, after former President Amy Rinard left the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the recent buyout.

They are Greg Pearson, a day copy editor who had moved up from 1st vice president to succeed Rinard as president; letters editor Sonya Jongsma Knauss, who had been 2nd vice president and succeeded Pearson; day copy editor Karen Samelson, who moved up from secretary to succeed Knauss; and features writer Jan Uebelherr, who had been an atlarge board member before succeeding Samelson.

New to the board are metro reporter Dani McClain, a steward, and sports designer Ana Menendez. Ozaukee-Washington Bureau reporter Tom Kertscher, a steward, returns after a six-year absence; he previously served one term as 2nd vice president and also has been a steward leader and a negotiator.

Re-elected were Treasurer Amy Hetzner, a Waukesha County Bureau reporter, for her third full term, and at-large board members Janine Ghelfi, an editorial assistant, for a record 10th full term, and Mark Johnson, a metro reporter, for his third full term. Ghelfi is also a member of our bargaining committee.

Waukesha County Bureau reporter Erin Richards also sought a board seat but fell one vote short in the balloting.

Pearson thanked three departing board members for their service: Rinard, a former Waukesha County Bureau reporter who remains on the bargaining committee; former board member Kawanza Newson, who left her job as a metro reporter to become the Milwaukee Health Department’s spokeswoman; and photo technician Dave Kirner, a former Guild president who is stepping down from his atlarge board seat but remaining on the bargaining committee.

After taking office in October, the new board appointed Russ Maki as Local 51’s newest steward leader. Maki, a night copy editor, takes 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, a former vice president who had stepped in when assistant night copy desk chief Jerry Ziegler left in the 2007 buyout. Deptolla did not seek reappointment.

Reappointed as steward leaders were Ghelfi, to an unprecedented 13th term representing the downtown photo, features/entertainment and business staffs; Johnson, to a sixth term representing downtown metro reporters, Wisconsin news bureaus and the News Information Center staff; and sports copy editor Vince Butler, to a sixth full non-consecutive term representing the downtown and Green Bay sports staff, the day design desk and the JSOnline staff. Butler is a former vice president.

The board also named McClain as human rights chair, filling a vacancy created when Samelson moved up to 2nd vice president; Menendez as communications chair, filling a spot that had been vacant since night copy editor Dave Lee left in the latest buyout; and online producer Craig Nickels as Webmaster, replacing online producer Heather Marshall Gergen, who is also leaving through this year’s buyout.

Other reappointments were metro reporter Susanne Rust as health and safety chair; Uebelherr as social chair; night copy editor Jen Steele as newsletter editor; metro reporter Larry Sandler as posting and exclusions coordinator; Maki as wage data coordinator; and Kirner as technology coordinator. Sandler, a former vice president, is also our bargaining chair. All of the appointees will serve until October.

Also at the September meeting, members elected Pearson, Knauss and Samelson as delegates to the international Guild’s annual sector conference, with McClain as alternate, and Pearson as delegate to the annual convention of the Guild’s parent union, the Communications Workers of America.

Save the date

Our newsroom continues to shrink

Veteran employees still remember the toll taken by the merger: Nearly 100 newsroom jobs were lost when The Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel combined to become the Journal Sentinel.

But the newsroom job cuts have actually been greater in the 13 years since then, through a combination of major buyouts, small-scale layoffs and general attrition, Milwaukee Newspaper Guild figures show.

In the most recent round of downsizing, the newsroom staff accounted for 24 of the 46 Journal Sentinel Inc. employees who took voluntary buyouts, mainly in August. None of the 22 staffers laid off in late August came from the newsroom or from other unionrepresented positions. However, one part-time Racine County Bureau editorial assistant was laid off after that.

Overall, the company had set a goal of cutting 10% of payroll, or the equivalent of about 130 full-time employees. In addition to the buyouts and layoffs, management shut down the youth-oriented MKE weekly (eliminating five newsroom jobs and possibly a few in other departments), outsourced several non-union departments and left vacant some positions of employees who left between the last buyout and the most recent one.

This was the second round of buyouts in less than a year. In last fall’s buyouts, 22 of the 56 employees who left came from the newsroom.

Together, the two rounds of downsizing and the MKE shutdown have eliminated 52 newsroom jobs. (The exact number of jobs lost since October 2007 may differ slightly, because a few of those who left in the first buyout have been replaced, but some of the others who left voluntarily between buyouts weren’t replaced.)

Of those 52 jobs, 13 were reporters; 11 were editors; 10 were support staffers (secretaries, News Information Center employees, editorial assistants, technicians or clerks); six were columnists, critics, editorial writers or editorial cartoonists; six were visual journalists (photographers, artists or page designers); five were copy editors; and one was an online producer. Every newsroom department was affected.

Also, 46 were in Guild-represented jobs. The other six were in non-union positions as managers, executive secretaries or Washington Bureau members.

By November, the Guild estimates the newsroom staff will be less than 250, with about 200 positions in our bargaining unit and less than 50 in non-represented jobs.

By comparison, the combined Journal and Sentinel newsroom staffs totaled 452 before the 1995 merger, and the Journal Sentinel newsroom staff stood at 355 after the merger.

In addition to the most recent downsizing moves, 12 News Information Center employees took buyouts in 2000, a photo tech was laid off in 2001 and two part-time reporters were laid off in 2005. The rest of the job cuts came through a couple of early retirement programs and through attrition.

Party honors co-workers who took buyout

After a long, stressful summer, Guild members and nonmembers found time to kick back and party on Oct. 11 in the comfortable party room at Joanne Weintraub’s condo. More than 25 people showed up to share some laughs and non-work-related conversations and honor people who left in the buyout without a proper sendoff. Among the buyout-takers who attended were Weintraub, Stuart Carlson, Amy Rinard, Joanne Cleaver, Nancy Herrick and Laura Thompson.

Despite the plunge of Journal stock, no party-goers jumped off the high-rise’s roof, opting instead to focus on the amazing view of Milwaukee by night.

On another note, are you tired of potlucks? With the great turnout at the Weintraub gala, the board is considering a holiday party, so stay tuned. And we won’t ask you to bring anything but yourself.

If you have ideas or would like to help, contact Jan Uebelherr.

I'm taking on a new role, and so can you

Greg Pearson

From the president

Now I know how Aaron Rodgers feels. He gets to succeed Brett Favre. I get to follow Bob Helbig, Dave Kirner, Lauria Lynch-German, Jennie Tunkieicz and Amy Rinard.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with these past presidents of Local 51 in varying degrees. I know the dedication they’ve shown while in the role of president -- the hours they’ve spent negotiating contracts, easing disputes, fighting for our members. They have been devoted leaders willing to put in the time to make the Guild stronger.

But the president is just one of the approximately 200 newsroom employees served by the Guild -- a group that works hard every day to make the Journal Sentinel what it is.

It’s a crucial time for all 200 of us. We all know the state of the industry.

We’ve seen our numbers depleted by 46 in the past year by two buyouts. That number doesn’t include the vacancies created by those who left under other circumstances and haven’t been replaced. We’ve been negotiating for months for our next contract, which will set our raises, benefits and working conditions for the next several years.

What can you do to help?

Sign a membership card if you haven’t joined. It’s painless (I promise) and I or any other Guild leader will be happy to talk to you about the benefits of joining.

If you’re already a member, take a step to get more involved. Step up to be a steward. We still have vacancies to fill.

Volunteer to sit in during all or part of a contract negotiating session. Our negotiating committee members -- Larry Sandler, Janine Ghelfi, Kirner and Rinard -- have done a great job laying the groundwork, but there’s still plenty of work to do. You could attend a session on an issue you care deeply about, or come and watch the proceedings. The more voices and faces involved in the process, the better. There are several sessions scheduled for November. If interested, let any of the negotiating committee members know.

Negotiating the contract is one of the most visible things the Guild does. As with everything involving the Guild, we’re in this together.