Held, Schumacher named steward leaders

Tom Held and Mary Louise Schumacher are the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild's newest steward leaders.

Our local's Executive Board named Held, a Journal Sentinel metro reporter, and Schumacher, the newspaper's art and architecture critic, to the posts for terms that started in October. Both had been stewards.

Held now oversees contract enforcement, membership, mobilizing and stewards for the downtown metro desk, Wisconsin news bureaus and JSOnline. He replaces metro reporter Mark Johnson, who did not seek reappointment as a steward leader but remains a board member.

Schumacher's jurisdiction includes the features/entertainment, business news, photo and opinions staffs. She replaces editorial assistant Janine Ghelfi, who left in the buyout after a record 12.5 years as a steward leader.

They join copy editor Russ Maki, who was named to a second term as steward leader for the copy, design, graphics and national desks and the sports staff. Under a bylaws amendment approved by the membership in September, the number of steward leaders was reduced from four to a maximum of three, to reflect the downsized staff. The fourth position had been held by sports copy editor Vince Butler, who departed in the downsizing, and most of his former jurisidiction was combined with Maki's.

Also during its October and November meetings, the board appointed page designer Zeina Makky as communications chair, replacing sports designer Ana Menendez, who left in the downsizing; business writer Joel Dresang, a board member, as health and safety chair, replacing metro reporter Susanne Rust, who took the buyout; deputy business editor Bob Helbig, a former local president, as wage data coordinator, replacing Maki, who did not seek reappointment; assistant features/entertainment editor Stan Miller, as tech coordinator, replacing photo tech Dave Kirner, another former local president, who left the paper.

The board also reappointed metro reporter Erin Richards, the local's secretary, as human rights chair; feature writer Jan Uebelherr, a board member, as social chair; copy editor Jen Steele as newsletter editor, online producer Craig Nickels as Webmaster and metro reporter Larry Sandler as posting and exclusions coordinator.

All of those appointed will serve one-year terms, ending next October. The steward leaders are working with the top officers to appoint stewards.

Local 51 President Greg Pearson, a copy editor, was named to replace Kirner on our bargaining committee. Unlike the other positions, bargaining committee members do not serve a fixed term and remain in office until the contract is settled.

Kissinger elected Guild's 1st VP

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members have selected Meg Kissinger as our local's second-in-command.

Kissinger, a Journal Sentinel metro reporter, was elected 1st vice president, in charge of contract enforcement. She fills a position that had been vacant since letters editor Sonya Jongsma Knauss left the paper to become editor and general manager of MilwaukeeMoms.com. Over the years, Kissinger has previously served as a board member, interim steward leader, committee chair and steward.

Guild members also chose metro reporter Erin Richards as secretary. She succeeds feature writer Jan Uebelherr, who was elected to the at-large Executive Board seat that Richards previously held.

Also joining the board as at-large members are business reporter Joel Dresang and editorial writer James Causey. Dresang is a former board member and former steward.

Members re-elected copy editor Greg Pearson, to his second full term as president; copy editor Karen Samelson, to her second full term as 2nd vice president, in charge of membership and mobilizing; metro reporter Amy Hetzner, to her fourth full term as treasurer; and metro reporters Mark Johnson and Tom Kertscher, to a fourth full term and a second term, respectively, as at-large board members.

In other action at our annual meeting earlier this week, members:

• Elected Pearson, Richards and Dresang as delegates to the international Guild's sector conference, with Samelson and Kertscher as alternates.
• Chose Pearson as delegate to the international convention of our parent union, the Communications Workers of America, with Richards, Dresang, Samelson and Kertscher as alternates.
• Approved a bylaws change to cut the local's board from 10 to eight members, by reducing the number of at-large seats from five to three, effective after this election.
• Enacted a second bylaws change to cut the number of steward leaders from four to "up to three," effective with the term starting in mid-October.
  
• Renewed the rebate provision that keeps our dues at 1% of pay.

Guild challenges layoffs

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has filed multiple grievances challenging the involuntary downsizing of 35 employees of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom.

All of those workers were notified Aug. 4 that they would lose their jobs in early October. They are receiving full pay and benefits during the 60-day notice period required by our contract.

One grievance focuses on the way employees were selected for layoff. Our contract requires seniority to be the primary factor in this decision, but some of the most senior staffers were cut. At the moment, this grievance covers everyone involved in the layoff, but we are continuing to analyze the individual merits of each case, in consultation with our attorneys, and considering the wishes of the workers involved.

Another grievance calls on Journal Sentinel Inc. to honor the lifetime job guarantees of four newsroom employees who previously worked in the composing room but were nonetheless laid off. In one of those cases, the company had already acknowledged the validity of a staff member’s lifetime job guarantee, and we thought his name showed up on the layoff list by mistake, which is why we previously reported 34 layoffs, rather than 35.

A third grievance asks for compensation for personal days not taken by the laid-off employees. In exchange for the 6.6% wage cut we accepted earlier this year, all members of our bargaining unit were given 10 paid personal days. Many employees made an effort to schedule those days before the Oct. 1 expiration of the no-layoff guarantee that was part of the same deal. But in some cases, repeated requests to schedule these days were denied. Unlike unused vacation, unused personal days ordinarily would not be paid out on termination.

Finally, the Guild filed an unrelated grievance over the company’s suspension of the tuition reimbursement program. This program is defined by our contract and the company did not bargain with us when it sought to suspend the program earlier this year. Members of our bargaining unit who were already attending classes were reimbursed through the spring semester. We filed the grievance when a newsroom staffer was turned down for reimbursement for fall semester tuition.

The grievance process requires a series of discussions with the company in an attempt to settle our differences. If those efforts are unsuccessful, our local’s Executive Board will decide whether to bring the cases to arbitration.

After we filed the grievances, our bargaining team met with management negotiators and discussed contract provisions dealing with vacations, part-timers and databases. We reached tentative agreements to keep one of the vacation provisions in its current form and to make technical changes in language covering part-timers.

“On-call” proposal dropped

Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators have withdrawn a contract proposal to schedule reporters or photographers to be “on call.”

As originally submitted, the plan would have allowed the company to pay some staffers a $40 premium to be available for 12 hours on weekends or holidays, without being in the newsroom. But anyone who was called in would have been compensated in time off, not cash, for hours worked. After Guild bargainers questioned whether the comp-time-only provision would violate federal overtime laws, the management team said it had decided the idea was unworkable in light of the legal issues.

Also during bargaining Monday and Tuesday, Guild negotiators rejected a company proposal to let up to 12 interns work for academic credit instead of wages. Our members have 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.

Guild and management representatives held off-the-record discussions about potential grievances stemming from the layoffs. We are consulting with our attorney, the international Guild and the laid-off employees to determine how to proceed.

In other business, the two sides agreed to keep current contract language on discipline, 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 discussed contract provisions dealing with health care, sick leave, pensions, 401(k) plans and tuition reimbursement. During a previous session July 29, we discussed provisions dealing with vacation, holidays, family leave and personal days.

Meanwhile, the lineup of bargainers has changed. 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.

The next negotiating sessions are set for Sept. 2-3.

Journal Sentinel lays off 34 in newsroom

On Tuesday, Journal Sentinel Inc. announced it had cut its staff by 92. This reduction included the permanent layoffs of 34 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom employees represented by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild, as well as the voluntary buyouts taken by 32 members of our bargaining unit and five managers.

It was the largest layoff and second-largest buyout in our newsroom's history. By comparison, when The Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel merged in 1995, 70 to 80 newsroom staffers took buyouts and 21 members of our unit were laid off.

This is a very difficult day for all of us in the newsroom, not only for those who are losing their jobs, but also for those who remain. As we deal with the loss of our colleagues, we face the task of putting out the best newspaper and online product we can with about one-third less staff than we started the year with, and about half the staff we had a few years ago.

We did everything we could to avoid this day. Just three months ago, our members voted to cut our own pay by 6.6%, after a previous buyout attracted only nine staffers. We took that pay cut in exchange for a no-layoff guarantee through Sept. 30. While the 60-day layoff notices issued Tuesday meet the letter of that deal, many of our members had hoped our sacrifice would buy more time for our colleagues.

We are also concerned that many veteran employees were laid off without regard to seniority. Guild leaders and attorneys will be carefully reviewing each case to determine whether grievances, discrimination complaints or other litigation would be warranted.

Furthermore, we objected to management's refusal to allow employees to bring Guild representatives into the meetings where they were notified of their terminations. While we recognize that the company was legally within its rights to do so, we believe it was wrong to deny the workers the support they needed at this stressful time.

The Guild stands with all those we represent. In the days ahead, we will continue to fight for justice for both those who lost their jobs and those who remain.

Deals reached on drug testing, open shop

Negotiators for the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. tentatively agreed Wednesday to keep current contract language on drug testing and union membership.

The drug-testing deal ends a lengthy effort by the company to weaken contractual provisions that protect our bargaining-unit members’ rights when they are suspected of drug or alcohol abuse.

In exchange, the Guild team dropped our proposal to require that non-journalists be union members. We had initially proposed a union shop for everyone in our bargaining unit. The current language calls for an open shop.

Also Wednesday, management bargainers provided a written version of their academic internship proposal. Their language would allow the Journal Sentinel to hire up to 12 interns a year who would work for college credit rather than pay. Those positions would count against the current contractual maximum of 20 interns a year overall.

The company team also indicated its on-call proposal was on hold to work out legal problems. The proposal would let the company schedule reporters or photographers to be on call, rather than in the newsroom, on weekends or holidays, in exchange for a $40 premium, but anyone actually called in would be compensated only in time off. Guild bargainers had questioned whether the comp-time-only provision would violate federal overtime laws.

We also discussed vacation provisions. The next bargaining sessions are set for July 29-30, then Aug. 10-11 and Sept. 2-3.

“On-call” system sought for newsroom

Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators are proposing a new system that would let newsroom managers schedule some reporters and photographers to be “on call” on weekends and holidays instead of working in the newsroom.

With a shrinking staff, the company wants more flexibility in scheduling personnel, management bargainers told the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s bargaining team Thursday. The move also would let more reporters work traditional Monday-through-Friday schedules, instead of adding more people to the local news desk weekend rotation and/or increasing the frequency of their shifts, company bargainers said.

Here’s how the system would work, under management’s proposal: The current crew of four local reporters and one to four photographers each Saturday, Sunday and holiday would be reduced by one or two positions. But one or two people would be scheduled to be on call for 12 hours that day. During that time, they would have to refrain from alcohol, be reachable by telephone and be available to come to work on short notice.

Each person on call would be paid $40 regardless of whether they were called to work. If they were called to work, they would be compensated for the hours worked only in time off, at the rate of time-and-a-half, with no weekend or holiday differential or callback pay, and they would not be subject to the current four-hour minimum overtime rate for work on a day off.

Guild bargainers questioned whether the comp-time-only proposal would violate federal overtime laws. We also asked how this would apply to part-timers who would have worked less than 40 hours before being on call. The management team said it would answer those questions when it gives us a formal written proposal on this issue. Our team will wait to see the proposal in writing before reacting further.

Also in talks Wednesday and Thursday, the two 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 discussed provisions dealing with vacations, holidays, excluded positions and columnists, as well as a management proposal to compensate some interns solely in academic credit rather than pay. The next bargaining session is set for July 22.

Journal Sentinel offers more newsroom buyouts; layoffs could follow

Journal Sentinel Inc. is offering another round of buyouts to newsroom employees — the fourth in less than three years. And management negotiators have told the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild that the company could lay off an undetermined number of workers if not enough employees take the buyouts.

Managers declined to specify a target for job cuts, in either people or dollars, other than to say it would be substantially greater than either of the first two rounds of buyouts, which attracted more than 20 employees each. Guild leaders plan to continue pressing the company to tell us what the target is.

But if the buyouts fall short of whatever the target turns out to be, layoff notices could go out in late July or early August for downsizing to take effect Oct. 1. That’s the earliest anyone could be laid off, under the limited no-layoff guarantee we received in exchange for our 6.6% wage cut, and the earliest that notices could go out, under the 60-day notice provision of the current contract.

During negotiations last week, union and company representatives agreed on the following buyout terms:

• The buyout will be open to both full-timers and part-timers in our unit.

• Departing employees would be paid two weeks of severance for each year of service, with no cap.

• Full-timers with 15 or more years of service would receive an additional 10 weeks of severance pay. At the Guild’s urging, the company also agreed to provide an additional five weeks of pay to full-timers with less than 15 years of service and part-timers with more than 15 years in, and an additional three weeks of pay to part-timers who have worked here for less than 15 years.

• Severance will be payable in a lump sum.

• All full-timers who leave would be eligible for the COBRA health care extension authorized by the federal stimulus legislation, and all employees taking the buyout would get outplacement aid.

• Applications will be taken until 8 p.m. July 27. As in the past, the company can reject applications. In most cases, those accepted would leave by July 29, although some people could stay later.

By comparison, the current contract calls for two weeks of severance pay for each year of service, with no cap, plus 60 days’ notice or 60 days’ pay. (60 days would be 8.5 weeks of pay.) The federal COBRA extension is available to everyone who is either laid off or who takes a buyout to save their co-workers from being laid off. Outplacement aid is also guaranteed by contract.

Management is seeking to weaken our job security protections in the next contract. Their negotiators indicated that they will broaden their assault to include an unspecified reduction in our seniority provisions, in addition to seeking to reduce severance from two weeks per year to one week, and to provide the 60 days’ notice only when required by law.

But company representatives agreed that any layoffs this fall will be governed by the current rules regardless of whether we agree to something different in the next contract and regardless of whether we sign the next contract by then. That means everyone who gets laid off would get the two weeks per year of pay and 60 days’ notice, and the layoffs would be governed by the current seniority rules.

The Guild has distributed flyers with more information about the buyout and will hold two question-and-answer sessions next week to help employees trying to decide whether to take the buyout.

As in the past, anyone who is considering the buyout should keep in touch with Guild President Greg Pearson. Please let him know whether you are considering the buyout, whether you have actually applied, whether you were accepted and whether you were rejected. Your names will be kept confidential.

Also last week, management negotiators presented a comprehensive revised proposal that did not include wages. It did include their long-awaited vacation proposal, which seeks to force employees hired after 1995 to pay the company back if they leave after taking more vacation than they earned under the “earn-as-you-go” accrual system. Our current contract says nobody can be forced to pay back anything in a case like that.

The company team also indicated it will seek a new system for paying workers to be “on call” at certain times, and will press for the right to hire interns who are compensated in academic credit rather than pay. They did not present details on either proposal. We also discussed provisions dealing with union jurisdiction, job postings and interns.

The next bargaining sessions are set for Wednesday and Thursday.

Rally Monday marks 25 years of Local 51

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild is turning 25, and our union leadership thinks that’s a milestone worth marking.

Local 51 was founded on June 1, 1984. Given all the industry turbulence that Journal Sentinel employees are dealing with, our local’s Executive Board decided a party might not be appropriate.

Instead, the Guild is inviting members to a rally at noon on June 1. Jack Norman, who helped found Local 51 and led it through some troubled waters, including the merger, will reflect on the anniversary. President Greg Pearson and Bargaining Chair Larry Sandler will make a few remarks, and we’ll discuss what lies ahead in negotiations.

The rally will be on the second floor of Turner Hall (use the north stairs off the parking lot; the restaurant will be closed). Lunch will be served — and, of course, birthday cake.

Journal Sentinel wants 2-year pact

Journal Sentinel Inc. negotiators proposed this week that the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s next contract last just two years, through Dec. 31, 2010.

Guild bargainers had previously proposed a four-year contract. It’s the first time in memory that the company is seeking a shorter contract than the union. The management team said their proposal reflects the difficulty of long-term financial forecasting for our company and others in the newspaper business.

The company’s proposal on the term of the contract came as bargaining resumed after a hiatus of more than five months. Management negotiators halted the talks last November, as the company’s fiscal outlook started to deteriorate. Our contract was set to expire Dec. 31, but it has a clause that provides an automatic extension while negotiations continue.

During the break in regular talks, the two sides agreed on a deal to avoid layoffs by cutting wages 6.6%, effective this coming Sunday, in exchange for a no-layoff guarantee through Sept. 30 and 10 personal days during 2009. Guild and management representatives signed that agreement Wednesday.

Also during talks Wednesday and Thursday, we discussed provisions dealing with union jurisdiction and columnists, after an overview of tentative agreements that had been previously reached and Guild positions on issues not yet resolved. A subcommittee will resume discussion of drug and alcohol testing provisions during May. Future bargaining sessions are set for June 2-3, June 29-30 and July 8-9.