Get Healthy -- voluntarily

Yes, you can refuse to comment.

Journal Sentinel employees recently received letters at home encouraging us to go online for a "Get Healthy" survey to assess our health. Those who did so found a lengthy and detailed questionnaire asking just about everything imaginable about our medical history. That led some members of our bargaining unit to wonder whether filling out the survey was mandatory and what the company might do with the information.

Managers have assured Guild representatives that the survey is completely voluntary. They also promise that no one from Journal Sentinel Inc. will ever see the information, which will be kept confidential by the company running the survey. Those who fill out the survey will be given a numerical score to show how they rate for health risks and will receive e-mail tips about how to improve their health.

And if that answer lowers your blood pressure, your score should improve.

Just a click away

The new Milwaukee Newspaper Guild contract is now available online. You can find the complete text of our 2005-'08 contract on the Guild's Web site, www.milwaukeenewsguild.org. And if you'd like to compare it with our previous contract, that's still posted on the site as well.

A few more updates on how the new contract is being implemented:

* Nearly everyone received back pay for 2005 across-the-board raises and raises to new minimum wage scales on Thursday's paychecks. Only four people will have to wait for the next check. Still to come are the lump-sum payments in lieu of 2005 discretionary raises.

* Some people may be able to take even more vacation than expected. The contract set up "transitional vacation accounts" with extra vacation for everyone hired from 1995 through 2005. Officially, you can take up to one week of that extra vacation each year from now through 2011, or until it's used up. But some managers might be flexible about letting you take more than a week if scheduling needs permit. So ask, and you may receive.

* Our bargaining unit has grown by one. The contract required management to eliminate one of 58 positions excluded from contractual protection at the beginning of the year. As a result, the Database Editor was moved into the unit, resolving long-standing Guild concerns about whether bargaining-unit work was being done in that position. Two more excluded jobs are to be eliminated, one by July 1 and one by next Jan. 1.

A turnaround on turnaround

Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but not long after this blog reminded Guild bargaining-unit members how much turnaround pay they could earn from working weekend late night police shifts -- and just one day after our newsletter repeated that reminder -- the Journal Sentinel has changed the hours of those shifts.

Our contract requires overtime pay whenever the regularly scheduled end of one shift and the start of the next are less than 10 hours apart (or, if a day off intervenes, 34 hours). After the company dismissed two weekend night police reporters, in what management called an economic downsizing, the Guild pointed out that other local news reporters who rotate through the 4:30 p.m.-to-1:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday shifts would be eligible for overtime if they were required to start any earlier than 11:30 a.m. the next Monday. (For example, starting at 9 a.m. Monday would result in 2.5 hours of OT.)

Right after that, newsroom managers realized it no longer made sense to keep people around until 1:30 a.m., based on how late we can get stories into the paper. They changed the shift to a 3:30 p.m.-to-12:30 a.m. schedule.

That means the earliest those reporters can come in without being paid for a short turnaround is 10:30 a.m. on Monday. As our earlier posting noted, some editors may be more willing to work out arrangements for reporters to come in late than to pay overtime -- and working out a deal to come in at 10:30 is likely to be easier to arranging to come in at 11:30.

Money, money, money

If all goes well, you might be able to pay off those holiday bills next week after all.

Your Thursday, Jan. 19, paychecks are expected to reflect the first installment of backpay for 2005 and your new pay increase, based on the new contract. Management (specifically, Marilyn Krause) has worked extremely hard in the last week to calculate all those rates and turn them over to the HR and payroll departments.

Guild and management have compared notes on all 270 bargaining unit members and have agreed on what amount of backpay (for across-the-board raises and minimums) that people are owed, as well as the new 2006 rates that people should be at. It's our understanding that all these numbers can be input this week, in time to be reflected on next week's checks.

(For anyone who wants to know what amount of backpay to expect or what their pay level will be for 2006, please contact Guild treasurer Bob Helbig at his e-mail address at work: bhelbig@journalsentinel.com.)

Next up: Merit pay. Most workers will receive another check that is a lump-sum payment for merit pay in 2005. Those figures have yet to be calculated, and it might take until March for those to be paid out. Stay tuned for more information.

One final note: Some of you eager differential filers might find that holiday pay and other requests filed last week (prior to Jan. 5) get kicked back to you. That's because the company didn't update the differential site with new 2006 rates until last Thursday. For example, the holiday pay rate went from $5 to $7. And rather than reimburse you for the $2 difference, managers have been asked to spike those early requests and ask you to file again. If you didn't submit any differentials before Jan. 5, don't worry about it. Differential requests for this pay period are due Friday, Jan. 13, so if you file your differentials by then, you'll be fine.

Contract signed

Negotiators for the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. signed a 2005-2008 contract this morning. The text of the new contract will be posted on our Web site, www.milwaukeenewsguild.org, as soon as possible. Meanwhile, a newsletter will be coming out early next week with more details about how contract provisions will be implemented.

Management has told us that new pay rates are likely to be reflected on our Jan. 19 paychecks. Back pay, however, could take longer, with the last piece -- the lump sum bonus that substitutes for a 2005 discretionary raise -- possibly as late as March.