Job security is key issue in contract talks

On the opening day of contract talks under the most challenging circumstances yet, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild called for improving workers’ job security in a changing media environment.

Negotiations on a new pact with Journal Sentinel Inc. started Tuesday, against the backdrop of the second buyout offer in less than a year, and the specter that involuntary job cuts could follow if not enough people volunteer to leave.

The company’s proposal would drastically cut the severance benefits that Guild bargaining-unit members would receive if they lose their jobs in a staff downsizing.

Under the current contract – which lasts through the end of the year and would be automatically extended if talks are still under way at that time – Guild-represented workers in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom and JSOnline receive two weeks of severance pay for each year of service if their jobs are eliminated. That provision was included in the current buyout offer and the one last fall.

But under the company's proposal for the next contract, bargaining-unit members would receive just one week of pay for each year of employment if they are dismissed in an economically motivated staff reduction.

In addition, management proposed to delete a section of the current contract that requires the company to provide 60 days’ notice to an employee who will be dismissed in a workforce reduction, or pay that employee for every day the notice falls short of 60 days. The company is seeking to provide that notice only when required by state or federal laws, which offer less protection than this contract provision.

By contrast, the Guild’s proposal would leave the severance pay and notice provisions intact, and would add new language requiring that our contract be honored even after a sale or merger of the newspaper or the company.

In recognition of the dramatic changes in our industry, the Guild is also calling for training on new systems and new equipment to be available equally to all interested employees. But if employees are asked to take on tasks sharply different from their original job descriptions – such as reporters being assigned to shoot video – they should be free to decline the training, and if they give it a try and fail, they shouldn’t be penalized, the Guild argues.

Other Guild proposals would prohibit involuntary transfers across specialty lines, such as forcing reporters to become copy editors, and would allow appeals for involuntary transfers to different shifts.

Neither side presented a complete wage proposal at the opening session, in recognition of the normal negotiating practice of tackling the toughest issues last. The company also deferred presenting a vacation proposal.

The Guild also proposed:

• Raising mileage reimbursements from 32 cents a mile to 49 cents a mile.
• Freezing the company’s share of health care premiums at current levels.
• Restoring the fifth week of vacation for new hires, and granting it to everyone after 15 years of service, rather than 20.
• Providing a month of paid parenting leave, a week of paid family medical leave and three personal days a year.
• Adding Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday.
• Offering health care, paid sick leave, paid holidays and other benefits to part-timers.

By contrast, company negotiators proposed:

• Freezing night, weekend, holiday and production differentials at their current levels through the life of the contract.
• Eliminating the current $20-per-shift differential paid to bargaining-unit members who fill in for managers.
• Ending overtime pay for staffers who work on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve.
• Deleting current contract provisions on health care, pensions, tuition reimbursement and mileage, and replacing them with language that gives the company total control over all of those benefits.
• Eliminating current contractual protections against discrimination and harassment, replacing them with language that simply says the company will follow state and federal laws.

Both proposals included many other changes from current language, some minor, and several provisions that would not change. Bargainers from both sides will now compare the proposals to identify areas where the two sides are either in agreement or close to agreement, before the next session July 22.

More information on the contract talks and on the buyout offer will be posted on this Web site and distributed through Guild stewards in the days ahead. Bargaining-unit members can also talk to any member of the Guild bargaining team (Guild President Amy Rinard, chair; Larry Sandler, vice chair; Janine Ghelfi and Dave Kirner) about the contract talks or to Guild 1st Vice President Greg Pearson or other union representatives about the buyout.