Deal would expand transfer rights

Journal Sentinel newsroom employees would be able to appeal involuntary transfers to different shifts under a tentative agreement reached last week.

During contract talks Thursday and Friday, negotiators for the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild and Journal Sentinel Inc. agreed that staffers who are required to change shifts should have the opportunity to apply for other newsroom positions, discuss other options with their supervisors and appeal directly to one of the top two editors. Those rights already apply to other major changes of duties against an employee’s wishes.

Bargainers also agreed to add new language to clarify the definition of an involuntary transfer. 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.

We also discussed contract provisions dealing with ethics, diversity, discrimination, harassment, overtime, leaves of absence, performance evaluations, training, columnists and union jurisdiction. The next bargaining sessions are set for Sept. 10, 11 and 12.

Downsizing ends without newroom layoffs

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s newsroom staff accounted for 24 of the 46 Journal Sentinel Inc. employees who took voluntary buyouts this month, but none of the 22 staffers laid off last week came from the newsroom or from other union-represented positions.

With those actions, Journal Sentinel managers have told Milwaukee Newspaper Guild representatives that the company’s downsizing has been completed, and that no further cuts are planned at this time.

The company had set a goal of cutting 10% of payroll, or the equivalent of about 130 full-time employees. In addition to the 46 buyouts and Thursday’s 22 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.

51 jobs cut since last fall

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 buyouts and the MKE shutdown have eliminated 51 newsroom jobs. (The exact number of jobs lost since October 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 51 jobs, 13 were reporters; 11 were editors; nine 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, 45 were in Guild-represented jobs. The other six were in non-union positions as managers, executive secretaries or Washington Bureau members.

More than 100 jobs lost since merger

Although most of those who took the buyouts left this month, several are sticking around through the fall. By the time all of them have left, the Guild estimates the newsroom staff will be less than 250, with about 200 positions in our bargaining unit and about 46 in non-represented jobs. (The exact number of jobs outside the unit is a subject of negotiation in the current contract talks.)

By comparison, the combined newsroom staffs of The Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel totaled 452 before the 1995 merger, and the Journal Sentinel newsroom staff stood at 355 after the merger. In other words, we have lost more newsroom jobs in the past 13 years than we did in 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.

Rinard takes buyout; Pearson takes over

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild President Amy Rinard has decided to leave the Journal Sentinel in the current round of buyouts, turning the local’s top position over to 1st Vice President Greg Pearson.

Pearson will fill out the remainder of Rinard’s term, which runs through Sept. 30. He plans to run for a full one-year term as president at the Guild’s annual meeting, to be scheduled in mid-September. Members will also elect a 1st vice president, 2nd vice president, secretary, treasurer and five at-large board members at that meeting.

This is the first time in our local’s 24-year history that a vice president has officially replaced a departing president part-way through a term. In 2004, Pearson took over many of the president's duties after Lauria Lynch-German left the paper, but she retained her title as an unemployed member for the last few weeks of her term.

Rinard’s 10-month tenure was the shortest of any Local 51 president, but hardly the least eventful. The last round of buyouts was announced on her second day in office, last October. In between that buyout and this one, Journal Sentinel Inc. shut down the youth-oriented weekly MKE. No other Milwaukee Guild president has ever had to deal with three major downsizings in their entire tenure, let alone a single term.

On top of all that, when former President Jennie Tunkieicz left the paper in May, Rinard picked up her duties as bargaining chair as well.

Rinard is a Waukesha County Bureau reporter. She previously served three terms as 2nd vice president, in charge of membership and mobilizing, and this was her second stint on the bargaining committee.

Pearson, meanwhile, has been the Guild’s point person in responding to all of this downsizing. He is in his fourth non-consecutive term as 1st vice president, the longest anyone has served as our grievance chair. He is a day copy editor and previously served four terms as a steward leader and two terms as an at-large board member.

Also moving up, with the approval of the local's Executive Board earlier this week, are letters editor Sonya Jongsma Knauss, from 2nd vice president to 1st vice president; day copy editor Karen Samelson, from secretary to 2nd vice president; feature writer Jan Uebelherr, from board member to secretary; and metro reporter Larry Sandler, from vice chair to chair of the bargaining committee.

Knauss was in her first term as a vice president, after filling an unexpired term as an at-large board member. Samelson, who was also our human rights chair, was elected last fall to replace Knauss on the board, then was named secretary after metro reporter Sarah Carr left the paper. Uebelherr was in her third term as a board member and is also our social chair. All three will serve through Sept. 30.

Sandler is the local’s most experienced negotiator, having been involved in bargaining our last four contracts and numerous interim agreements. He was our chief negotiator on issues related to the 1995 merger of The Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel, and he led the last stage of bargaining on our sixth contract, after former President Jack Norman left the paper in fall 2000. Sandler also has held a variety of Guild offices, including a record five terms as vice president.

Making a list? Check it twice

Friday was the deadline for Journal Sentinel Inc. employees to apply for the buyout. At this point, the company has not said when, or if, it will announce how many of our co-workers took the buyout, who they were, whether their numbers were sufficient to avoid involuntary cuts or what the target number was for the newsroom, if such a target actually existed.

In this environment, it should be no surprise that various newsroom employees and outside observers have been trying to compile their own lists independently. Journalists don't just give up seeking information when they hear "no comment" — even from their own company's human resources department.

Two things to keep in mind about these lists, however:

• Not all of them are entirely accurate. Some of them contain the names of several employees who have told the Guild they did not take the buyout, and of others who considered it but decided against it. In one case, a reporter walked into his editor's office Thursday for his regular annual evaluation (a favorable one, by the way) and his colleagues incorrectly assumed the editor was urging him to take the buyout. He found out from a former co-worker that he was on a list.
• To the best of our knowledge, none of the lists come from the Guild. The Guild has been compiling its own list to ensure everyone's rights are protected, but we have been keeping this information confidential at the request of several of the individuals involved.

If you took the buyout — or if an editor encouraged you to do so or said you would be transferred to another position — please contact Guild President Amy Rinard, 1st Vice President Greg Pearson or another Guild representative as soon as possible to ensure we can provide you with all available assistance.