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.