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.