PNW Newspaper Guild Blog

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http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/11/sixapart-launch.html

As part of a big upgrade I’m doing on the blog this month (which includes far superior spam filtering and security), I have added polling capabilities.The polls links appear in the PAGES area on the right side of the page.

The big question (HAR!) is what questions would you like to ask your fellow Guild members? Be sure to let us know in the comments area.

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From Guild Administrative Officer Liz Brown:

The bargaining team that just concluded the latest contract is going to reconvene Monday to meet with the Times to discuss the latest round of layoffs, now scheduled to occur by Dec. 12. Yesterday, I posted the number of positions and the job classifications affected in our unit. (Other cuts are occurring among employees affiliated with other unions and unaffiliated employees.)

We intend to distribute the Times “official” seniority lists, but we won’t post it on the blog for privacy reasons. Look for them on bulletin boards and with shop stewards as we begin distributing them Monday. I urge everyone to scour the lists for potential errors. I already found two, including one in which the company appears to be segregating two Desk Editors in News into a separate classification that doesn’t exist. The Guild keeps our own seniority list, but the Times list is the one we must be sure is accurate. If you find errors once the lists are distributed, let the Guild know ASAP. Even if it wouldn’t affect you in terms of layoff, it’s important to get the lists right and not let an error set a precedent for some unforeseen event later.

The Times has informed the Guild that it intends to exercise the language in the contract that allows the company to lay off individuals out of seniority order based on “special skills” or abilities. All we know so far is that the Times says it wants to do this with two positions in Advertising and one in News. When I know more, I’ll communicate with those affected directly.

If you changed your position in the last 36 months, you may have the right to “bump back” to a previous position in order to avoid layoff. Also, employees with more seniority can volunteer for lay off out of seniority order–although there’s damned little incentive to do that at the current time, other than to escape the chaos.

Hang in there and stay tuned for more information.

From Guild Administrative Officer Liz Brown:

The word from the Times on the reductions in the force is coming slowly, but it’s coming.

The Times says it is eliminating 150 positions in this round of cuts. Here are the numbers for our two bargaining units:

Composing

1 position to be eliminated; one person volunteered to go.

Advertising

5 volunteers accepted; 11 people will be involuntarily eliminated.

Circulation

11 people will be involuntarily eliminated. In addition, the Times says it intends to reduce the hours of all Assistant District Advisers in January, effectively turning them into part-time employees. We disagree with the company’s contention that it can do this unilaterally.

Marketing

4 people will be involuntarily eliminated.

News

13 volunteers were accepted. 12 people will be involuntarily eliminated.

Operations

2 people will be involuntarily eliminated.

We don’t have the names of the volunteers yet, not officially.

What follows is the official notification from the Times of the positions affected by involuntary layoff. Remember, there is a process in our contract that allows people to volunteer for layoff out of seniority order. That’s why we talk positions at this point, not people; however, in cases where a job classification has only one incumbent, it’s easy to know who we’re talking about.

From Martin Hammond, Times labor relations manager:

Hi Liz —

As promised, here is a list of positions where we will have involuntary reductions in the Guild bargaining unit. In most cases, the last day of work will be December 12, 2008.

Advertising (11)

1 Ad Team Designer
1 Associate Outside Sales Rep
3 Classified Customer Service Sales Rep
2 Sales Associate
1 Ad Marketing Graphic Designer
1 Copy Writer
1 Advertising Publications Asst
1 Front Counter Associate

Circulation (11)

4 Assistant District Adviser
7 District Adviser

Corporate Marketing (4)

2 Graphic Designer
1 Copy Writer
1 Marketing Presentation Writer

News (11)
1 Editorial Cartoonist
6 Desk Editor
4 News Page Designer
1 Resale & Permissions Specialist I

Operations (2)

1 Clerk
1 Page Layout Specialist

Total involuntary reductions: 40

The Guild office and officers are gathering bits and pieces on the staff reductions at the Times through various department meetings, but we haven’t yet received the official 4-week notice of layoffs. That means, as many of us have been told, that layoffs won’t take effect until mid-December.

That notice along with more information about specific people and positions facing layoff will likely come next week, after people who have been offered the EOI package have had a chance to volunteer for that.

So right now there’s not a lot to say, because there’s a lot we still don’t know. Please use the comments section of this post for thoughts or information that you think might be helpful to others.

I’ll start with a few things:

1. The Member Assistance Fund still has a fair amount of the money that many of you contributed last spring. Please apply for assistance if you need it, whether you’re facing layoff or not. If it starts to run low, we’ll hold another fund-raiser.
We’ll get information about this fund and other forms of assistance to those being laid off.

2. Before you agree to take the EOI package, find out what tax implications it would have for you. It could mean that you’re paying taxes on a much higher 2008 income than normal, especially for longer-term employees.

Members of the Guild-CWA have approved two new contracts at The Seattle Times.

The two agreements cover about 490 employees in Advertising, Circulation, News, Marketing and Composing. Members ratified the agreements in voting that took place Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 21 and 22. The new agreements will expire in July and August of 2010.

Both agreements provide wage increases of 6 percent over two years. The biggest changes were negotiated on health insurance, which the Times says is costing the company more per employee even as the number of its employees declines.

The changes mean that people with families on the company’s health-insurance plans will pay more for their coverage, while employees with no dependents will pay considerably less. The employer now will pay a greater share of the cost of health insurance for employees (85 percent), while employees will pay less (15 percent). However, the cost share on dependents will now be 70 percent/30 percent for 2009.

The previous cost split for all coverage was 75 percent paid by the employer, and 25 percent paid by employees. The cost of health insurance also will be tiered according to the level of coverage for the first time.

“These new agreements represent the best that could be achieved given conditions in the newspaper industry and in the economy overall,” said Liz Brown, Guild administrative officer. “Our members at the Times went more than two years without wage increases because of the company’s financial troubles, and the wage increases are sorely needed.

“But increases in the cost of health insurance will put more pressure on families struggling to make ends meet.”

The Guild-CWA will hold ratification meetings to vote on the tentative agreements reached Oct. 16 with negotiators from The Seattle Times. Members of the bargaining team will be available to answer questions and give their recommendation on how to vote, for those who want to know.

The voting periods will be:
9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22

Both meetings will be in the Vancouver conference room at the Denny Building.

Full details of the tentative agreements and numbers on costs for health insurance next year will be available at the ratification meetings.

What follows is a summary of the most important changes:

Main Unit (Advertising, Circulation, Marketing and News)

• Wage increases: 6% increase over two years - timed to give members some relief right away, as opposed to waiting until June 2009 as originally proposed.

1st increase of 1.5% at pay period following Dec. 1, 2008
2nd increase of 1.5% at pay period following June 1, 2009
3rd increase of 1.5% at pay period following December 1, 2009
4th increase of 1.5% at pay period following June 1, 2010

• Medical benefits: Premiums will be paid according to a family-status tiered rate (employee only, employee + spouse, employee + child, employee + family), instead of a composite rate. Employee portion for medical will be converted from an hourly wage diversion to a monthly deduction. Cost sharing splits between company and employees will be as follows:

Employee Only: 85/15 split for the term of the contract.
Dependents: 70/30 split for 2009, thereafter the same as for management and unaffiliated staff.

• Dental: Two plan carriers (Washington Dental Service and Willamette) will remain for 2009. Effective 2010, the employer plans to discontinue its relationship with Willamette. For 2009, family-status tiered premiums will be shared on a 50/50 basis between employee and employer for WDS. Employer will pay up to the 50% split of the WDS plan to be applied toward the Willamette premium. Employees will have the option to “buy-up” to this more expensive plan.

• New language on the employer’s methods to record work hours.

• Revised News language on when reporters may take photographs.

• New telecommuting language for News employees.

• New language regarding cell phone/PDA optional stipend.

• New language on how advertising incentives will be paid for sales made through automated or self-helped systems.

• Notice period for changes affecting Commission Sales reps goes from six to three months.

• Requirement to receive paychecks through direct deposit or a payroll card.

Composing Unit

• Wage increases: 6% increase over two years.

1st increase of 3% at pay period following Feb. 16, 2009.
2nd increase of 3% at pay period following Aug. 16, 2009

• Medical benefits: Premiums will be paid according to a family-status tiered rate (employee only, employee + spouse, employee + child, employee + family), instead of a composite rate. Employee portion for medical will be converted from an hourly wage diversion to a monthly deduction. Cost sharing splits between company and employees will be as follows:

Employee Only: 85/15 split for the term of the contract.
Dependents: 70/30 split for 2009, thereafter the same as for management and unaffiliated staff.

• Dental: Two plan carriers (Washington Dental Service and Willamette) will remain for 2009. Effective 2010, the employer plans to discontinue its relationship with Willamette. For 2009, family-status tiered premiums will be shared on a 50/50 basis between employee and employer for WDS. Employer will pay up to the 50% split of the WDS plan to be applied toward the Willamette premium. Employees will have the option to “buy-up” to this more expensive plan.

• New language on the employer’s methods to record work hours.

• Requirement to receive paychecks through direct deposit or a payroll card.

• New language memorializing 30 cents in wage diversions made by employees to the CWA Negotiated Pension plan over the years.

• Elimination of language declaring the contract “null and void” if agreement on a new contract isn’t reached by expiration.

• No changes to Supplemental Agreement, other than updating the Job Security List.

• New non-discrimination language.

From Guild Administrative Officer Liz Brown:

Last night at 10 p.m. the Guild bargaining team reached a tentative agreement for a new contract with negotiators from The Seattle Times.

We plan to hold ratification meetings to vote on the tentative agreement next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 21 and 22. The employer’s last offer to us is conditioned on a ratification vote by Oct. 23. The Times has made the Vancouver conference room in the Denny building available to hold our ratification meetings.

This contract contains significant changes in the way Times employees pay for health insurance, and how much they pay. Some employees will pay considerably less for coverage under the proposed new system, while others will pay more.

The contract also includes wage increases.

The Guild will make more detailed information available as soon as possible via e-mail, fliers distributed in the workplace and postings on this blog.

We hope members will make an effort to attend the ratification meetings to ask questions about the tentative agreement and hear what the bargaining team has to say. The team worked very hard to hold onto important rights and benefits during tough times in an industry–and at a company–in financial trouble.

Thanks for your support and patience during the negotiations, which began in July. Stay tuned for more information to come.

Your Times bargaining team:
Guild President Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe, News
Guild Vice-President Darryl Sclater, Circulation
Guild Unit Chair Gene Balk, News
Guild Unit Chair Rena Mefford, Composing
Guild Unit Vice-Chair Barbara Heller, Circulation
Susan Kelleher, News
Tina Walters, Advertising

Intrepid Andrea James of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a story about the budget woes at the P-I and the Times. Yes, there will be more cuts at the Times, that is definite. The company has said as much in negotiations, with dire warnings that the upcoming cuts will be bigger than anything we’ve seen so far. Read Andrea’s story here.

Today’s (Oct. 6) meeting between management and Guild negotiators was reasonably productive. In addition to reaching a tentative agreement on news photography and wrapping up a handful of small housekeeping matters, we had good conversations about the company’s self-helped advertising proposal and our counterproposal on health-care benefits.

The company is considering our proposal on health care:
It would delay the move from a composite rate (everyone pays the same) to a tiered rate (you pay more or less depending on the number of dependents you insure) to the beginning of 2010. This would allow employees more time to review their options and, where possible, switch to a spouse or family member’s health-care plan.
It specifies the percentage split of costs. We’ve proposed that the employer pay 85 percent of health-care costs for employees, and the employee pay 15 percent; our proposal would have the employer pay 75 percent of dependents’ costs with the employee paying 25 percent.
We’ve proposed that those numbers be included in the contract to provide more assurances about what our health-care costs would be. Under the company’s original proposal, the percentage split would be at the company’s sole discretion.

The Guild and the company were able to come to a tentative agreement on the proposal to allow reporters to take photos on an incidental basis. The language retains current assurances that photo-department employees take photos for The Seattle Times “as a general rule,” and management reps insisted that this proposal is NOT intended to allow reporters to replace photographers.

“12.4 The photojournalism of skilled photographers is a key component of news coverage. As a general rule, no news department employee other than photographers assigned by the Publisher shall take photographs for The Seattle Times in King, Snohomish or Pierce counties. However, their work may be supplemented by photographs taken by other employees, subject to standard newsroom assignment and editing procedures. Photography by other employees under this Agreement shall be incidental to their main duties and such employees are not required to possess the same level of skill as professional photojournalists.”

The next two meetings are scheduled for Oct. 16 and 20.