Here’s an interesting link you may enjoy.  Just put your mouse on any city in the world to see its newspaper’s headlines.  Double click and you can read the whole front page:

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash

In our fight to restore full and free medical benefits to our retired brothers and sisters, the Eastern District Court of Missouri ruled today against the Post-Dispatch, denying its motion to dismiss our complaint.

The P-D had argued that the expired collective bargaining agreement clearly intended NOT to vest the retiree benefits.  We filed an oppostion to their motion to dismiss and made numerous arguments as to why the contract language supported vesting or, at the very least, was sufficiently ambiguous as to requre the parties to take discovery in the lawsuit before the court could determine contractual intent.

On Friday, the P-D filed a reply brief to our opposition.

On Monday – today – the court denied the P-D’s motion to dismiss.  The court held, “The Guild’s complaint states a plausible claim for relief.  Without making a premature determination on the merits of either the issue of whether the retirees’ benefits vested or whether the case is arbitrable I find that the complaint is sufficiently plead as to state a claim for arbitration.”

Yeah baby!

This is just the beginning but we have cleared the first hurdle and the case will now proceed through discovery over the next few months.  Again, what we are fighting for is to have the court force the P-D to arbitrate our grievance.   This is costing our local a pretty penny but – as our E-Board said earlier – these folks paid their dues for years, we’ve got their back now. 

Still, King and Ballow don’t come cheap.  I wonder what this is costing Lee?

We will continue to keep you posted as developments occur.

The TNG Sector Conference was held June 19 and 20 in Washington DC and was attended by 110 delegates from 38 locals around the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.  Regognizing the extremely challenging times our industry is currently undergoing, this year’s theme was “Charting the future – navigating treacherous waters” and offered workshops on such things as alternative ownership models, bargaining during concessionary times and new beginnings in organizing.

Local 36047 was represented by Business Representative Shannon Duffy, First VP David Carson and P-D Unit Chair Deni Fleming.   Their time was spent not only in workshops but in meetings with other local’s members comparing notes and discussing what works – and what doesn’t – in those locals. 

Two items in particular received quite a bit of attention from the delegates.  First - the recent ESOP acquisition in Portland, Maine – concerned actual history in the making; while the second - a proposed constitutional amendment to change the name of our union from The Newspaper Guild to The Media Guild – offered a nice distraction into theatre. 

Members from the Portland local were in attendance and, although they took a cut in pay in order to bring the ESOP about, they were enthusiastic about being in charge of their own destiny.  More details about their endeavor can be found on TNG’s website.

A real ruckus ensued when the amendment to change the Guild’s name hit the floor.  After hearing arguments about why our name should be more broad and able to attract workers in new media, member after member took the floor and spoke out against the motion, claiming that the word “newspaper” was iconic and held a special meaning.

After a while, someone (who, I’m pretty sure works in a newsroom) amended the motion to read that our new name become “The News Guild,” explaining that we should always have the word “news” in our name and besides, “that way we’d still be TNG.”    This produced even more discussion (arguing) and, after a while, it seemed like we were going to become “The News Guild.”  I must say that I was proud of our local’s new vice president, David Carson, when he rose to speak against changing our name to the News Guild, stating that it was even more narrow  than our current name and he asked those in attendance what he was supposed to say to his sisters and brothers who work in advertising.  “This name excludes them,” he pointed out.

In the end a motion was made to table the proposed amendment and all voted in favor.  So – for the time being – we’re still TNG, The Newspaper Guild.

There was a great deal of discussion regarding financial matters – both at the national and local level – and resolutions concerning bargaining, organizing, training and education and support of various legislative proposals (Employee Free Choice Act and a National Shield Law) were also voted on and affirmed.

There will be a meeting of the Post-Dispatch Unit on Wednesday, July 8 at 5:30 pm in the St. Patrick’s Center (5th floor), across the street from the newspaper.

The purpose of the meeting is to conduct a straight up or down vote of the company’s proposal – a second week of furlough in exchange for no layoffs through the end of September.

We will keep the polls open until 6:30, at which time our election chairperson will escort the ballot box over to the P-D lobby, so that those who were unable to break away and go next door will be able to steal a minute from their duties and get downstairs to cast their ballot.  This action, while not officially called for, is being taken to include as many of our brothers and sisters as possible. 

If someone from one of the P-D bureaus is running late and fears that they may not make it before 6:30, they need only call me on my cell (314) 560-7492 and we will keep the polls open a little longer.  As I said, we want to give everyone the opportunity to cast their ballot.  However, as is always the case on contract ratification issues (and this falls into that category since it would change our current agreement), no absentee voting is permitted.  The only exception allowed is for those in out-of-town bureaus and those traveling on work-related business.  Those individuals should call this office to make arrangements to cast their vote.

Immediately following voting, the ballot box will be escorted to the Guild office where the ballots will be tabulated and results posted on the website.  Bulletins will be posted on worksite bulletin boards by the following day.

At the Thursday, June 11 meeting of the local’s Executive Committee it was decided to not summarily reject the company’s counter-proposal of job security (until September 30), but to follow the democratic process once more and let the full bargaining unit decide.

It should be noted that there was a great deal of back and forth discussion on how well another vote would actually serve the membership when, judging from all the comments at the last unit meeting, there didn’t appear to be much support for accepting another week of furloughs.  So, in an attempt to make certain that our members would be voting on the company’s best offer (and also to keep from having propsals and counter proposals flying back and forth, causing endless meetings and delays), this office contacted Astrid Garcia, Vice President of Industrial Relations, on Friday and informed her that:

1.  All P-D Unit members would vote on the P-D’s counter proposal.

2.  A frank assessment of the mood at the previous unit meeting did not bode well for passage of the company’s proposal.  We stated that if the company was serious about members voting to accept another furlough, it would be in the paper’s interests to “sweeten the pot” and make the offer run longer than just under four months.  Astrid said she would get back to us and that is the reason we did not post anything on our website until now.  We made our suggestion in good faith and wanted to allow the process to unfold.  Postings prior to that might be perceived by the company as an attempt on our part to apply pressure and we didn’t want to derail any possibilty of our members having a better proposal on which to vote.

Today we heard from Astrid Garcia.  She informed us that the P-D will not agree to a one year layoff-free period or even a period that runs to the end of 2009.  They will offer nothing longer than what they had already offered – job security until the end of September.  What now remains is for another P-D Unit Meeting to be scheduled for a straight “up or down” vote of the proposal.  We are looking into meeting room availability but it will probably be right after the fourth of July.  We thank you all for your patience during these trying times.  For unit meeting notification, check your bulletin boards or this website.

After receiving reports about the inordinate amount of time it was taking for this website to upload, the Guild contacted ace trouble shooters, Bill Keaggy and Lew Shucart, who quickly diagnosed – and corrected – the problem.  Now, our members will no longer encounter delays in searching for information and, if that is not the case we ask that you let us know at once. 

So thank you – and a shout-out – to Bill and Lew for always being there and helping out.  You guys rock.

The monthly meeting of the Executive Committee is tonight at 6:30 p.m.  Among the items to be discussed will be the company’s counter proposal regarding a second furlough week.  As you know, the final authority for bargaining decisions in our local resides in the Executive Committee.  We will update this website after a decision is reached.

Some Post-Dispatch unit members have received an email from the company which they believe concerns a change in their medical plan.  Actually the change is only to the plan administrators; these are the folks that track the deductibles and the flex spending accounts.  Lee is going from using Connector Care to using Tri-Star (Pulitzer actually used Tri-Star, back in the day).  This change concerns only those that have a Lee Plan or a Flex Spending Account.  Post PPO users are not affected unless they have a Flex Spending Account.

Nothing is required of you if you are on a Lee Plan or have a Flex Spending Account and, during the next few weeks, Tri-Star will mail you a new “Benny” card. 

If you’ve been trying to call the Guild office today and have been unable to reach us, we apologize.  Apparently, some calls are ringing through while others aren’t.  It all seemed to start when one of our phones recently quit working and had to be replaced.  That seemed to start the ball rolling.  Members have been emailing us today asking what is going on, as they have been unable to reach us, and we’re currently down to only one line for calling out.  And before you ask – yes, both our phones and phone system are union!

NOTE*  If the reason you’ve been trying to call is to RSVP for the Dislocated Worker’s Program scheduled for Wednesday, don’t worry.  You don’t need to make a reservation.  Simply show up.

Please be patient with us as we try to get everything back to normal.  We’re working on it.