St. Louis Newspaper Guild

The AFL-CIO Dislocated Workers Program will be held in the Guild office building, 1015 Locust Street, in the 9th floor conference room – suite 916.  Our building is on the corner of 11th and Locust and parking is available in the building.

All individuals who were laid off in June – as well as those who were let go in April – are invited to attend this event.  Like we have done in the past, the Guild invites all laid off employees – union and nonunion alike – to participate in this.  The program will run from 9:00 to 4:00 and cover a variety of subjects with which  one is confronted after losing one’s job.

Representatives will be on hand from many different bureaus and agencies – on both sides of the river - with a wealth of information to assist you as you make your way forward through this difficult time.  Many subjects will be addressed:  subjects like unemployment insurance (US Dept of Labor will be here), reducing your bills (budget counselors) tax issues (the IRS will be on hand) and dealing with stress, to name a few.  Members will learn about available resources – like available tuition dollars for those thinking about returning to school – and how to access them as quickly as possible.  There will be handouts, Q and A and, hopefully, everyone will leave a bit more able to deal with their new reality.

Lunch will be provided.

That’s right, we will soon relaunch our local’s website and have a new look once again.

As regualr readers (if we still have any) know, our local went from a old Wordpress template where stories just fell further down the page to a Dreamweaver site that had more “stickiness” but one that required quite a bit more expertise.  Then, after our webmaster moved to California, it got a bit harder to stay on top of things.  Add to that the fact that our local – which had been paying for website assistance – has been in a cost-cutting mode for the past year and may be able to understand why our site has gotten so stale.

But no more!  In the next few days you will see a new and improved site; one that will be easier to navigate and, hopefully, easier to manage.  In the meantime, as always, anyone with any questions or concerns is encouraged to call the office at 314-241-7046.  Thanks.

It is an election year for TNG, so this year the conventions are split.  We will accept nominations for up to (3) delegates to attend TNG’s 2011 Sector Conference.  If more than three TNG delegates are nominated, there will be an immediate mail ballot election.  The TNG Sector Conference is February 3-6, 2011 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and the CWA Conference will be held July 11-13, 2011, in Las Vegas, NV.

Delegates to the sector conference, should also be willing to attend the CWA Convention, as only TNG Sector Conference delegates may attend the CWA Convention.  CWA has not yet notified us on the number of convention delegates will be awarded, it could be as few as two.

Any member in good standing is eligible to be nominated for these conferences.  The member nominated must accept nomination no later than 12 Noon the day following nomination.

Travel Expenses and Fees will be paid by the local.  Members will not have any lost time paid by the local.

DATE OF NOMINATION MEETING: December 28, 2010

TIME:         12 p.m. and 6 p.m.

PLACE:      Guild Office

1015 Locust, Suite 735

Members who cannot make it to the Guild office may call and nominate someone 314-241-7046.

We’ve created some new areas on the website to keep members updated. Because the many articles concerning Post-Dispatch retiree medical issues kept knocking other news out of the feed, we’ve removed those from our  ‘Guild’s Recent News’ feed and created a dedicated area for retirees.  The site can be accessed by a link at the top of our site on the right hand side (directly under the TNG logo) or right next to our recent news feed.  Once in the dedicated area, articles are separated by the the particular contact under which the member retired.  We hope you find this new layout informative and easy to navigate.

Also, with some our our members laid off and facing the end of their unemployment insurance, we want to alert them about any and all employment opportunities.  We have therefore installed a new link – called “industry jobs” – and ask that you please let your former brothers and sisters know about this when you next talk to them.

Finally, we are currently accepting nominations for the Terry Hughes Award and have set a date and location for our Annual Dinner (January 28 at Maggie O’s).  See you there!

Our jobs with Justice unit successfully negotiated a successor agreement which calls for an increase in wages,  improved phone policy (in which  organizers will utilize smart phones) and establishes health savings accounts to which the employer will contribute (our members have already decided that it will be put to immediate use by purchasing a dental plan).

The agreement runs for three years with annual re-openers for wages and health care.  The Guild’s bargaining team consisted of Jobs with Justice Unit Chair Aaron Burnett, organizer Kelly Anthony and Guild Business Representative Shannon Duffy.

As we head into the holiday season, here’s a gift idea for that special someone who really loves newspapers:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58386802/newspaper-tshirt-vintage-typography-tee?ref=sr_gallery_29&ga_search_query=t-shirts&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=35&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title&filter[0]=handmade

Reports from the recent Tri-District Council Meeting in Chicago were a bit of a mixed bag, indicating that our industry, while perhaps no longer in free fall, has not yet stabilized.  Nearly all locals reported financial challenges as members and dues dollars continue to decrease.  Some saw signs of hope but also  pointed to  ongoing opportunism from their employers, as many faced corporate demands for cuts in pay and benefits.

Mergers seem to becoming more common, with several locals either talking about it or looking for someone to talk with.  The Chicago-Gary merger is almost complete, Memphis is looking to partner up and our own talks with Peoria were completed after the council meeting adjourned.  A lot of details are involved and, once the agreement is formally drawn up by the attorneys and approved by the international, information will be distributed – figure shortly after the first of the year – with an authorization vote occurring at our Guild Annual Meeting in late January.

Kenosha is nearing the end of their first year of a two-year no-layoff contract that included a 5% wage decrease with 3% eventually  coming back.  Pittsburgh reported that, having already lost 130 newsroom jobs in the last nine years, their employer would soon eliminate 68 Teamster jobs by transitioning from 1300 boxes on the streets to  the ridiculously low figure of 125.  Memphis claimed a bit of victory by reporting that they finally got a contract after bargaining with Scripps for seven years.  They also received raises and kept their evergreen clause but had to agree to unlimited outsourcing.

In Minnesota, members of the Star Tribune have filed more grievances this year than in the past five years combined, as that paper’s emergence from bankruptcy last year resulted in new management at the top.  Still, other units were able to negotiate new agreements.  The Catholic Spirit bargained a two-year wage freeze, their AFL-CIO unit got 5.5% raises spread over three years and the Duluth Labor World got 12% over four years.  Almost mirroring this local, Minnesota has lost 300 members in the last four years.

Washington-Baltimore just passed their 2010-11 budget which calls for a small deficit – even after taking into account that they’re receiving seven months free rent in exchange for singing a 10-year lease.  This also marks the first year “in a long, long time” that they haven’t had any organizer on staff.  They are actively involved in the Tribune bankruptcy case, which will mark its second anniversary on December 8.  The company has filed an exit plan but no one knows if the affected parties will agree and, so far, two lawsuits have been brought by the unsecured creditors against most of the key principals involved in the original 2007 deal to take the company private.  Altogether, over 100 individuals or companies were named as defendants in the two lawsuits.

I got a kick from learning all that had transpired in Washington-Baltimore getting a new contract for AFL-CIO field staff (full disclosure: I worked for the AFL-CIO Politcal Dept and was represented by that local).  I’ve always been amused – and a little annoyed – at unions (or coalitions of unions) that fail to practice what they preach (which, unfortunately, happens more often that one would think).  In the case of the AFL-CIO field staff – who are spread out all across the U.S. – negotiations were rough going and the Guild unit rejected the AFL-CIO’s last, best and final offer with 92 percent voting no.  Guess what happened then…management (the AFL-CIO) declared impasse and imposed conditions (and we pay affiliation fees to these people)!  Then, in what had to be a real slap, the AFL-CIO imposed conditions that were even more draconian than what they’d put in the LBFO (remember how, at our Post-Dispatch ratification vote, we discussed whether or not such a thing could occur?).  The unit had voted to authorize a strike but didn’t want to embarrass the house of labor right before midterm elections so, in the end, it took TNG President Bernie Lunzer injecting himself into the talks.  After a week, an acceptable contract was agreed upon and ratified – but the Guild still didn’t win back everything it had lost in the LBFO.

Toledo also reported that – in what has to be a record – they are currently in the 24th year of bargaining their first contract!

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a safe holiday season.

I recently returned from a Tri-District (Great lakes, Midwest and Southern) Council meeting in Chicago.  TNG General Counsel Barbara Camens took advantage of our large gathering and presented a legal overview of social media and brought delegates up to date on the goings on in that arena.

Most of the horror stories regarding Facebook and MySpace pages centered on young females who were just starting out or trying to break into the teaching profession.  It was heartbreaking to learn what employers did to these poor kids when they saw pictures of them drinking and carrying on at parties.  Not just firing them but – in the case of one poor woman in Michigan – refusing to rehire her even after  ordered to do so by an arbitrator (her union grieved it) and then appealing the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court!  What makes this particular case stand out is not the fact that the woman was pictured in a halter top at a bachelorette party drinking from a phallic-shaped beer hose (okay, a little over the top) but the fact that the now-famous photo was taken without her knowledge or consent by the party-planning company and then posted on their website to advertise their business.  Two years later some students came across it and the rest is history.  It bogggles the mind; she was fired – and remains barred from earning a living in her chosen profession – for behavior at a private party, without ever giving consent that the photo be posted or even knowing that such a photo existed.

Currently, many of our members in various units are being encouraged by their papers to get going on social media and thus need to be aware of a few things.  First, you always need to watch what you say concerning your employer.  A smart person should just assume that they are watching and that they will not hesitate to take action.  Legality is still an open question as (National Labor Relations) Board decisions have not yet caught up with technology.  However, there is case law which protects what one can say in public communications – most notably Eastex and Jefferson-Standard, Supreme Court cases both.  Eastex – an oldie but a goodie – holds that union members still enjoy their Section 7 (of the National Labor Relations Act) rights regarding concerted and protected activities and Jefferson-Standard holds that disparagement is protected if it is not egregious AND is related to a labor dispute.  Actually, the Board has been firm on protecting employees but the circuit courts have not (another good reason to belong to a union, since nonunion employees don’t have that avenue available); as a matter of fact, just this month an ambulance service employee in Connecticut – fired for posting negative comments about her employer on her Facebook page – had her termination ruled as illegal by the NLRB’s regional office in Hartford (click here for related story).  Therefore, when communicating about one’s employer, the only way one can be sure that saying something is protected is if its about the ‘terms and conditions of employment’ as cited in the National Labor Relations Act.  You stand a good chance of not running afoul if it’s about contact talks or something similar in nature.  But making disparaging remarks and pummeling one’s employer – or their product – for the sheer fun of it is a sure-fire way to get into serious trouble.

But what if you’re not blogging or writing for your job?  Is there a fourth amendment right to privacy on the internet?  If you’re a public employee nobody seems to know.  In the very recent Quan v Arch Wireless, a case that involved reading an employee’s (the guy was a cop) text messages on his employer-issued cell phone, the Supreme court refused to issue a test and decide if such a right exists.  They said it was ‘too soon.’  And it’s murky regarding private employees too.  Common law torts, state laws and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act – which is already over 20 years old, legal assertions like ‘implied consent’ and other things litter the legal landscape making that a mess, as well.  Actually, legal experts all agree that the best protection one can have is a union contract.

Finally, everyone needs to be aware of the fact that anything you look at on a work computer – even if it’s your personal email account – is viewable by your employer and, because you’re using their server, they brake no laws by doing so.  Furthermore, recent polling suggests that 43% of employers now actively monitor their employee’s email and 66% track website visits (dude!).  A new industry has arisen with firms like Social Sentry and UDilligence, which cater to companies wanting to spy on their employees use of social media.  The employer can identify certain employees for monitoring or the firm can look for key words (party?  sick day?  union?) that may crop up.  They also patrol email usage.  Yes, it seems that we certainly do live in interesting times.

As I said, the best protection one can have is a union contract.  That, and a little common sense.  When using the internet, please be aware of where you are at all times and, although I don’t want to make anyone paranoid, watch what you say.

Two weeks ago, several commission sales representatives at the Post-Dispatch contacted this local with a major concern about payroll.  As you may (or may not) be aware, the bulk of a commission salesperson’s check is not in base pay, but from earned commissions.  According to the posted pay schedule, commissions for the month of December would not be paid until Christmas Eve.  As you can imagine, not receiving the lion’s share of one’s pay until the holiday loomed as a serious problem.

I contacted Bruce Benson in HR to see what could be done and, in talking with Bruce, we discovered the reason commissions would be paid toward the end of the month is because there were three pay periods in the month of October, making commissions paid later in each successive month.

To assist our members in meeting their holiday expenses, the Guild requested that December commissions be paid on the December 10 payroll instead of the December 24 payroll.

At that point, Bruce Benson (aka ‘Santa’s Little Helper’) rolled up his sleeves and got it done.  Today, Bruce informed this office that the company is switching those dates and commissions WILL be paid on December 10.

***Please note that while this juxtaposition will mean quicker commission pay in December, it also means a longer period between commission checks in January.

Also, we’d like to point out that there is no contractual language that requires the company to make this adjustment and we appreciate their willingness to do so.  So if you see Bruce Benson in the building, please thank him and wish him happy holidays.

With next years election for TNG leadership positions drawing near – and nominations just around the corner – Local 47 wasted no time Thursday in endorsing TNG President Bernie Lunzer and Secretary-Treasurer Carol Rothman for reelection. Connie Knox, current international chairperson, is not seeking reelection; Martha Waggoner is running in her stead with the Lunzer – Rothman team and the local also endorsed Waggoner’s candidacy.

Since his election in May of 2008, when he carried St. Louis 112-44, Lunzer has worked hard implementing programs dealing with a variety of issues and focusing on such things as organizing, bargaining during concessionary times and exploring alternative ownership models. He has promoted innovative ideas dealing with cooperation across sectors within the CWA and has constantly reached out to TNG locals to help them access more training and financial assistance, even as the international deals with its own shrinking piece of the dues pie. He has traveled to most, if not all, of the TNG locals and is always ready and available to fly in and assist when needed – never has an international president been so engaged. As our industry continues to evolve and we face a seemingly unending number of challenges, our union would be well-served to continue to take them on with Bernie Lunzer at the helm.

The local also endorsed Jen Towery (Peoria Newspaper Guild), who is running for a seat on the TNG Executive Council as a vice president for TNG Vice President of Region Six.