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July 3, 2008
Nearly 16 years after their last contract expired and 19
months after management declared impasse, newsroom employees at
the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in upstate New York have a
new tentative agreement.
Steve Orr, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 31017
during the entire struggle, said the gains are modest but that
having any contract after so many years is a victory.
"I think for those of us in the leadership of the local, it's
more a sense of relief," said Orr, an investigative reporter. "I
don't think anybody is unrealistic about it. We know that a lot
of what we sought we weren't able to get, but we have some
fundamental job protections, fundamental benefits, the right to
arbitration — a lot of things we'd been lacking for years.
Having this contract is far better than having no contract."
The local represents about 90 newsroom employees who are
expected to vote on the contract as soon as next week.
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Members of the Rochester Newspaper Guild rallied
over the years to build support for their long contract fight at
the Democrat and Chronicle in upstate New York. They are
expected to vote in the next week on a tentative contract
reached after 16 years of
bargaining. |
Bargaining had gone on for 14 years when Gannett declared
impasse in late 2006. Employees were working under the terms of
the imposed contract when Gannett last month announced it was
freezing its company-wide pension plan, opening the door to new
talks.
Orr and his coworkers learned about the pension freeze via a
Gannett memo leaked to a journalism website. The company was
offsetting the freeze with an enhanced 401(k) plan that the
Rochester workers had never been offered.
Gannett itself realized the employees would now have no
retirement plan, and offered to bargain the terms of a 401(k).
The union "saw this as an opportunity to get back to the table
and see if we could wrap things up," Orr said.
In short order, he said they "were shaking hands" on the
tentative agreement. "We sought to get some additional
improvements from what they had imposed," he said. "We got very
modest improvements in layoff language and discipline language.
It wasn't what we'd wanted, but we felt it was better to have a
contract with so-so protections in it than to have no contract
with no protections."
The 401(k) plan includes a 5 percent company match and an
additional 2 percent contribution, with no matching funds
required, for veteran employees. Wage increases continue to be
linked to a merit play plan that the local agreed to long ago.
Health care coverage is also unchanged, though Orr said
employees' out-of-pocket costs will rise as the company's
grow.
The Rochester Guild stood strong over the years, even as
Guild units at some Gannett papers were persuaded to decertify
when management dangled the 401(k) plan in front of them.
Last week, nearly 800 workers organized with CWA following
campaigns in New Jersey, California, and South Carolina. All
organized through majority signup.
In the first of the victories, reported June 20, 68
professional employees at the Richard Hall Mental Health Center
in Somerset County, N.J., gained representation with Local 1037,
reported District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. The unit
includes psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and case
workers. Regaining a voice on the job and getting good
representation are major issues. The workers lost their
collective bargaining rights in January when their former union
declined to continue representing them. The local has filed for
recognition of the supervisory unit and is working to gain
support among the center's non-professional staff.
On June 22, 498 substitute teachers working for the Santa
Ana, Calif., school district won union certification from
California's Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) following
a year-long campaign, according to District 9 Vice President
Tony Bixler. They will be represented by Local 9510. Low pay and
lack of pay parity with full-time teachers is their major
concern.
This is the second group of substitutes that CWA has
organized in the state. The local succeeded in getting a large
majority of the substitutes to sign cards requesting union
representation following a year of developing contacts, sending
out literature and phone banking. Because of the large margin of
support, the California PERB granted union recognition instead
of requiring an election. The PERB also agreed to accrete into
the bargaining unit the up to 500 more substitutes who are
expected to be hired by the school district in the fall.
On June 23, AT&T Mobility's statewide unit of 218 retail
sales representatives in South Carolina won representation with
CWA, reports District 3 Vice President Noah Savant. A
coordinated organizing effort by seven locals overcame the
geographic challenges posed by organizing workers at dozens of
stores across the state.
To get union representation under CWA's card check agreement
with AT&T, a majority of workers must sign cards within 60
days, but the locals accomplished the task in just 45. This is
the first group of A&T Mobility workers to be organized in
South Carolina. Major concerns for the sales reps are the cost
of health care benefits and job security.
Between a Memorial Day weekend tornado and floods of historic
proportions in June, CWA members in the Midwest have had more
than their share of natural disasters for 2008.
Local officers and CWA staff are still compiling lists of
affected members in Iowa, Indiana and other parts of the Midwest
and are providing information to victims about aid available
through the CWA Disaster Relief Fund.
In addition, some locals have taken up donations and set up
bank accounts for victims. District 7 members attending the CWA
convention last week collected more than $2,300 for Iowa victims
of the Parkersburg tornado and the subsequent floods.
"I think they're just still reeling from it all," said Local
7170 President Bonnie Winther. "There's just so much damage. You
can't imagine what these people are going through."
Winther's Waterloo local includes Parkersburg, about 20 miles
west, where two members' homes were damaged by the May 25
tornado. She described driving through the town and "not being
acclimated anymore" because so many buildings were destroyed. On
June 10, floodwaters poured through her Waterloo neighborhood,
sparing her own slightly elevated home and damaging and
destroying scores of others.
Another CWA local leader was not as lucky. CWA Representative
Midge Slater said Local 7108 President Matt Porter lost his
Waterloo house, with his wife soon due to give birth to their
fifth child.
CWA members in the Indianapolis area of Indiana were also
victims of dual disasters, a May 30 tornado and June floods.
Local 4900 President Pam Siefers said she's heard of at least
nine people displaced by water and two whose apartments were
damaged by the tornado.
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, southeast of Waterloo, floodwaters
reached mid-level shelves on the first floor of the city's
library, where 40 CWA members work. Between water and mold,
Local 7101 President Joie Welsh said the library's entire
collection may be lost. Employees have been assigned to
satellite libraries for now. She said no cleaning or salvage
efforts are underway in the damaged building because it is too
contaminated.
Another CWA business in Cedar Rapids, Ad Craft, suffered
extensive water damage to all its printing equipment,
temporarily putting four of her members out of work, Welsh said.
But she noted that the company's union-friendly owner asked for
the name of another CWA printer so he could send his customers
there until he's back in business.
Two library workers had significant damage to their homes and
Welsh said the secretary of her local, Dean Shannon, lost his
house. Several days earlier she dropped him off after a union
meeting and saw a Weather Channel van parked in front of the
house. "I said, 'Dean, this can't be a good sign.'"
She said he and his wife had managed to pack and move a few
things but not nearly what they'd hoped to save by the time
emergency workers knocked on their door and gave them 20 minutes
to evacuate.
According to media reports, the record-breaking flood left at
least 438 city blocks in Cedar Rapids under water, which was 8
feet high in some neighborhoods. The Cedar River crested at
nearly 32 feet, 12 feet higher than the previous worst flood in
1929.
The aftermath of the storm has kept Qwest members in Iowa
working around the clock. Another busy CWA unit has been the
Cedar Rapids jailers and dispatchers. As the storm approached,
Welsh said jailers took prisoners out to stack sandbags.
Members who have suffered losses in the Midwest storms,
California fires or other disasters are urged to contract their
locals for information about and help applying for aid from the
CWA Disaster Relief Fund. Emergency aid is also available from
Union Privilege for Union Plus credit card holders. For more
information go online to www.unionplus.org/disaster-relief.cfm or call
(877) 761-5028 to speak with a representative.
The Source, CWA's website for local union communicators has
been updated with photos from last week's 70th annual convention
(June 23-25), in addition to the judges' report on the winners
of CWA's annual newsletter and website contest.
The latest updates on The Source this week also include two
new videos — one featuring workers talking about the
importance of passing the Employee Free Choice Act, and the
other Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in his
address to convention delegates.
Growing numbers of local union editors, officers, and
organizers are how using The Source regularly to update local
union publications and websites, and get useful tools to improve
and enhance their communications with members. Photos of
union-related events – conferences, demonstrations –
as well as clip art and cartoons are also regularly uploaded on
The Source. Information and material about CWA's key issue
campaigns (the Employee Free Choice Act, Speed Matters, etc.)
are also posted on the website.
An important reminder: CWA's activist e-mail Newsletter is
published every week on The Source, and past issues have been
archived. The Source can be reached by clicking the "Tools for
Communicators" link on CWA's homepage or by going directly to
the website at www.cwa-union.org/source.
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