Come celebrate Labor Day
Guild members, their families and friends are invited to
take part in Pittsburgh’s annual Labor Day Parade on Monday, Sept. 1.
As usual, the Guild will march in the parade as part of
the Post-Gazette’s union contingent. The PG’s newspaper unions are near the
front of the parade this year, so we’ll be stepping off early in the 10 a.m.
parade.
That’s why we’ll need all who plan to march to be in place
no later than 9:30 a.m. at our traditional meeting place behind Mellon
Arena. The Guild will provide juice and breakfast snacks at the gathering
place (sorry, no coffee). Parade participants will also receive our official
blue Guild T-shirts with the distinctive white logo across the left pocket.
Marchers will distribute pencils with an embossed
“Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.” The kids who participate especially like
this part of the parade, and we’ll be very busy with the pencil distribution
this year because we’re so early in the parade.
Afterward, the Guild will gather as usual at the River
City Inn on Market Street and the Boulevard of the Allies for a brunch of
(seemingly) unlimited food and beverages for all parade participants.
As soon as possible, please put your name and the number
of marchers in your group on the Labor Day Parade signup list on the main
Guild bulletin board in the newsroom. This will help in our planning for the
brunch.
Hope to see you there.
Membership meeting will be Sept. 10
The Guild’s annual membership meeting will be
Wednesday, Sept. 10, in the
first-floor meeting room of the USW Building.
Topics will include nomination for
local officers, an update on the negotiations of our fellow Guild members at
our sister paper in Toledo and information about when the new computer
system will be in place.
Food and beverages will be available
at both sessions of the meeting at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
“Off the Record III: Lights, Pittsburgh, Action!”
The Newspaper Guild will join with Pittsburgh AFTRA to
produce the third annual musical spoof of Pittsburgh newsmakers at 8 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 2, at the Byham Theater.
This year’s theme is Pittsburgh movies, and the targets
include Rendell gambling, Wecht bringing zombies to life, Santorum crusading
for morality, USAirways slinking out of town, Murphy shrinking the city, the
Pirates deconstructing and lots more.
Performers will be a mix of AFTRA pros and PG amateurs,
with a few newsmaking civilians thrown in. A food-and-drink reception
precedes the show at 6:30. John Mcintyre will be back as master of
ceremonies, with Jim Roddey and Dan Onorato (and possibly a movie biggie)
offering rebuttals.
The show benefits the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food
Bank and the two unions’ scholarship finds.
You’ll have a chance to reserve the best seats ($50 or
$35) during the in-house ticket sale from Sept.8-19.
Anyone still eager to work on the production (performing
or backstage), contact Chris Rawson (Ext. 1666), Those willing to help with
publicity or the reception, contact Gary Rotstein (Ext. 1255).
This is a must-see event, so mark your calendars now!
A DTI training reminder
With DII training expected for some
departments by the middle of September, we remind you that our training will
take place on company time. We may be asked to adjust our schedules to
accommodate training, but the workday remains 7 1/2 hours. If we are in
training for four hours, for example, we owe the company 3 1/2 hours.
Anything over that is overtime. According to our contract, “comp time”
doesn’t exist. Don’t ever let someone try to tell you otherwise.
The company cannot ask us to squeeze 7
1/4 hours of work into 3 1/4 hours. That’s a speed-up, and it violates our
contract.
No one can forbid us to schedule
vacation during the training period. If your scheduled vacation conflicts
with your training, let your supervisor know so you can be rescheduled for
training.
Keep your union informed of situations that may violate the agreement so
that we can work with management to find a solution that’s fair to both
sides.
Did you know?
Union members earn 26 percent more
than their nonunion counterparts.
More than 75 percent of
union workers have health benefits. Less than half of nonunion workers have
health coverage.
Nearly 70 percent of union workers
have a pension. Only 14 percent of nonunion workers have one.
The 10 states where unions are
strongest have higher earnings, better health coverage, less crime, more
civic participation, less poverty and better schools than the 10 states
where union membership is lowest.
Consider yourself blessed to be in a
union! Be sure to attend the Labor Day parade, the annual membership meeting
and “Off the Record III.”
