PG
unions to consider changes
The Post-Gazette in early December
asked the Unity Council to consider ways for the company’s more than 1,000
unionized workers to provide economic relief in 2004 to combat increasing
expenses, particularly escalating health care costs, and declining
advertising revenue.
This potent combination created a
“financial dilemma that threatens the future of every Post-Gazette
employee,” Ray Burnett, the PG’s labor relations director wrote a few days
later in a letter to the Unity Council.
The company’s initial proposals
were onerous, to say the least – a 10 percent across-the-board wage cut, a
wage freeze for the life of the contract and the payment of 15 percent of
health care premiums (about $111 per month per employee).
Each of those proposals would have
been very painful for every Guild member. That's why the Guild, through
the Unity Council, pressed the company to permit the unions to examine it
financial records before the unions seriously considered any contract
changes.
An independent accounting firm
hired by the Unity Council confirmed the company’s financial problems.
After reviewing the report of the accountants, the union representatives
negotiated a much less painful plan to provide economic relief to the
Blocks. The plan includes changes that will affect ALL unionized employees
equally and one change that will affect retirees.
Here’s the proposal:
* The co-payment for drug
prescriptions will increase $10 April 1 for active employees and retirees.
There are NO changes to our basic health care coverage and we will not pay
any portion of our monthly premium.
* Unionized employees will forego
the $10 raise on July 1. The company, however, will follow the contract
and deposit an additional $5 per week per employee into the pension plan
beginning July 1.
* All union members will give up
the equivalent of one week of vacation in 2005. Guild members have three
options – take one less week of vacation in 2005, take all earned vacation
with one week unpaid or take all earned vacation, but apply the vacation
bonus to the amount of a weekly salary and make up the difference, if
necessary.
THIS IS A ONE-TIME ONLY CHANGE.
The Guild’s Executive Committee
has, reluctantly, recommended that our members approve the proposal.
Without help from the unions, the
PG said it would face a considerable loss next year. How this affects the
newspaper’s bottom line will be explained in detail at the Unity Council
meeting on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 3 p.m. in the IBEW hall, 5 Hot Metal St.,
South Side, and at the Guild meeting the next day. It would be a good idea
for all Guild members to attend both meetings.
The total savings from the Unity
Council proposal, plus savings from a change to the management pension
plan and a reduction in retiree health care premiums due to federal
Medicare changes, are about $6 million, very close to the $6.5 million in
savings the Post-Gazette sought.
What about managers and other
exempt employees? They have been paying monthly premiums for their health
care for two years and they already pay 20 percent of the cost of their
drug prescriptions. And earlier this month, the company cut the multiplier
from 2 to 1 for the management pension plan, which effectively cuts in
half the pension benefit after April 1. The latest reduction occurred
about a year after the management multiplier was reduced from 2.5 to 2.
This is the first time the Blocks
have come to the unions to reopen our contracts for across-the-board cost
reductions. They have been very fair with the unions and the audit of
their books confirmed their financial troubles.
With these changes, we're all
hopeful this will guarantee that the Post-Gazette will have a long and
secure future in Pittsburgh.
If you have any questions, contact
President Mike Bucsko or a member of the Executive Committee.
Full personal days
restored for parttimers
The Guild has restored full
personal days to parttimers as part of an agreement to resolve a grievance
over the company’s attempt to pro-rate the personal days.
The agreement also provides an
extra personal day in 2005 for Guild members with 15 years or more of
service with the Post-Gazette.
The Guild filed a grievance at the
end of December after the company notified parttimers that it intended to
pro-rate personal days this year. For example, the company intended to
provide only 60 percent of a personal day to a Guild member who worked
three days. The Guild contended in the grievance that this was a violation
of the contract provision that prohibits a reduction in compensation
during the life of the agreement.
In exchange for the restoration of
the full personal days and the extra personal day for those with at least
15 years of service, the Guild agreed to permit the company to move the
jurisdiction of photo reprints to Marketing and to add one exempt
employee. The company has until the end of the contract in December 2006
to use the exemption for a current employee, otherwise it must be used for
a new hire. The company now has two exemptions.
Unity Council protests
policy “signing”
The company recently requested that
each employee sign a form to acknowledge they have received copies of
policies regarding smoking, fire prevention and workers compensation. The
Guild asks that our members NOT sign these forms until the Unity Council
has an chance to seek a legal opinion about agreeing to policies that have
not been negotiated.
