A few words on DTI training

With DTI training coming soon, we remind you that the company is to schedule your training on company time. Although you may be asked to adjust your schedule to accommodate training, the workday remains 7 1/2 hours.  If you are in training for four hours, for example, you owe the company 3 1/2 hours.  Anything over that is overtime.  We remind you that "comp time" doesn't exist according to the contract.

The company cannot ask you to squeeze 7 1/2 hours of work into 3 1/2 hours.  That's a speed-up.  According to the contract, "There shall be no speedup in work so as to place unreasonable duties upon any of the employees as a result of which their competency might be questioned.  Any reduction in the force (such as taking employees out of service for training) shall not result in placing unreasonable duties upon any of the remaining employees as a result of which their competency might be questioned." We will all be called upon to help pick up the slack for people in training, but if you go over your workday doing so, be sure to claim overtime.

The company cannot rely too heavily on members of management to fill in for those of us in training.  If you see managers routinely stretching their hours to do Guild work, please notify Mike Bucsko.

No one can forbid you to schedule vacation during the training period. The only restriction on vacation would be the number of people in your department who can take it at the same time. If you vacation conflicts with your training, let your supervisor know so you can be rescheduled for training.

We certainly want to be cooperative during training, but our situation will be different from what it was during C-Text training.  A smaller staff is doing more work now, with no two-year interns whom the company can plug into our jobs while we're being trained.  It will be a challenge to keep things running smoothly during the training, but the contract hasn't changed.  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.

Don't miss Off the Record III

The Newspaper Guild and AFTRA will team once more to bring sharp-edged, silver-tongued, entertainment to Pittsburgh with Off the Record II, scheduled for Oct. 2 at the Byham Theater. The two unions' scholarship funds will benefit, but the primary recipient of profits once more will be the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, with a goal to improve upon last year's $13,000 donation to serve hunger needs.  the Off the Record steering committee is interested in any new volunteers who can donate time and/or talent to the event's success.  If able to offer non-performance services (publicity/phone calls/mailings, etc.), please contact Gary Rotstein.  If interested in performing on stage, contact Chris Raswson, who will be overseeing auditions on July 23. (more details to follow).  

AP employees win same-sex benefits

The Associated Press has agreed with the News Media Guild, the Guild local that represents our AP colleagues, to provide the same health care coverage to employees' same-sex domestic partners as they would if the employee were married.

Unlike at the Post-Gazette, AP employees received that coverage at the same time that the company agreed to cover the cost of contraceptives.  (Viagra was not mentioned.) The side letter to the contract on health care will cover all 3,700 Associated Press employees in its 242 bureaus, both domestic and abroad.

What that means to us here at the PG is that at least some of the gay and lesbian people whose work appears in the paper -- namely, those who write for the AP and The New York Times -- will have health care coverage for their entire families.

Guild picnic to be Aug. 16