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Guild Facts
 | March
4, 2005 |
| Vol.
13, No. 1 |
New
social activity changes to be revealed at March 9 meeting
The Guild's leadership will reveal
some major changes in social activities for this year at the local's
first membership meeting of 2005 on Wednesday, March 9, in the first
floor meeting room of the United Steelworkers Building.
The local will also vote on delegates
to The Newspaper Guild Sector Conference in Victoria, Canada, in May,
and the Communications Workers of America Convention in Chicago in
August.
The meeting will be held in two
sessions, as usual, at 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Food and beverages will
also be available for those who like to eat and drink.
The changes to the Guild's social
calendar are the result of our recent membership survey, to which 72 of
our members responded.
Among the results:
·
A total of 56
respondents said they attend the Holiday Party, the highest percentage
in the survey. There were criticisms about the food (quality, variety
and quantity), and suggestions to keep a DJ and change the location.
·
The Spring Party commemorating the
local's founding in 1934 (coming up on Saturday, April 9 at the River
City Inn), was the second-favorite.
·
The summer picnic was evenly split,
36-36, between those who've attended and those who haven't, but a
whopping 27 of the non-attendees said they might if the location were
rotated from its current North Hills location.
·
The Guild was viewed as having
effective communication, but suggestions for improvement included more
frequent publication of the Guild Facts, more frequent updating of our
web site and more information about executive committee sessions and
other meetings being disseminated by stewards.
Guild wins again...but stonewalling
continues
The National Labor Relations Board in
Washington, D.C., has once again delivered the Guild a victory in its
battle with the Point Park University administration to bargain a first
contract for the college's fulltime faculty.
The NLRB on Feb. 17 found the Point Park administration in violation of
federal labor law and ordered the college to begin bargaining with the
union immediately. This marks the fourth time the NLRB has sided with
the Guild over Point Park's refusal to bargain since the faculty voted
overwhelmingly to join the Guild last June.
The next act in this labor drama will be played out in the U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Washington since the college's hired legal gun has
asked the court to review the NLRB decision. Stay tuned.
Ready to serve...
Executive Board 2nd Vice
President Marianne Mizera and steward R.J. Hufnagel attended The
Newspaper Guild's New Local Officers' Seminar at the AFL-CIO's National
Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., Feb. 18-21 to learn how to serve
our Guild membership more effectively.
The weekend training session
covered a wide range of topics, including collective bargaining,
contract enforcement, local administration and finance as well as
membership and community mobilization.
The seminar was very informative,
and attendees returned to their locals with renewed vigor, armed with
know-how about how your union operates and how it can help you! Talk to
Marianne and R.J. about their experience.
Monessen bargaining on horizon
The Guild is preparing for bargaining at our Monessen unit in
anticipation of the contract's expiration on April 30. Members at The
Valley Independent over the past few months completed surveys and
participated in a series of meetings to discuss their issues to help
craft a proposal.
The local has also been busy in Monessen recently with issues that
included layoffs as a result of the Tribune-Review reorganization,
tidying up after an arbitration victory and dealing with a grievance
over the company's use of stringers and managers to perform Guild work.
401(k) rollover changes
To anyone who is a participant in
the Newspaper Guild's 401(k) plan, be advised that the American Funds no
longer permits retirees or those who leave the employ of the
Post-Gazette to roll over their funds into personal IRAs with American
Funds free of charge.
If, upon retirement or job change,
you would want to roll over from the 401(k) to a personal IRA with
American Funds, the money you invest in your personal IRA will be
subject to the same front-end loans that any investor would pay if he or
she decided to invest in American Funds. Those front-end loads are as
high as 5.75 percent, depending on the fund you are investing in and the
amount you are investing (assuming you are not in the $1 million-and-up
category for which the front-end loads are reduced).
See Dennis McDonald if you
have any questions about this issue.
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