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GET TO KNOW YOUR UNION - VOL. 1For those who find the Guild's contract to be confusing and often impenetrable, we bring you the first edition of our "Get To Know Your Union" handbook. This is an attempt to translate our contract into English, a Cliff's Notes version of our contract, if you will. This handbook exists in booklet form, of course, as well as here, in electronic form. This will be a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions for alterations or additions, please let us know.
WELCOME!
Congratulations
on your membership in The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. You are part of a team
with a long and storied history dating to 1934. As a member of The Newspaper
Guild (sometimes known as just The Guild), you stand with union members from
some of the largest and most respected media organizations in the country,
including The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the
Associated Press and, of course, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
If the Newspaper Guild represents your first experience with a union, you
might be asking yourself some questions, such as: What will being in a union
mean for me? What does the contract mean? Will I have to go on strike? Where
does my dues money go? Who are my Guild leaders, and what do they do?
Starting a new job can be stressful. The last thing your union leaders
want is to make that experience worse by leaving you with a bunch of unanswered
questions. This handbook is meant to simplify information about your union and
to encourage you to embrace The Newspaper Guild as a valuable part of your life.
Think of the Guild as a friend that is always looking out for you.
This is your guide. Your fellow Guild members created it, and your
comments will help to make sure it evolves and continues to meet the needs of
new members, so please let us know how we can make it better. R.J.
Hufnagel President,
The Newspaper Guild of
What is a
If you’ve never been part of a union before, you might not know how
they work. A union is organized group of workers who come together to ensure that
they and their fellow employees have
respect and security on the job, earn better wages and benefits, and are
provided with safe working conditions. These wages, benefits and working
conditions are laid out in collective bargaining agreements, or contracts,
which are, basically, rule books for the workplace, spelled out in writing by
your union leaders and the people who run the company.
When employees come together as part of a union, their collective voice
provides a strong, unified counterbalance to the otherwise unchecked power of
employers.
Also, a union is a legal entity. That means that you won’t get in
trouble for joining the union, and that your employer is required to negotiate
with the union and is obligated to follow the rules that are in our contract.
Why do I need
The Guild?
Unions like The Newspaper Guild (or TNG) have been an important part of many
workplaces for more than a century. Many unions were formed by employees looking
for a way to fight unhealthy working conditions, the use of underage workers,
pitiful wages and excessive work hours.
You may have heard the phrase “there’s safety in numbers.” That’s
a perfect description of the usefulness of a union, even in a 21st
century workplace, and even when your employer seems friendly and harmless.
If you have a problem on the job, would you rather face that problem
alone, or with the support of all of your co-workers? One person might be
strong, but imagine the strength of hundreds of your fellow workers standing
behind you.
Being a member of the Newspaper Guild also provides you with job
security, a benefit non-union workers simply don’t have.
Job security means that your boss can’t just tell you, “you’re
fired” because you’re having a bad day. And you can’t be laid off so your
boss can hire his son or daughter to take your place. The contract between the
Guild and the company provides rules for employee layoffs and firings, and the
Guild makes sure that nobody loses their job without a just and sufficient
reason. The part of the contract that ensures your job security and lays out
rules for layoffs is commonly known as the “security
clause.” [Article VII in your contract]. In general, the clause
makes sure that the longer you remain in your job, the more secure you will be.
This concept, known as seniority, is
one of the bedrock principles of unionism.
Also, your union is there to make sure that your wages are fair and that
you have adequate health, retirement and other benefits. Through collective
bargaining (another way of saying group negotiations), unions have helped
raise the standard of living for tens of millions of American workers. As of
2007, numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
showed that the typical union worker's pay and benefits were about 30 percent
higher than what workers in comparable non-union jobs received. What does the
Well, one big answer is that the union protects you and your job, and the
jobs of your Guild co-workers. The union does this chiefly by maintaining and
protecting its jurisdiction over the work that Guild members do. That means that,
except in special cases that are spelled out in the contract, all of the
journalistic work produced for the Post-Gazette or the PG Web site must be done
by a member of The Newspaper Guild.
The first page of your Newspaper Guild contract defines this
jurisdiction, and proclaims the Guild as the “sole collective bargaining
agency” for newsroom employees at the Post-Gazette. This means that if you are
hired as a journalist at the Post-Gazette (unless you are a member of management),
you automatically become a member of the Guild, and your job and the work that
you do is automatically protected by the union.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. The company is allowed to
pay stringers, or free-lance writers
and photographers, to supplement the work that Guild members do for the paper,
but these workers are not members of the union, and are not allowed to be used
to replace union workers. The same is true of the students who work as unpaid interns,
and the members of management who occasionally write for the paper.
What are my dues, and where do they go?
You may notice that each time you get paid, a little bit of money goes to
the Newspaper Guild. This payment is known as your Guild dues.
Consider your dues (which amount to 1.5 percent of your pay) as an investment,
not a tax. It’s like buying an ins
Whether your dues money is used for bargaining a better contract,
defending a co-worker’s rights, solving a problem in the workplace, or
organizing a social gathering, the aim is the same: to improve the quality of
life for Guild members.
Here’s an idea of how your dues money is spent: About 53 percent of the
money goes to your local, which is the small
group of workers in your town or workplace. The Pittsburgh Guild local, No.
38061 (each local has a unique ID number), represents about 230 journalists at
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as well as workers at the Valley Independent
newspaper in Monessen, Pa., and professors at Point Park University in downtown
Pittsburgh. Your local uses its share
of your dues money to cover the cost of representing employees in disputes and
negotiating contracts, as well as for union publications, meetings, training
programs and maintaining the local office (on the second floor of the United
Steelworkers Building, next door to the Post-Gazette).
Another 36 percent of your dues goes to the Newspaper Guild international
union, the “umbrella” that includes all the Guild locals in the
Finally, 11 percent of your money goes to the CWA’s Member
Relief Fund. This fund includes money from every member and is used to
provide support for people who need financial help because they have been forced
to go on strike or who have been locked out by their employers.
Does
this mean I will go on strike?
No. The vast majority of contract negotiations and disputes are resolved
without a strike or a lockout. Most
union leaders and employers consider such a work stoppage
to be a last resort.
A strike, or an organized effort by union members to stop working until
their needs are met, is a big weapon the union has against the company, but
it’s a weapon that the Guild will use sparingly, usually only when it has no
other option.
A lockout, similar in effect to a strike, is an effort by a company to
prevent employees from working until the company’s demands are met.
Sometimes, the Guild and the company will have disputes that aren’t
covered by the contract, or about which the two sides disagree. These disputes
are known as grievances, and the contract lays out procedures for the union and
company to address them (Article XVI). If
these disputes can’t be resolved through the process outlined in the contract,
they are referred to arbitration, a
process by which a neutral third party decides the outcome. In other cases, they
are resolved with a document called a memorandum
of understanding, or MOU. These
are settlements negotiated between the Guild and the company, just like the
contract. Is
the Guild the only
No. There are more than a dozen unions at the PG, and they represent
almost every worker in the company. Leaders of these unions meet regularly as
the Unity Council, which ensures that all the unions at the Post-Gazette
help each other, look out for each other, and work together to solve problems
that affect everyone. YOUR RIGHTS
What are your rights as a union member? That’s a big question, and
there are more answers than we can include here.
But
the most important answer is this: You have the right to be represented by your
union at all times. If your boss, or another member of management, asks to meet
with you, and you feel like you might be in trouble, you are always allowed to
(and should) ask the union for help and bring a union member with you. This
rule, affirmed by the Supreme Court, has become known as your Weingarten Rights.
Some of your other rights, guaranteed by the contract, include fair
wages, paid vacation, health and retirement benefits, and overtime. Here’s a
quick summary:
Vacation, personal days, holidays
Every Guild employee is entitled to paid time off that falls into various
categories. The most common are vacation days, personal days, holidays and sick
days. The
amount of vacation time you get is
based on how long you’ve worked for the company, and the numbers are spelled
out in the contract (Article XI). New employees receive one week of
vacation after the first six months on the job, and two weeks after one full
year. As you continue to work, you gain more vacation, up to a maximum of four
weeks per year. The contract also spells out the procedure for requesting time
off, allows for limits on the number of people who can take vacation at one
time, and explains other vacation-related issues. If you have any problems or
questions about how and when to use your vacation time, check the contract or
ask a union representative.
Each
employee also has a handful of personal
days (the contract calls them “personal holidays”)
each year that they may take any time, so long as they let their boss know
in advance. These personal days are subject to the same limitations as vacation
days.
The Guild contract also provides six paid holidays
each year: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day,
Thanksgiving and Christmas. In most cases, employees are either given these days
off, with pay, or given an extra day’s pay that week, if they have to work
during the holiday. Sick days, LONG-TERM
SICK LEAVE,
If you are sick and can’t make it to work, you should notify your
supervisor as soon as possible that you need to take a sick
day. Each Guild member is entitled to sick leave for short-term illnesses
like a cold or the flu (Article VII). For other illnesses that might
require more time off, each Guild member also accumulates a certain amount of long-term sick leave based on the number of years they have worked
for the company.
Other types of paid and unpaid leave (Article XV) include funeral
or bereavement leave, union leave,
military leave, parental leave or FMLA leave, all of which have their own unique
requirements and provisions in the contract. But the basic idea is the same: If
you have to take time off because you’re sick, or because you’re in the
military, or because a family member is sick or dies, the company can’t fire
you or discipline you, and your job will be waiting for you when you come back. Hours, overtime
According to the contract (Article IV), your workday
consists of seven and a half hours (or eight and a half if you take an hour for
lunch). That means that if you work nine or ten hours or more, you are entitled
to overtime pay (Article V).
Overtime beyond 40 hours in a week is paid at time and a half, which means that
for every two hours of overtime you work, you get paid for three. In addition,
if you are called back into the office after you’ve gone home, you’re
entitled to four hours of overtime pay. And if you have to work from home on the
newspaper or the Web site after your workday is done, you’re entitled to at
least an hour of overtime pay. And while the company does not have to approve
overtime in advance, it’s always a good idea to let your boss know when you
think an assignment might require more time than you have left in your day. That
way, he or she can decide what to do.
When you work overtime, you should report the extra hours to your boss
(in writing or via e-mail) as soon as possible. Don’t forget, overtime is a
right, not a privilege. Your work and your time are valuable, so make sure you
get paid what you deserve. Contract negotiations
These rights listed above are all part of the contract, which is renewed
every three to five years or so, and has been built over many decades through
repeated negotiations between the union and the company. The contract is binding,
which means the company (or the union) can’t decide to just change something
in it without the two sides sitting down and agreeing to the change.
Every few years, a half dozen or so of your co-workers negotiate a new
contract with the company. This process usually takes several months, and the
meetings are open for Guild members to observe. Before each contract expires,
your union leaders will ask for your opinion on the issues that are important How much will I get paid?
The section on wages (Article III) is likely one of the most widely read
parts of the Guild contract. There are many job descriptions, categories and
wage levels listed there, but the basic rules apply to each one: You can’t be
paid less than the minimum wage for your experience and job category, and you
will make more money the longer you work for the company. For full-time
employees, raises are guaranteed
after six months, after one year and each year thereafter, up to the fourth
year.
Also, for people who work a variety of jobs, the contract includes the
payment of differentials. In short, a differential is an additional payment
made when an employee does a job with a higher wage than the job he or she is
normally paid to do.
For example, if you are a reporter but are asked to work for two days as
a copy editor, you would be paid, just for those two days, the difference
between your salary and the starting salary for a copy editor. You can report
differentials to your supervisor in writing or via e-mail, the same as overtime. Health care/insurance
The union contract provides health insurance coverage (Article XX)
for all Guild employees (including prescription drug, dental and vision
benefits). These benefits are paid for jointly between the company and the employees,
with each employee contributing 5 percent of their wages toward their health
coverage, and the company paying the rest.
The contract also provides life insurance for employees of one year’s
salary up to $50,000.
The contract does not include all the features and details of the
Guild’s insurance coverage, but any questions can be directed to the Human
Resources department on the fourth floor of the Post-Gazette offices, or to your
nearest Guild representative.
Health care can be complicated, and we know you’ll have questions, so
we’ll make sure to help you find the answers. How long is my
The first three months of every new employee’s tenure What if I want to try
another job someday?
The Guild contract requires the company to announce (usually via e-mail)
any new or vacant jobs it intends to fill (Article XIII). This process
gives Guild members the chance to try new things and let their bosses know
they’re ready to move on. What if I still have questions?
There are plenty of other things the union and the contract do that
haven’t been mentioned yet, including making sure the company reimburses you
for work-related expenses, and making sure that your byline or credit line is
not used if you don’t want it to be. This handbook is only an introduction to
what the union does for you.
So far, we’ve probably answered some of your questions about the union
and the contract. But if you still have more, what should you do? The first
answer is: Come to a meeting. The Guild holds meetings at least once every three
months (usually in March, June, September and December), and holds other social
gatherings throughout the year. These events and meetings are widely publicized
via e-mail and on posters in the office, and you’re welcome at all of them.
Also, get to know your steward.
Each department has at least one “shop steward,” and bigger departments
might have two or three. These folks are the union’s “first line of
defense” for questions, disputes, information distribution and other union
activities. They are experienced, knowledgeable people who are there to help
you. If you don’t know who your steward is, just ask. It could be the person
sitting right next to you. In addition to the stewards, the Pittsburgh Guild
local has an executive committee of officers whose job is to oversee the union.
The officers, elected each fall, are your fellow Guild members, your co-workers,
your friends.
The executive committee members, along with the stewards, are there to
help you, to look out for you and to answer your questions, so don’t be shy.
Also, the contact information for the Guild office (where Guild committees
regularly meet and conduct their business) can be found on our Web site: www.pghguild.com.
So don’t hesitate to call or write if you have a question.
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