Bulletins

In a near-unanimous vote, workers at The Maui News on Monday voted to ratify a two-year contract with newspaper ownership that runs to April of 2020. The vote was verified Tuesday. With more than three-quarters of eligible members submitting a ballot, 32 votes were cast for the new agreement, which …

Chronicle Guild negotiators rejected Hearst Corp.’s demand to eliminate union jurisdiction over the marketing and advertising departments. Our committee sent a letter on Monday to convey that stance to the management.

Bargaining continued in late January, early February at all four McClatchy California units (The Modesto Bee, The Fresno Bee, The Sacramento Bee and News Desk West). Full contracts are up at Modesto, Fresno and News Desk West while Sacramento has a reopener. The guild and company were able to narrow bargaining to a few core issues during each of the sessions. They include the new metrics for page view goals, seniority language in the case of layoffs, minimum salary levels and merit pay scales, equipment reimbursement, and drug policy.

Twenty-one Guild members are being bought out and layoffs are next. How many more people will be let go is not known.

Contract negotiations resumed in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday with a focus on community interpreting and two bedrocks of any labor contract: just cause discipline and the right to arbitrate.

Negotiations for a 2018 wage re-opener covering 13 bargaining units will open soon as Digital First Media ordered a new wave of staff cuts throughout California and in suburban Philadelphia in January. In response, DFM workers are escalating their contract campaign against Alden Global Capital, the New York hedge fund that owns DFM and that has been systematically stripping newspaper assets since 2012.

Guild and management negotiators significantly narrowed the issues blocking agreement on a new labor contract during two days of talks in Honolulu. Our committee managed to elicit a package proposal from the company that would drop many of the onerous proposals it made last year, such as reducing holidays and sick leave, absurd absenteeism terms, restrictions on shop stewards and a weaker grievance procedure. But the company still demands the right to conduct random drug testing.

The following statement was issued today by the Local 39521 Elections Committee: Dear Candidates: The Local Elections Committee of the Pacific Media Workers Guild met December 21, 2017 at 10 a.m. at the Guild office to count ballots for the union’s election. Following are the results, certified by the LEC: …

ASL Interpreters United TNG-CWA Local 39521 Negotiations Update #2                                                                              Dec. 7, 2017 Contract negotiations resumed in San Francisco this week with a closer look at proposed changes in the scheduling routine and some preliminary meetings with a federal mediator. Both the union and management put in some effort as …

After a backward move, a sideways shuffle and a marathon song and dance, contract negotiations ended up Tuesday without achieving much harmony. Still, we made some progress. We refocused the bargaining on our key priorities: reasonable salary increases, equitable pay, a 401(k) match, and no loss of sick leave or other benefits already in our contract.