Chronicle Unit
Bargaining Bulletin #22

Your Guild bargaining committee met Tuesday with Hearst Corp. representatives along with a federal mediator in a renewed effort to settle terms of a new labor contract at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Erin Spaulding of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service met with the union and management in a joint introductory session before convening privately with both sides.

Several ideas are being explored to settle the key remaining issue: How to restructure the Guild’s health coverage and keep costs as affordable as possible for both the company and the Guild membership.

Hearst’s latest offer would migrate the Guild membership into the corporate health system, ending the current Media Guild Health & Welfare Trust. Costs would be dramatically higher for most employees, even after taking into account the company’s proposed 1.5 percent yearly pay increase in each year of a proposed four-year contract.

No new agreements were reached Tuesday. However, the mediator raised some new ideas that both sides are considering.

We hope to report further progress by the end of the week.

Representing the Guild: Jon Ferguson, Mike Cabanatuan, Matthai Kuruvila, Autumn Grace, Carl Hall and Kat Anderson.

Presenting the Management: Suzy Cain, Cathy Rommelfanger, Aryn Sobo, and Peter Rahbar.