In a Valentine’s Day vote, Guild members at the Fresno Bee unanimously approved the tentative agreement on this year’s contract re-opener.

The deal provides a 2 percent merit pool, retroactive to January 1. The company also will have the ability to impose up to two weeks of unpaid furlough this year, provided that the furlough is imposed on the same terms and conditions for non-represented employees at the newspaper.

The company’s representatives (McClatchy attorney Bob Ford and HR head Donald Grady) said they weren’t sure yet if they would need to do a second furlough and “may or may not” depending on the financial outlook toward the end of the year.

The company also agreed to give employees a password to access the Fresno Bee website for work purposes so they won’t have to pay to do their jobs when working remotely under the new paywall system.

Guild members are urged to make sure they get timely reviews to make sure they get the raises they are due.  Also, no one should work unpaid overtime.  That masks the staffing shortage and makes the company less likely to hire the additional staff so desperately needed.