Members of the Mercury News Guild ratified a three-month contract on April 29. With half of our unit members voting, the contract was extended by a vote of 56-1. We thank all our members who voted by email or in person today for their participation in our contract negotiations.

Under the terms of the three-month extension, employees will receive a half day of paid leave, in addition to the two days of paid leave negotiated under the terms of our current contract, which is scheduled to expire June 30.  (The half day is based on the two-days-per-year formula for time off that’s been applied in our past contract extensions.)

Employees must schedule – not take, but schedule – all of their 2015 vacation time by June 30 to be eligible to take the 2.5 days of paid leave. As with past contract extensions, the paid leave cannot be carried over and is offered on a “use-it-or-lose-it” basis, meaning they cannot be cashed out on termination. So please, take the paid leave days as soon as possible – you’ve certainly more-than earned them.

On behalf of your Guild bargaining committee, we believe this extension is in our best interest, in order to have a signed agreement in place if and when a sale of DFM closes. The San Jose Guild joins other Guild bargaining units at DFM newspapers in Denver, suburban Philadelphia, suburban Detroit, and Kingston, NY, that are negotiating contract extensions this month.

As always, please send questions or comments to your San Jose unit chairs, Mark Emmons or Karen de Sá.