News Media Guild

4/19/03 - The News Media Guild is committed to advancing equal opportunity and combating discrimination. Human rights have been a centerpiece in the current negotiations for a new contract, launched last September.

Please be in touch with Human Rights Coordinator Ron Kampeas(email) if you have a complaint or information relating to human rights issues.

Pressing equal opportunity in negotiations

Here are some of the issues Guild negotiators have raised, and how the company has responded.

Benefits for domestic partners

Guild negotiators raise extending benefits to domestic partners at almost every session. Each time an issue involving family - pension, health benefits, vacations policy - has arisen, negotiators have argued for language extending such benefits to domestic partners.

In October, the Guild flew in a valued former AP staffer to a negotiating session so she could explain that her decision to leave the company was painful - and had much to do with not being able to protect her partner and their child. Also at the meeting were representatives of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association as well as AP staffers who suffer discrimination because of the company's discriminatory policy.

Other efforts include a letter writing campaign, leafleting, picketing, and the mass return of hundreds of ``diversity keychains'' mailed to staffers by AP's Diversity Council in late 2002.

The company has steadfastly refused to concede the issue. In previous years, AP negotiators have said they don't want to be ``ahead'' of the membership; with longtime hold-outs Gannett, Belo and Knight Ridder all on board now, negotiators have no excuses left, and will not even explain their refusal.

Merit pay

A Guild analysis of merit pay shows that women and minorities are far less likely to earn merit raises than white males. A male newsperson, for instance, averages $53.59 in merit pay, while the average female newsperson earns $36.88. White newspersons earn an average $51 dollars in merit pay; blacks, $18.

Read the Merit Pay Report (PDF)

This was not a negotiating issue, but the AP responded to the report in a letter. It said the data was distorted because it failed to take into account factors such as promotion into management. As AP will not share its management hiring data with the Guild, this is impossible to verify.

Minority internship

AP substantially diluted its minority internship program this year by making whites a plurality for the first time ever (see report, below.) Negotiators argue that this makes the company more ``diverse,'' although an analysis of AP hiring practices (see below) suggests that entry-level hires by other means (summer and vacation replacements) are overwhelmingly white.

The Guild compiled letters from graduates of the program who said the program had made the AP stand out for its commitment to a diverse newsroom, and that gutting it now would send exactly the wrong message to minorities seeking voices in the media. The company insisted it would continue to bring more non-minority interns into the program.

Economic differentials

Only two classes of AP employees - reporters and photographers - are entitled to the full economic differential for living in cities with high costs of living. Yet the classes that are excluded are far more likely to employ minorities and women (see below) and are among the lowest paid employees at the AP.

The AP has offered a modest raise to some of those staffers - principally, editorial assistants - who now receive a less than a third of the full economic differential. It has offered a onetime raise to office assistants, who are among staffers who receive no differential, and then only in four cities. New York City, with the highest cost of living, is not among the four.

Guild-covered employee breakdowns according to minority and gender

The following report was researched in September 2002. We hope to update it soon, although there's been no sign the numbers have substantially fluctuated.

The figures show AP minority hiring are comparable with the industry - but the industry's numbers lag behind the American workplace. That very lacking throughout the industry has been the topic of much discussion lately; significantly, AP's only recent action in this area has been to roll back its minority internship program. This year is the first year that the program has a plurality of whites.

The research also shows that minorities and women are much more likely to be represented among staff who are not entitled to the economic differential. Minorities comprise 14.5 percent of staffers entitled to the full differential and 40.7 percent of staffers who get no differential.

NOTE: ASNE refers to the American Society of News Editors 2002 diversity survey, which covers only the top-scale classifications.

1) Top-scale wage earners who are entitled to the full cost of living differential: Newspersons, photographers, artists, retouchers and programmers. Interns are also included because they are on the newsperson track.

Whites: AP: 85.5 percent; ASNE: 87.95 percent.
Blacks: AP: 5.38 percent; ASNE: 5.29 percent.
Hispanics: AP: 5.38 percent; ASNE: 3.86 percent.
Asians: AP: 3.32 percent; ASNE: 2.36 percent.
American Indians: AP: 0.44 percent. ASNE: not available.
Overall minorities: AP: 14.5 percent; ASNE: 12.07 percent.
Men: AP: 66.1 percent; ASNE: 62.9 percent.
Women: AP: 33.9 percent; ASNE: 37.1 percent.

1. ASNE also breaks down minority hiring according to circulation.

Larger newspapers show minority hiring greater than the AP's: 18.5 percent for newspapers with circulation over 500,000 and 18.8 percentfor newspapers with circulation between 250,000 and 500,000. Newspapers with circulation between 100,000 and 250,000 match AP's rate exactly at 14.5 percent; smaller newspapers have considerably smaller minority hiring rates.

2. AP currently employs 19 interns, breaking down as follows: Whites 8 (42.11 percent); Blacks 4 (21.05 percent); Hispanics 4 (21.05 percent); Asians 3 (15.79 percent); Overall minorities: 11 (57.90 percent); Men 7 (36.84 percent); Women 12 (63.16 percent.) The figures compare favorably with the ASNE survey (overall minority intern hiring is 31.1 percent; newspapers with a circulation over 500,000 have a rate of 48.1 percent). However, the ASNE survey does not distinguish between minority internship programs and general internships. AP's internship program was conceived to attract minorities to the organization.

2) Wage earners who are entitled to a partial cost of living differential (a little more than a quarter of the top-scale differential): Editorial, photo and graphic assistants; Librarians.
Whites: 76.97 percent.
Blacks: 10.11 percent
Hispanics: 6.18 percent
Asians: 6.74 percent.
American Indians: 0 percent
Overall minorities: 23.03 percent
Men: 60.1 percent
Women: 39.9 percent

3) Wage earners not entitled to any cost of living differential: Photo printers, computer maintenance controllers, telephone operators and receptionists, clerks, production assistants, office assistants, keypunch operators, stock clerks, bookkeepers, assistant cashiers, accountants, sales correspondents.

Whites: 59.3 percent
Blacks: 16.7 percent
Hispanics: 12.7 percent
Asians: 2.3 percent
Indians: 0 percent
Overall minorities: 40.7 percent.
Men: 59.3 percent
Women: 40.7 percent

APPENDIX I: Economic differentials, according to the 1999 contract: Class A cities $110; Class B $88; Class C $51.15; Class D $36.30.

APPENDIX II: July 2002 U.S. civilian labor force figures, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Whites: 83.3 percent
Blacks: 11.7 percent
Hispanics: 11.4 percent
Men: 53.4 percent
Women: 46.6 percent.

The BLS does not tabulate Asian and American Indian work force rates. Hispanics are also tabulated in the White and Black counts.