Negotiation Bulletins

Guild, AP Bargaining Bulletin No. 24

Kevin Keane — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:05:49 -0800

date:

2008-12-02 00:00

subtitle:

Guild, AP resolve some overtime and scheduling issues

text:

The News Media Guild continued its fight against the Kentucky Derby clause Tuesday, again proposing the clause be eliminated, while the company agreed to delete the provision that denied premium overtime to special writers.

The Associated Press has presented various revisions of the Kentucky Derby clause during negotiations, with the most recent version involving staffers who travel to cover certain events, including the Olympics. Under the clause, staffers are paid straight time for working more than 40 hours a week, not premium overtime.

The Guild agreed to a proposed change to the recall to duty provision that requires AP to pay eight hours of overtime for work performed on a day off. If the employee returns to the office or a news venue, the company must continue to pay the eight-hour minimum, but allows for a minimum payment of fours hours if that work is not performed at the work location or news venue.

The AP wants to be able to change schedules in the work week without penalty in the event of a staffing or news emergency, saying it cannot control those things. The Guild accepted the changes when AP agreed to four hours of penalty pay for each day that the schedule is improperly changed. Penalty now applies to the first day only.

“We think our scheduling proposal balances the AP’s interest and need to cover ‘exigent and catastrophic’ circumstances,” said Travis Reed, a Guild negotiator who works in Miami.

The AP also agreed to Guild language that schedules cannot be used to punish or harass staffers.

AP agreed that it will distribute equitably open shifts among available employees doing the same or comparable work.

The company also agreed to pay premium overtime to employees whose salaries are 10.1 percent per week above scale and economic differential and who supervise other staffers.

The company wants to expand a provision that allows some staffers to opt out of scheduling requirements. The language now applies to correspondents in one-person bureaus, and photographers and sports writers who work alone in their bureau or correspondency. The Guild had agreed to include business and entertainment writers who work alone in the provision, but AP wants to expand it to cover all photographers, sports writers, business and entertainment writers, noting it would not apply to New York Sports.

The Guild proposed changes to the AP’s sick leave plan, which would add a short-term disability program and provide employees with 10 days of leave each year. Guild negotiators suggested giving 15 days a year, and shortening the waiting period before short-term disability starts from seven days to two. The AP said it could offer 12 sick days a year, but it was unwilling to shorten the waiting period for disability.

“Under the seven-day waiting period plan, employees will suffer financial losses they’ve never experienced before,” said Don Ryan, a Guild negotiator who works in Portland, Ore.

The company agreed to increase its cap of 26 weeks of short-term disability pay for employees hired before Dec. 1, 2008 and have more than 25 years of service. They would get one week of full-time sick leave for each year of service. Right now, a 30-year employee could receive 30 weeks of full time pay, plus 30 weeks of half-time pay. The AP proposal would provide 30 weeks of pay.

AP said its proposal greatly increases sick leave for less senior employees while providing a generous benefit for senior staff adding that senior employees requiring the half-time pay would likely be covered by its long-term disability benefit.

The company also indicated it could live with the existing birth benefit, which assures new mothers at least eight weeks of paid time off, if an overall agreement on sick leave could be reached.

The AP agreed to drop its proposal that the decisions of the third-party disability plan administrator be binding after the Guild said it must be able to grieve and arbitrate the TPA’s decisions. The company also agreed that employees would not be required to provide a note from a doctor, unless they are sick for three or more days.

Bargaining resumes Wednesday.

Guild-AP Bargaining Bulletin No. 23

Kevin Keane — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:53:22 -0800

date:

2008-11-26 00:00

subtitle:

AP revises its Kentucky Derby overtime proposal

text:

The Associated Press proposed Wednesday another version of the Kentucky Derby clause that no longer includes the horse race itself or championship fights.

The proposed version includes: overseas travel with the vice president, members of the president’s cabinet or chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; coverage of military maneuvers, actions and press pools; coverage of Olympics; full-time coverage of major league baseball spring training and national and international golf and tennis tournaments.

The new items are the overseas travel, Olympics and tennis tournaments.

The Guild has proposed eliminating the clause, which allows the company to pay straight time for overtime instead of premium pay.

In discussions involving the technicians, the company agreed to up its cap for certifications to $130 from $125. It also agreed to pay $35 weekly for the MCSA certification, which is a stepping stone to MCSE. Any technician who also gets the MCSE would get an additional $25 weekly, for a total of $60.

The company wants to eliminate the differential for CCNA certification, and the Guild asked the AP to roll that differential into the paychecks of the five technicians who now receive it.

The two sides also discussed temporaries, with the Guild agreeing to an additional three months of probation for any temporary who has completed nine months in one bureau and is offered a permanent job in another bureau.

The two sides will resume negotiations Tuesday, when they plan to discuss sick leave. The company has proposed a policy that gives more sick leave to new hires, but reduces it for more veteran staffers. It calls for 10 days of sick leave a year, with additional time in the event of a short-term disability lasting at least seven days. It would be managed by a third-party administrator whose decisions would be binding, meaning employees could not appeal through the contract’s grievance and arbitration procedure.

Guild-AP Bargaining Bulletin No. 22

Kevin Keane — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:58:18 -0800

date:

2008-11-25 00:00

subtitle:

Guild, AP discuss health insurance, overtime and scheduling

text:

The Associated Press said Tuesday that it would try to be responsive to employee concerns about the increased cost of prescription drugs under its proposal by looking at some sort of “stop loss” measure for staffers who are high users of the prescription drug plan.

The Guild has said that the deductibles and increased cost of the prescription drug plan would amount to a pay cut in light of the company’s one-year wage freeze proposal.

The company offered no relief on the new deductibles.

The AP said it will also provide a revised Kentucky Derby overtime proposal, which allows the company to pay straight time for overtime for some events rather than premium overtime. The company said it wants to continue the policy for high-level and high-functioning staffers who work a lot on their own. It said the clause allows the AP to continue some types of coverage in a contracting newspaper market.

The company also pressed for the elimination of guaranteed penalty pay for schedule changes for news emergencies made during the same week. AP has argued it’s unreasonable for a news company to issue penalty pay because of a schedule change to cover a 9-11 or the assassination of a political figure story when it’s the reason why its employees got into journalism.

AP defined a news emergency as “exigent or catastrophic circumstances.”

AP says it is willing to continue the provisions that allow staffers to charge four hours of overtime when they’re recalled to duty after their shift ends and eight hours on their day off when they report to the office or a news venue.

The company wants to pay overtime only for time worked when employees are reached outside the office. It said it wants to be able to call staffers to verify accuracy of a story or ask a question and pay for the actual OT worked so it’s not penalized for doing what it believes most employees want it to do.

The Guild said it wants to continue the supervisory differentials article in the contract, which the company has proposed eliminating by wrapping the $35 payment into employees salaries if they earned the payment within the last year. The company has said that role will be largely changed because of regionalization. AP indicated its “wrapping in the payment” proposal is contingent on ending the supervisory differential.

The company is to respond Wednesday to the Guild’s leaves of absence, grievance procedure, advancement opportunities, technician certification differentials and senior technician proposals.

The two sides meet again Wednesday.

Guild-AP Bargaining Bulletin No. 21

Kevin Keane — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:36:38 -0800

date:

2008-11-24 00:00

subtitle:

Guild says no to new AP health care proposal

text:

The Associated Press told the News Media Guild on Monday that it could reduce premium rate increases for health insurance to zero during the one year for which the company has proposed a wage freeze but cannot eliminate its proposals for co-pays for prescription drugs or deductibles.

The Guild has heard from staffers who say the prescription drug changes would cost them thousands of dollars annually, but the AP said the proposal would dramatically affect just a few people.

The company’s proposal on premiums came in reaction to the Guild’s statement that the increased medical costs, coupled with the proposed wage freeze, amount to a wage cut. The AP also agreed to increase the number of mental health care visits to 60 from the 30 originally proposed.

The Guild said the company proposal is unsatisfactory.

The health care plan now has no deductibles. The company has proposed deductibles of $250 for individuals in the discount plan and $150 for individuals in the buy-up plan. For families, the proposed deductibles in those two plans are $500 and $300.

The company has also proposed increasing the cost of 30-day prescriptions for preferred prescription drugs from $16 to 20 percent of the charge, but not less than $20 or more than $70. Non-preferred drugs would increase from $22 to 30 percent of the cost, but not less than $35 or more than $85.

Generic drugs would be unchanged at $7.

The cost for a 90-day mail order supply of preferred drugs would change from $16 to 20 percent, but not less than $40 or more than $140. Non-preferred drugs would jump from $22 to 30 percent of the cost, but not less than $70 or more than $170.

The mail order charge for generic drugs would increase from $7 to $14.

The two sides also discussed a possible start date of July 1, 2009, for a new job description for senior technicians, allowing the company the required 26 weeks’ to advise those who might lose that designation. The AP said it was willing to pay an extra $100 weekly to those who get the new senior tech title.

The job would call for employees capable of working individually with minimal supervision functioning as a team leader. The work schedules and assignments would be at AP’s sole discretion. The recall-to-duty pay would be for overtime actually worked.

The Guild and the AP also discussed various technology certifications, with the Guild asking the company to maintain the CCNA and CCNE certifications and add MCSA to its list of new certifications; CIW, CEV and Mac.

The company previously has said that the CEV, or certified video engineer, is the most important for the technicians to obtain. It said Monday that AP job experience would satisfy the criteria for taking the CEV training.

The company wants to maintain a cap of $125, regardless of the number of certifications that a technician holds.

The Guild proposed modifying the disciplinary language in the Technology Unit contract where a technician loses training rights for a year after any disciplinary action. AP indicated disinterest in the union proposal.

The two sides meet again Tuesday, when they plan to discuss hours, overtime and scheduling.

Guild-AP Bargaining Bulletin No. 20

Kevin Keane — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:24:25 -0800

date:

2008-11-21 00:00

subtitle:

AP advances two-year wage offer

text:

The Associated Press proposed a year-long wage freeze in the first year of a two-year agreement on Friday, its first economic offer to Guild covered staffers. AP proposed a 2 percent wage increase, effective Dec. 1, 2009, in the second year of the proposed agreement.

Repeating some of what AP President Tom Curley mentioned to staffers in a company-wide presentation on Thursday, company negotiators said membership issues, the economy and competition have created financial concerns that must be addressed. AP says it had a $95 million cash flow in 2008, but AP members have reduced that to $66 million for next year because of $29 million in price cuts members demanded.

Revenue last year was $710 million. AP projects it to increase this year to $746 million because of revenue from the political campaigns and the Olympics. However, AP says its forecast for 2009 is bleaker -- $705 million. Earnings before taxes, AP says, will decline from $75 million to an estimated $45 million.

The company said that even though almost one-third of that $66 million must be spent on funding pension plans, it is committed to continuing the plan. That means employees would continue to gain increased benefits as they increase service time. The Guild is reviewing the AP’s financial information.

The company revised its health plan premium increases from 6.5 percent to five percent a year. No other changes were offered.

AP announced Thursday it is going to reduce its worldwide workforce of more than 4,000 employees by 10 percent from its October 2008 staffing level. AP repeated its belief that much of the reductions could be achieved through attrition. The company said today it will be done by the end of next year. The Guild represents about 1,400 employees.

Guild negotiators told AP that any effort to restrain costs should be shared pain. AP said it agrees the pain should be shared by all employees, including managers and executives.

The Guild said that in light of AP's wage proposal, its proposed medical plan increases represented a wage cut. The union added that the company's job security proposal was a "non-starter." Guild administrator Kevin Keane said, "Written progressive disciplinary warnings are viewed as a valuable management tool because it's a constructive effort to bring about change, while AP's proposal would make it a destructive process."

AP wants employees to lose their seniority for staff reductions and rehire rights if they received a written progressive disciplinary warning within the prior 12 months.

Bargaining resumes Monday.