Guild-BNA Contract Ratification Summary

Below are the terms of the contract being submitted for a vote June 27 in a worksite referendum. The bargaining committee by a strong majority recommends that members vote to ratify this tentative agreement.

There will be a contract vote on Tuesday, June 27, 8:30 A.M to 5:30 P.M. in the Link Lobby. Rockville members will receive ballots before Tuesday. Absentee ballots will be available on Monday, June 26. Please contact David Schwartz, ext. 4434, if you would like an absentee ballot.

Contract Summary

With the following exceptions, the contract offer is unchanged from the terms voted upon on June 14:

Pay increases are retroactive to February 27, 2000 (full retroactivity).
Article XXXV, Section 3 (Duration and Renewal): At any time within 120 days (currently 60) prior to the termination of the contract, either the Publisher or the Guild may initiate negotiations for a new agreement. The final sentence of the section providing for retroactivity for a period of no more than 60 days will be deleted.

These changes mean that the Guild can initiate negotiations a full 60 days earlier than currently. The terms of the contract will remain in effect during the negotiations, but there will no requirement for retroactivity; the date pay increases begin will be a subject of those negotiations. Just as the Guild negotiated for retroactivity to February 27, 2000 (even though the current agreement provides for retroactivity to 60 days), the Guild under the new agreement would continue to negotiate for the most favorable effective date for wage increases.

The proposed salary increases over the three-year term are shown below:

Effective Date	Steps 0 - 5	Step 6
Feb. 27, 2000	2%	3%
Feb. 26, 2001	2%	3.5%
Feb. 25, 2002	2%	3.5%

The Guild has won the first year increases retroactive to February 27, 2000 (full retroactivity).

The following is a listing of the other contract changes in BNA's offer:

Other compensation and economic issues:

Establishment of a Joint Compensation Committee (4 members each side), to remain in effect for not longer than one year from the date the contract is settled, to study and make recommendations on a compensation system to enable BNA to attract and retain qualified employees.
Increase Parking from $50.00 per month to $52.50, and increase Metrochek from $60.00 ten times a year to $62.50 ten times per year.
Extends full employer payment for family health insurance to part-time employees regularly scheduled to work 30 or more hours a week.
Adoption expense reimbursement goes up $2,000 to $4,000. (This was illegally implemented by BNA during the term of the expired contract.)
Part-time employees scheduled for at least 20 hours of work weekly will be eligible for tuition aid after completing the equivalent of six months of full-time service, rather than complete 24 months' employments.
Time spent in temporary transfer shall count as time spent in the permanent position.

Retirement:

Within 12 months from date of retirement eligibility under rule of 85 or regular early retirement (55-15), an employee may elect to phase in retirement. With 3 months written notice of a firm retirement date, an employee may reduce his or her full-time schedule to a part-time schedule of no fewer than 20 hours per week.

Holidays and paid time off:

Holidays will remain the current holidays, "and any additional holidays recognized by an act of Congress", not, as currently, those "observed by the Federal government".
Employees may take up to15 days of paid leave for parenting purposes within the first 90 days of the birth or adoption of their child. This leave is not deducted from the employee's sick or annual leave balance.
Annual leave balances as of December 31, in excess of the maximum under the annual leave provisions shall be credited to the Sick Leave Bank.
Employees who have exhausted their accumulated sick leave will no longer be advanced sick leave.
Increase the sick leave that may be used for home care of parents, spouse or partner to 10 days from five days per year.

RIFs and Leaves of Absence:

A RIF'd employee electing to be on the re-hire list shall be notified in writing of any vacancy coming within the terms of the application they have placed on file. The RIF'd employee must contact the publisher concerning the vacancy within five working days of the effective date of the notice. In the event the employee contacts the ublisher within 30 days of the notice and the job has not been filled, the employee will be afforded the same rights as if he had contacted the publisher within the five-day period. If the job has been filled, the employee will remain on the rehire list. If the employee does not contact the publisher within 30 days, or declines the position when offered in writing, the employee will be removed from the rehire list and paid the balance of severance.
An employee granted a leave of absence without pay for good cause shall not be eligible for another for 12 months from his or her return from leave.
An employee on unpaid leave for more than six months shall not be guaranteed a position but may bid on available jobs.
Leave for Guild business must be requested 5 days in advance for conventions and sector meetings, and thirty days in advance for service in an elected or appointed position.

Job Openings and Advancement:

An employee must complete six months of BNA employment and not be in a probationary period in order to apply for a posted job in a higher classification.
The Publisher shall select the best candidate among those employees applying for a position, based on their qualification, provided one or more has the necessary qualifications and ability. Seniority shall be one factor considered but shall not be given greater weight than other job-related factors. Under the current contract, the job shall be offered among those employees applying, in order of greatest length of service with the Publisher, provided that the qualifications and ability of that employee are relatively equal to those of other internal applicants.
The Publisher shall establish no fewer than four junior level or trainee positions during the term of the agreement.

Work and Family:

BNA will provide training to managers on Flexible Work Arrangements, including on structuring and facilitating FWAs in their departments, and may discontinue an individual or group FWAs due to unforeseen circumstances or problems upon two weeks' written notice.
BNA will investigate emergency childcare back up for Rockville.

Other:

The Guild may use the Link Lobby during regular business hours up to seven times a year and once per week during bargaining.

The BNA EEO Office will publish and distribute a statement of its policies and services at least once a year.

BNA may implement policies and practices designed to avoid the excessive use of emergency leave, and may discipline employees for excessive use of emergency leave. However, BNA agrees that sick leave by its very nature is often unplanned and unscheduled, and agrees that no policy will result in the discipline of employees solely for use of unscheduled leave, unless sick leave is used in a pattern demonstrating abuse.

Grievance meetings will be convened within 12 working days of receipt of the grievance. The grievant may attend step one and step 2 of the internal grievance steps. The step one meeting will include the supervisor, and the step 2 meeting will include the direct manager of the supervisor.

Article XXVIII (Court Duty) shall not apply to court proceedings in which the employee is an interested party.
No policy or practice initiated during the term of the contract that takes effect March 1, 2000 shall be binding or create a vested right in employees unless it is reduced to writing, signed, by the parties, and made a part of their collective bargaining agreement.
Duration

The contract will remain in effect through February, 2003.

Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild
Local 32035 The Newspaper Guild
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO