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Third Session Focuses on Guild's "Core Curriculum" Proposal

Discussion about career training and job security provisions dominated the third session of contract talks Tuesday, Nov. 19, between the Guild and BNA bargaining teams.

The two sides met for two hours in face-to-face negotiations at BNA4-23rd Street and spent another two hours in individual caucuses. Negotiations on a new contract started Nov. 12, and so far the discussions have centered on "noneconomic" provisions. The current contract expires March 1, 2003.

Historically, bargaining teams at BNA have sought agreement on most noneconomic provisions before turning to the major issues of wages and health care benefits.

At Tuesday's session, Guild bargainer Carol Oberdorfer explained the union's proposal that BNA provide a "core curriculum" of internal and external training courses to help employees acquire the necessary skills to compete for the various BNA jobs.

Oberdorfer said that although BNA offers many in-house courses and reimbursement for many college course, much of the current training is not focused on job skills needed at BNA. Thus, a lot of the current training is "kind of squandered," she said.

Joseph Sanneman, the company's lead spokesperson, responded that "there's a lot of commonality" between the Guild and BNA on career advancement goals. The company anticipates offering a counterproposal "taking into account the Guild's position" on the core curriculum, Sanneman said.

The company spends about $400,000 a year on tuition reimbursement for employees, Sanneman added. "But we don't really know what we get for it," he said, expressing one of the company's concerns.

He also said that in many cases, employees facing loss of their BNA jobs through a reduction in force (RIF) "just don't have the skills needed to move to other jobs." The company is interested in addressing that problem, he said.

On the other hand, Sanneman said the company sometimes is "frustrated by having to let go of people with skills we want."

Regarding the union's position on RIFs, Guild lead spokesperson Lori Calderone said the union "wants to make a broad proposal" with a goal of avoiding "involuntary" layoffs.

"We want to get at that broad goal of voluntary severance," Calderone said. "We want to reduce the adverse impacts on people losing their jobs."

The Guild already has proposed increasing the maximum severance payment for RIFed employees to 62 weeks (currently 56 weeks maximum) and increasing the minimum severance to 10 weeks (currently 4 weeks for each year of service). Sanneman said the company is "not interested" in increased severance "either on the high end or the low end."

Also at the third session, the Guild quizzed management negotiators about proposed changes in the holiday schedule affecting Presidents Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and the day after Thanksgiving. The company has proposed giving some employees the option of working those days in exchange for other days off. However, BNA has proposed that some employees be compensated at time-and-a-half in those situations, while others be compensated at straight time.

The Guild also asked questions about the company's proposal to restrict internal job bidding to the five days that jobs are posted. Currently, employees have up to 30 days to apply if a job has not been filled.

In other areas, Sanneman said the company "is considering" the Guild's proposals on expanded use of sick leave; an IRS-conforming, pre-tax program for deducting parking expenses; contract coverage of telecommuters; and use of temporary employees.

The next bargaining meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in BNA4, Training Room 4010-4012. The face-to-face talks are open to all BNA employees.

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions regarding bargaining, please contact any member of the Guild Bargaining Committee:

Lori Calderone, Chief Negotiator	202-785-3650, ext. 12
Reza Namdar, Unit Chair	ext. 4105
Gwen Holmes, Vice-Chair	ext. 7499
John Small, Vice-Chair	ext. 5122
Marline Casselle, Rockville Vice-Chair	ext. 1924
Harrietta Kelly, Secretary	ext. 4482
Michelle Amber	ext. 4315
Dennis Lewis	ext. 4482
Carol Oberdorfer	ext. 4388
Bruce Kaufman	ext. 5302
Ken May	ext. 4689
Susan McGolrick	ext. 3775

Please share this bulletin with your co-workers who are not yet Guild members, and ask them to join! We represent more than 900 BNA employees, 350 of whom are paying dues that benefits all of us.This e-mail is being sent only to Guild members.