BNA - Guild News

Jan. 21, 2003

BNA Sticks to Revised Wage Plan, Raises Offer Slightly

Bargaining moved to Rockville for a one-day session Jan. 16, where the company offered a slightly higher wage proposal and moved closer to the Guild’s position on health care benefits.

In its revised wage proposal, which was first offered Dec. 10, the company continued to seek a new structure that would provide a single annual raise on an employee’s date of hire or promotion to a new job. To be eligible for this length-of-service raise, employees would need a “satisfactory” rating from their supervisors each year.

Under the current system in use for many years, the Guild has bargained both general wage increases and step increases for employees not at the top of their job classifications. As it did in 2000, BNA has proposed eliminating the step system in favor of the one-raise plan. Under the current system, employees in the steps have averaged raises of around 6-7 percent. And employees at the top of the scale received raises of 3 percent, 3.5 percent and 3.5 percent under the three-year contract that expires March 1.

The company’s proposed new system is organized in a matrix or salary ranges organized into four quartiles. In its proposal, BNA is offering to raise the current salary scale by 3 percent, but then link raises to midpoints of the quartiles. In the Jan. 16 offer, BNA raised the midpoint raises to levels ranging from 5.65 percent to 1.65 percent. (The Dec. 10 offer was for levels ranging from 5.5 percent to 1.5 percent.) The company’s proposal said the latest offer would result in an average increase of 3.2 percent in the first year of the contract. The Guild finds BNA’s paltry increase unacceptable following “the best year ever” (according to Paul Wojcik in December). The Guild has proposed that the compensation pool be increased by 6.75 percent in each year of the contract.

On health care benefits, BNA countered the Guild’s proposal of Jan. 14 by lowering some of its demands on prescription drugs and medical and dental deductibles and co-pays. (More details on the current benefit levels and the proposals from both sides are contained in the Guild’s bulletin on “Health Care” dated Jan. 17.)

On Jan 16, the two sides also discussed BNA’s short-term disability insurance proposal. The company has offered to pursue a group-coverage plan under which employees would pay the full premiums. The Guild has proposed that BNA provide full pay for up to three months for employees missing work for more than 12 consecutive days because of illness or accidental injury.

Just Because We're Not Enron ...

The Guild has proposed changes in the composition of the board of directors and board committees relating to retirement that would give bargaining-unit employees a greater voice in how the company is run. BNA previously turned down our proposal to have a bargaining-unit member have a seat on the board and in the January 14th session turned down our proposal to add union representatives to the pension committees.

BNA bargainer Joseph Sanneman stated that BNA felt that the composition of board committees is a matter of corporate governance, for the board to decide, not to be bargained. However, the Guild position on the Retirement Plan Administration Committee is in the contract in the form of a side letter signed by Bill Beltz in 1974. So the truth is that the composition of board committees has been successfully bargained for almost 30 years.

Sanneman also pointed out that BNA has accountants and attorneys who attest to the honesty of pension administration.

He could have pointed out that BNA quit using Arthur Andersen years ago. He did say that BNA “is not Enron.”

But that’s not the point. Public confidence in corporations has sunk to new lows.

According to a survey conducted for the Minority Corporate Counsel Association of potential jurors, 75 percent or more distrust corporations in a variety of areas. This is up from historic levels of 50 percent. And this distrust could exist among BNA’s employee owners too. Nearly 100% of respondents to the Guild’s bargaining survey supported more employee representation the the BNA board and its committees.

After the Enron and other scandals, corporations need to do more to gain the trust of their shareholders and employees. Martha Stewart, when asked on a television show about allegations of misconduct, said “I want to concentrate on my salad.” Corporations can no longer just concentrate on dividends and profits to maintain confidence in them.

Paul Wojcik and George Korphage, to their credit, held a stockholders’ forum soon after Enron started coming out and talked about their honesty. That’s probably satisfactory for the people who know them personally, but BNA is getting to be a bigger company and most people don’t know them personally. We need institutional means to make people feel that all is on the up and up. The Guild contains many of the people in the company who are inherently skeptical and questioning of company actions. If BNA is sure of its honesty, it should have no fear of putting Guild members on corporate committees and boards.

We have not withdrawn our proposals. Hopefully, BNA will change its mind in bargaining. But even if they don’t, collective bargaining is only one of many ways to make progress. There is a shareholder proposal that parallels our proposal to put a bargaining-unit member on the BNA board. It is too bad the current board indicated it opposed the proposal, without waiting to hear a discussion of it. Now more than ever, it is important to have rank and file representation on the board to reassure employee-stockholders that BNA has nothing to hide.

And even if management decides not to bargain union representation on board committees, that shouldn’t stop the board from appointing union members to committees. And that shouldn’t stop employee-shareholders from asking board candidates how they feel about union members on board committees and thinking about their answers before voting in April.

-- Your Bargaining Committee

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