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Local
Strong at International Gathering
By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
The Washington-Baltimore
Newspaper Guild had a hand in the biggest legislative accomplishment
of the recent Newspaper Guild sector convention in Anaheim: A
new collective bargaining program was approved by conference delegates.
Originally
adopted in 1937, the program needed retooling to meet the contemporary
needs of Guild-covered workplaces. The new program sets forth
seven “cornerstones” vital to any agreement:
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Union
security.
-
Just
and sufficient cause for discharge.
-
A grievance
procedure and a third-party–binding–arbitration system.
-
Wage scales
fixing the minimum–but not the maximum–a worker may earn.
-
A clause
defining the union's jurisdiction and protecting the union
against loss of work.
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The incorporation
of seniority and length of service in wages, hours and working
conditions.
-
Promotion
of diversity and protection against discrimination.
Local 35 President
Connie Knox (a Guild member at the Baltimore Sun) and Administrative
Office Dick Ramsey, among 12 WBNG delegates to the TNG gathering,
were members of the task force that worked for more than a year
to retool the international union's collective bargaining program.
Also at the
conference in late August, WBNG Local Representative Calvin Zon,
an at-large delegate, wrote and presented a resolution–approved
by the international body–that urges locals to hire organizers
for both internal and external organizing, and to take up TNG's
parent-union (the Communications Workers of America) offer to
subsidize 75 percent of an external organizer's salary.
In addition
to the tenets listed above, the program features several contract-language
proposals organized in 10 broad areas: union rights; employment
security; fair employment practices; employee bill of rights;
hours and premium pay; wages; benefits; contract enforcement;
safety and health; and duration and successorship.
While the
new collective bargaining program gives local TNG units greater
flexibility in choosing the items around which it will mobilize
during contract talks, it also demands much closer collaboration
with Guild sector headquarters than many locals have grown accustomed
to.
WBNG has applied
for the external organizing subsidy, and Zon's duties as local
rep are largely devoted to signing up free riders.
One hot-button
issue that cropped up during the sector conference was the issue
of strike payments. Guild members in Sudbury, Ontario, were being
paid their CWA-stipluated strike benefits in Canadian dollars,
not in the equivalent dollar-amount in U.S. currency–contrary
to what was told to TNG (as recently as last year) by a now-retired
CWA official. Delegates unanimously urged Guild and CWA leadership
to come to a “permanent resolution” of the issue as soon as possible.
There were
33 strikers in Sudbury. When the matter surfaced, CWA leadership
made provisions to pay the benefits in U.S. dollars. The delegates
hoped such a provision would become rule.
Canadians
comprise about 25 percent of the Guild's 33,000 members, including
3,000 at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which avoided a strike
at the last possible minute a year ago.
In addition
to Knox, Ramsey and Zon, others in the WBNG delegation in Anaheim
were Secretary Maggie Cohen, Gwendolyn Holmes, Dennis Lewis and
Reza Namdar (all from the Bureau of National Affairs unit); J.
Darlene Meyer (Washington Post); Mark Pattison (Catholic News
Service), Bill Salganik (Baltimore Sun); and at-large delegates
David Bates and Patricia Garcia.
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Select
Sector Conference Snapshots
By David Bates
At-Large Unit
Change was
definitely a theme throughout The Newspaper Guild-CWA's 2000 Sector
Conference.
In her opening
statement, TNG President Linda Foley noted the changing face of
Guild membership. Over the past year, it diversified further from
its origins as a union of journalists to include actors, social
workers, court interpreters, and high-tech permanent-temporary
workers (e.g., Microsoft “permatemps”).
Foley also
issued a call for more political action by members. Perhaps at
least partly in response to that message (see story, Page 6),
the conference approved a relatively firmly worded statement calling
on President Clinton to take very specific steps in the Vieques,
Puerto Rico, bombing controversy. (No room to explain here–Ask
a delegate about it!)
Another significant
change occurred on TNG's balance sheets. The Guild recently posted
$480,000 to the Defense Fund, money representing the net take
from the sale of TNG's former headquarters in Silver Spring. Delegates
cheered news of the sale (or, more likely, the news of the $480,000
deposit).
One notable
change, buried deep inside a handsome “Collective Bargaining Manual,”
was the inclusion of CWA's manual on “Conducting a Successful
Strike.” During my 12 years as both a TNG member and activist,
this is the first time I have seen an official TNG document on
the “S” word. Although no one should welcome a strike, I believe
that the mere preparation for such an eventuality suggests quite
a change in demeanor for this union.
On the last
day, one delegate suggested to the full conference that TNG change
its name, perhaps to “The Media Guild,” since this union no longer
represents only newspaper workers.
A sly delegate
from the Wire Service Guild immediately followed up with an official
proposal that the Guild henceforth be known as the “Informational
Workers of the World.”
This was a
clear reference to the legendary Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW), the “Wobblies,” who peaked just before World War I (WWI).
Joe Hill's union's mission was to organize workers of all races,
sexes, and skills throughout an industry, rather than by specific
craft. (By the way, they're still around: Check out www.iww.org.)
After a hearty
laugh, the name-change proposal was tabled until next year, when
a TNG committee is to report back with proposals for a new name
for
our union. I'm voting for the “IWW.”
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Guild
Unit, Labor Federation Reach Tentative Agreement
After a five-month
battle, Guild members at the AFL-CIO on Sept. 8 reached a tentative
agreement with the labor federation on a new contract. The Local
35 unit's bargaining committee recommended ratification of the
two-year pact to replace the one that expired March 31.
The agreement
covers about 170 of the AFL-CIO headquarters' professional employees
in its 13 "programmatic" departments and some of its administrative
departments.
Most significantly,
the contract calls for a 3 percent salary hike retroactive to
April 1, and another 3 percent to be instituted next April. In
late July, federation management made what it called a "last,
best and final offer." It included 2.5 percent increases and nearly
90 percent of eligible WBNG members voted on that offer: Nearly
100 percent-the vote was 142 to 5-voted to reject it.
The Guild
had asserted at the time that the so-called final offer violated
the WBNG contract's "me-too" clause, which called for the AFL-CIO
to match salary increases it had negotiated with the 120 Office
and Professional Employees International Union members working
in federation headquarters. OPEIU Local 2 last spring received
3 percent raises from the AFL-CIO.
Guild members
will vote on their proposed new pact by Oct. 3. Field staff received
mailed ballots; headquarters staff were to vote Oct. 2 and 3.
Other key
advances in the proposed Guild agreement concern out-of-town assignments
and transfers, prescription drug plan co-payments, retiree health
benefits, dental coverage, pensions, long-term disability insurance,
and leaves of absences. The federation also will be allowing Guild
employees for the first time to elect a pre-tax deduction of up
to $65 per month for Metrochek transportation vouchers.
One key component
of the proposed agreement concerns "temporary, project, and fund
employees," the latter being employees funded from the AFL-CIO
Organizing Fund or Membership Mobilization Fund. Under the proposed
pact, these employees are afforded much better job security than
before and are contractually guaranteed many Guild-negotiated
benefits, as well as a better shot at eventual full-time work.
There has
been a dramatic increase in such workers at the AFL-CIO, while
the size of the Local 35 unit has been in decline. Under the proposed
pact, these workers will even be covered by the grievance provisions
that apply to discipline or discharge. After 12 months of employment,
arbitration provisions also will apply.
Effective
next January, the co-payment for brand-name prescription drugs
for which there is no generic equivalent will be $12.50. The AFL-CIO
had been insisting on an across-the-board co-payment of $15 for
all brand-name drugs. At the same time, the co-payment will be
$17.50 when there is a generic alternative; in such cases, the
participant choosing the generic will have a co-payment of $1.
The tentative agreement calls for a joint union-management committee
to "minimize if not preclude hardships resulting from the increased
brand-name prescription-drug co-payments." The committee will
be empowered to come up with means to alleviate hardships in a
number of ways, such as setting ceilings on co-payments, establishing
a fund to reimburse employees, etc.
Just over
100 Guild members work at AFL-CIO headquarters. Five headquarters
departments (Organizing, Political Affairs, Public Affairs, Public
Policy, and Field Mobilization) each have between a dozen and
20 members working in downtown Washington.
Field Mobilization-the
unit's largest department with about 70 Guild members-has about
half a dozen members in the field for every member working at
headquarters. Many of the field staff are involved in directing
the activities of AFL-CIO activities in specific states.
This would
be the second contract to include workers in the federation's
Organizing Department, which in 1997 absorbed the AFL-CIO Organizing
Institute. (A year earlier, the former Field Representatives Federation,
which had been bargaining for field services employees, was merged
into Local 35. It became part of the main contract for first time
with the recently expired two-year pact, signed in 1998.) At one
point in 1999, there were about 205 members in the bargaining
unit.
Other WBNG
members at the federation's 16th Street headquarters work under
separate contracts in the constitutionally defined Food and Allied
Service Trades Department and Department for Professional Employees.
The AFL-CIO
has 68 affiliated national and international unions. The unions
represent more than 13 million workers in the United States.
Unit Has
Industrial Strength
About 170
AFL-CIO headquarters and field staffers are covered by a WBNG
contract.
The Guild
agreement covers "professional" employees in the federation's
self-described "programmatic" departments. There are 13 such departments,
e.g., Public Affairs, which handles publications and broadcast
work. The contract also covers administrative departments such
as Information Technology.
About 110
members work out of federation headquarters two blocks from the
White House. The biggest staff department is Field Mobilization,
with a dozen members of the bargaining unit there, and about 60
out in the field. The departments of Organizing, Political Affairs,
Public Affairs, and Public Policy each have 12-20 members working
in downtown Washington. There are 15 members in administrative
departments.
The Newspaper
Guild has represented labor federation employees for more than
40 years. Editorial staff at the Congress of Industrial Organization's
CIO News brought their Washington Newspaper Guild contract with
them when they moved to headquarters after the merger with the
American Federation of Labor (the Guild and CWA were both in the
CIO at the time). Former "AF of L" communications workers soon
joined up, followed through the years by other building-based
departments' employees.
Guild records
show that the unit's size peaked at 205 in 1999.
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Local 35 Organizing
Nets Four New Shops
By Dick Ramsey
Administrative
Officer, Local 32035
Two unaffiliated
unions representing 168 employees of two labor organizations merged
with the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild in August. With
the organizing of two smaller units accomplished earlier this
year, Local 35 saw its ranks swell by nearly 200 members as summer
drew to a close.
The largest
new unit, the Association Staff Union, represents 112 employees
of the American Nurses Association. On Aug. 17, leaders of the
independent ASU signed a merger agreement that made them a WBNG
unit as of Sept. 1.
The unit's
contract with ANA, a professional association as well as a labor
organization, expires February 14, 2001. WBNG will administer
the existing contract and bargain its successor agreement.
Almost all
of the ASU members are employed at ANA's Washington headquarters.
The unit includes attorneys, staff representatives, researchers,
accountants, and administrative and clerical employees. In balloting
on affiliation, 85 percent of those voting selected WBNG, with
the remainder split between another union and no affiliation at
all.
Earlier in
August, the Union of Staff Employees, which represents 56 employees
of the Association of Flight Attendants, signed an agreement to
merge with WBNG as of Oct. 1. USE has two contracts, one that
covers 22 hourly employees and another that covers 34 employees
who are exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Act. WBNG will service
both contracts, which expire December 31, 2002.
Ninety percent
of USE members voting in the merger referendum chose to affiliate
with WBNG rather than maintain an independent union.
Included in
the unit are attorneys, negotiators, organizers, international
representatives, safety and health researchers, accountants, secretaries,
and clerks. Forty-one staffers work in AFA's Washington headquarters.
The remaining 15 work in branch offices in Chicago, Atlanta, and
Pittsburgh.
WBNG Administrative
Officer Dick Ramsey directed both merger initiatives. Local Representative
Lori Calderone assisted in the merger with the nurses' association
staff.
Through similar
mergers, representational rights have been transferred to Local
35 for four other units: the Working for America Institute (then
known as the Human Resources Development Institute), Fingerhut,
Powers, Smith & Associates, the AFL-CIO's Field Representative
Federation, and the AFL-CIO's Organizing Department.
The latter
two were merged into the AFL-CIO-headquarters Guild unit; WAI
and FPSA have their own WBNG-negotiated contracts.
Two other
independent units should have their first contracts in the near
future. In May, Ramsey won voluntary recognition for WBNG on behalf
of 20 professional and technical employees of the American Postal
Workers Union. Employed at the union's headquarters in Washington,
the new members include staff attorneys, researchers, librarians,
a safety-and-health specialist, editors, accountants, programmers,
and network administrators. All 20 in the new unit signed Guild
cards.
In a final
and earlier addition to the Local 35 mix (following another Ramsey-led
drive), the staff of the National Coalition for the Homeless voted
in favor of WBNG representation in a National Labor Relations
Board election last spring.
The eight-member
unit in the non-profit's Washington headquarters includes the
directors of field organizing and education; analysts in health,
housing, and income policies, and administrative assistants.
The first
bargaining session on an initial contract was held Aug. 21.
WBNG now has
22 bargaining units, 18 represented by Guild-negotiated contracts.
With the merger with the ASU (one pact) and USE (2 pacts) units,
Local 35 now services 21 separate collective bargaining agreements
covering about 3600 employees.
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