Local 32035 Members Approve Amended By-laws
By a ratio of 4 to 1, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild members voted in early January to amend the Local 32035 by-laws.

Four "New" Local-wide Delegates Elected to WBNG Council
Members elect five local-wide delegates to represent them on the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Executive Council.

At-Large Units 'Unit' Chooses 5 Board Reps
At its annual meeting to elect officers and delegates to the Local 35 Executive Council, the WBNG At-Large units "unit" (ALU) by acclamation re-elected Mark Gruenberg to the post of unit chair and elected Mary Watters (Fingerhut, Powers, Smith & Associates) to the post of vice chair.

One-Quarter of WBNG Units Win New Contracts in Last Quarter Last Year
Six of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild's 21 units won new contracts in the last three months of 2001. The units range in size from the 80-plus-member shop at the headquarters of the United Food and Commercial Workers international union, to the four-member editorial staff at E-L & Associates.

Catholic News News: New Four-Year Pact
About two dozen Guild members at Catholic News Service have won a four-year agreement that features raises of at least 3.75 percent each year.

Guild's Sixth-Largest Unit Wins New Pact
Guild members at the international headquarters of the United Food & Commercial Workers union will receive annual wage increases of 3.5 percent to 6.6 percent in a four-year agreement ratified Dec. 13.

Housing Newsletter Workers Win Nearly 15% Raise in 3-Year Pact
A three-year agreement was reached in December between E-L & Associates and its four Guild employees. The new pact provides annual raises of 4.5 percent, 4.75 percent and 5 percent in base salaries, or nearly 15 percent over three years.

MCCSSE Unit Gains in New Contract
The Guild's single-figure-member unit at SEIU 500, the Montgomery County Council of Supporting Services Employees (MCCSSE), voted unanimously Nov. 9 to accept a two-year pact to replace the agreement that had expired in July.

Local 32035 Members Approve Amended By-laws

By a ratio of 4 to 1, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild members voted in early January to amend the Local 32035 by-laws.

There were numerous changes in the organization's official rules, which had last been amended in March 1984. Many of the alterations were merely semantic, reflecting the merger of the international parent (The Newspaper Guild) with the Communications Workers of America in 1997. Other changes, however, addressed advances in communications technology, such as the official elimination of the need to "print" meeting minutes, which will instead appear online.

Members who objected to the changes had come out strongly against provisions that they felt increased the power of the Executive Council. Another objection--also related to a perceived diminishment of the authority of the General Membership--was to reduce the size of a membership meeting quorum from 50 to 25, and, beginning with the next election, the increase from one year to two of the terms of office for local-wide members of the executive board.

For full details on the changes, and for some Guild members' views on the proposals, click the links below.

Full details on the changes adopted at the Nov. 3, 2001 General Membership meeting.

Opinions of some Guild members' views on the proposals.

How We Voted

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Four "New" Local-wide Delegates Elected to WBNG Council

Michele Amber (Bureau of National Affairs) led the balloting Jan. 8-9 in the election for five local-wide seats on the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Executive Council. Mark Pattison (Catholic News Sevice), the only at-large delegate to run for re-election, retained his seat.

Other winners were Dennis Lewis (BNA) and David Robie (Washington Post), both of whom have served on the local board in the past. Joanna Millhouse (Post) is the only newcomer to the council.

Winners of At-Large Delegate Seats to Local Executive Council (No photo of Joanna Millhouse available)
Michelle Amber of the Bureau of National Affairs.	Dennis Lewis of the Bureau of National Affairs.	Joanna Millhouse of the Washington Post	Mark Pattison of Catholic News Service.	David Robie of the Washington Post .

Vernon Henery, an incumbent board member as one of four representatives from the Post unit, and Keith Willis, who serves as a delegate from the At-Large Units unit, also were candidates for the five local-wide at-large positions contested in this year's election.

At the November General Membership Meeting, the local's four incumbent officers were nominated to again serve one-year terms. The nominations of Dawn Lamar (AFL-CIO) for president, Bill Salganik (Baltimore Sun) for vice president, Darlene Meyer (Post) for secretary, and Carol Oberdorfer (BNA) for secretary, went unchallenged. They were therefore re-elected by acclamation.

A membership-approved bylaws change (see related story) means that starting next year elections of the four officers and the five at-large delegates will be for two-year terms.

And in the other 2002 local-wide ballot item, Connie Knox (Baltimore Sun), the local's president from 1989 to 2001, carried the vote to serve as the sole WBNG delegate to the Communications Workers of America convention. Officers and at-large delegates to the council will be installed at the General Membership meeting Saturday, Jan. 26, in Baltimore. Nurses' Staff Ballots Tossed Out After Vote Mix-up The WBNG Election and Referendum Committee did not count election or referendum ballots received from the 112-member unit at the American Nurses Association (ANA).

Connie Knox of the Baltimore Sun will represent the local at the the CWA convention.

The election committee received in a timely fashion the ANA ballot box containing more than 50 ballots. The committee also received from WBNG staff an "eligibility list" indicating that four ballots had been challenged and were not to be counted: They had come in from "Agency Fee Payers," which means they were from non-members.

"These four ballots were NOT segregated in the challenged-ballot envelope," wrote election panel chair Mark Gruenberg (At-Large Units unit), "but deposited in the box with all other ballots.

"Since the committee could not determine which ballots were ineligible, it of necessity had to declare the entire ANA ballot box invalid," Gruenberg wrote.

The election marked the first time that ANA Guild members -- whose Association Staff Union (ASU) merged with the Guild in August 2000 -- had voted for local-wide officers. They achieved their first Guild contract last February.

The election committee's ballot report is available for review in the Local 32035 office.

How We Voted

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At-Large Units 'Unit' Chooses Officers, 5 Board Reps

At its annual meeting to elect officers and delegates to the Local 35 Executive Council, the WBNG At-Large units "unit" (ALU) by acclamation re-elected Mark Gruenberg to the post of unit chair and elected Mary Watters (Fingerhut, Powers, Smith & Associates) to the post of vice chair.

Unit Chair Mark Gruenberg of Press Associates.	Unit Vice Chair Mary Watters of Fingerhut, Powers, Smith & Associates.

Under WBNG bylaws, the ALU gets a representative on the board for every 50 Guild members who are not in units--like the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun--that have at least 50 Guild members. The ALU has grown to more than 250 Guild members, which entitles it to five delegates on the local board.

As the unit's officers, Gruenberg, president of Press Associates, the labor news and feature service, automatically serves on the board.

Also elected by acclamation to serve as delegates were Keith Willis, Joe Paduska, and Bonnita Spikes. Two alternates, Finis Hurd (FPSA), and Susan Zachem, whose employer does not have a contract with the Guild.

Willis, an incumbent ALU delegate, now works for the Citizens for Tax Justice. He previously worked as a field representative for the Montgomery County Council of Supporting Services Employees (SEIU 500), one of WBNG's 15 units with fewer than 50 Guild members. Spikes is one of fewer than 10 members at the MCCSSE unit and Paduska is covered by a Guild contract as one of four editorial employees at the Housing and Development Reporter, published by E-L & Associates.

The largest ALU bargaining unit is Agence France-Presse, with just under 50 Guild members. Other units include Catholic News Service and the Bureau of National Affairs Correspondents, each with about two dozen members, and the relatively tiny Department for Professional Employees which, like EL&A, boasts just four Guild-covered employees.

There also are about 80 unaffiliated workers in the ALU, including Guild members such as Gruenberg, Willis, and Zachem, who choose to affiliate even though they are not covered by a Guild contract.

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One-Quarter of WBNG Units Win New Contracts in Last Quarter Last Year

Six of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild's 21 units won new contracts in the last three months of 2001. The units range in size from the 80-plus-member shop at the headquarters of the United Food and Commercial Workers international union, to the four-member editorial staff at E-L & Associates.

The most recent ratification of a Guild pact actually took place this year, when about two dozen Guild members at Catholic News Service ratified a four-year agreement Jan. 11. A tentative deal to replace the contract expiring New Year's Eve was reached just before Christmas. The new agreement runs through 2005.

A month earlier, Guild members at UFCW headquarters won a three-year agreement. The pact covering about 80 employees had been tentatively agreed to Dec. 10, and was ratified three days laer. The pact, retroactive to Oct. 7, runs to Oct. 6, 2004.

Another three-year Guild agreement was reached about the same time at E-L & Associates. There are four Guild-covered employees at the company that publishes the Housing and Development Reporter newsletter.

The Guild's single-figure-member unit at SEIU 500, the Montgomery County Council of Supporting Services Employees (MCCSSE), voted unanimously Nov. 9 to accept a two-year pact to replace the agreement that had expired in July. The "Missy" employees new pact runs to July 1, 2003.

On Oct. 9, Guild-covered employees tentatively approved a one-year contract extension at Agence France-Presse, where a two-year pact was set to expire New Year's Eve. Bargaining consisted of one session, held with management on Oct. 3. The contract was approved Dec. 14. The AFP contract covers about 60 employees of the wire service.

Also early in October, the fledgling unit at the headquarters of the American Postal Workers Union reached a collective bargaining agreement with APWU management. The 15 workers covered by the pact formally ratified their first Guild contract, a two-and-a-half-year deal, Oct. 9. It was retroactive to Nov. 21, 2000.

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Catholic News News: New Four-Year Pact

About two dozen Guild members at Catholic News Service have won a four-year agreement that features raises of at least 3.75 percent each year.

A tentative deal to replace the previous contract-likewise a four-year deal-was reached just before Christmas. The new agreement runs to Dec. 31, 2005; it was ratified Jan. 11.

Guild-covered employees will get raises of 3.75 percent this year and in the last two years of the contract. A larger raise in 2003-4.25%-will help compensate for a substantial increase in the employee contribution for health insurance premiums. Rates, which were frozen through the last contract, remain unchanged this year; the 2003 rate will be the rate for 2004 and 2005 as well.

"The higher pay hike for 2003 takes into account the anticipated higher employee contribution toward the health plan," said CNS veteran Mark Pattison. "But it will more than cover the higher co-pay; nobody in the Guild unit will have a smaller paycheck."

"Guild members will not pay more than nonunion employees of the U.S. Catholic bishops," Pattison added. "And they have not been offered the choice of having their health insurance co-pays frozen in future years."

Local Representative Paul Reilly, who led the CNS negotiating team, agreed that one of the biggest "gains" in the pact was to "successfully resist a company proposal to switch to a percentage-based co-pay, which would have risen with the costs of the plan itself."

Other contractual gains include stricter language on filing vacancies; health insurance coverage for anyone laid off; increased money for the retraining of displaced employees; a transportation subsidy; the right of staff writers to withhold their bylines; and extension of the use of sick leave: It now can be used to care for parents-in-law and siblings in addition to spouses and children.

"Another family-friendly feature in the pact is an increase in paid paternity leave from two weeks to four months," Pattison said. Paid maternity leave remains at four months.

Bargaining team members were unit chair Barb Fraze, Mary Esslinger (a former WBNG secretary), and Wendy Ball, whose job was upgraded as part of the contract.

Catholic News Service was founded in 1920 as the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service. In 1966, its name was condensed to National Catholic News Service, with the "National" leaving the stationery in 1989.

More recent name changes have been limited to the Web world: Staffers are enjoying their new "@catholicnews.com" e-mail address, which is much easier to remember than the two previous incarnations.

The first Guild contract at the news service was achieved in 1972.

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Guild's Sixth-Largest Unit Wins New Pact

Guild members at the international headquarters of the United Food & Commercial Workers union will receive annual wage increases of 3.5 percent to 6.6 percent in a three-year agreement ratified Dec. 13.

The pact had been tentatively agreed to three days earlier, with the Guild negotiating team giving its unanimous approval and recommendation to the contract covering 81 employees (the sixth-biggest shop among WBNG's 21 units). The pact, retroactive to Oct. 7, runs to Oct. 6, 2004.

"Not only do unit members enjoy significant salary increases over the life of this three-year agreement," noted WBNG Administrative Officer Lori Calderone, "but members will receive significant additional economic benefits such as longevity payments, transportation subsidies, lead-pay differentials, and increased paid time off for family needs and education."

For unit members in the steps, in addition to step increases of between 2.1 percent and 4.6 percent, a 2 percent increase was effective Dec. 16, 2001, and 2 percent increases will kick in Dec. 15 this year and Dec. 21, 2003. The resultant annual wage increases for Guild members in the steps are between 4 and 6.6 percent.

For unit members at or above the top step of their grade, a 3.25 percent increase became effective Dec. 16. These workers will see 3.5 percent increases this December and a 3.75 percent in late 2003.

Other improvements under the new pact were upgrades in secretarial categories, increases in temporary promotion pay, and increased longevity pay. The new pact also preserves the annual holiday bonus lump-sum equivalent to 2 percent of pay. Getting to and from their jobs becomes more economical for Guild members starting March 1, when unit members will be given the choice of $65 per month for Metrochek transit cards, or $50 per month for commuter expenses such as parking. Employees who accept the monthly transportation subsidy are not eligible for UFCW parking during the months such subsidies are accepted.

Guild-covered non-exempt employees also won the right to take personal days in connection with holidays or vacation, which previously had been prohibited. Scheduling requirements for personal-day leave is the same as for vacation leave. Nonexempt employees won an additional two paid days off to care for a sick spouse, parent, child, or domestic partner, or to attend parent-teacher conferences. Such leave can also be used in connection with school closings-under the old contract, time off to care for children during school closings had to come out of an employee's personal or annual leave-time. The paid leave in this category can be taken in half-day increments.

The contract also provides improvements in the tuition reimbursement policy and grants up to two weeks' paid time to for employees enrolled in the National Labor College degree program to attend on-site course requirements.

The Guild negotiating team consisted of Calderone and unit members Charles Davis, Iain Gold, Gerri Gross, Dierdre Lawson, Shronda McIntyre-Wilson, Jay Pascucci, Bettye Roberts, and Jack Weberski.

The second Local 32035 agreement at UFCW covers between 80 and 85 employees at the international's headquarters in downtown Washington.

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Housing Newsletter Workers Win Nearly 15% Raise in 3-Year Pact

A three-year agreement was reached in December between E-L & Associates and its four Guild employees.

The new pact provides annual raises of 4.5 percent, 4.75 percent and 5 percent in base salaries, or nearly 15 percent over three years.

Other gains reached through collective bargaining were improved layoff notification language and increased severance; increased bereavement leave; and increased vision coverage.

At one time affiliated with the Guild-represented Bureau of National Affairs, the Housing and Development Reporter has been published for about 30 years, covering developments in housing and community development, as well as related finanical and taxation topics.

The Guild has represented the newsletter's editorial staff since 1980; the new contract runs until Dec. 31, 2004.

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MCCSSE Unit Gains in New Contract

The Guild's single-figure-member unit at SEIU 500, the Montgomery County Council of Supporting Services Employees (MCCSSE), voted unanimously Nov. 9 to accept a two-year pact to replace the agreement that had expired in July.

The settlement, which covers as many as 10 positions (three were open as 2002 began), includes 3 percent increase retroactive to July 1 and another 3 percent increase July 1, 2002. The pact runs to July 1, 2003.

Other gains include three additional vacation days for new employees (after they've worked six months for MCCSSE); each Guild-covered employee's birthday as a paid holiday; four hours' pay per semester to attend school functions involving members' children; one paid day off per year to engage in community service; and a 25 percent "cash out" of accrued sick leave for employees leaving MCCSSE who have at least four years of service there.

Guild members in the "Missy" unit service the Service Employees International Union Local 500 contract with Montgomery County. About 6,700 workers provide the Maryland county's schools with security, maintenance, clerical support, transportation, and food services.

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