The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild

TNG-CWA, Local 32035

Progress Possible On Continuous News

Guild leaders met with Post managers last week as part of a grievance filed by the Guild regarding “Continuous News.” During the 90-minute meeting the Guild argued that The Post had violated the current labor contract by stacking additional Web-related duties on reporters, editors and others -- and by explicitly linking merit pay decisions to employees’ “voluntary” contributions to Washingtonpost.com.

Our labor contract has a so-called Zipper Clause, which precludes either side from making significant changes in wages, working conditions or other contractual issues unless those changes are negotiated and agreed to by both sides.

“It is the legal duty of the Washington Post to work out these issues with The Newspaper Guild, the bargaining agent for these employees,” Guild representative Rick Ehrmann told vice president for labor relations Trish Dunn, who represented The Post along with Tom Wilkinson (assistant to the Executive Editor), Harry Volz III (director of financial accouunting and planning) and Allen Hounshell (manager of labor relations).

Ehrmann, along with Guild unit co-chairman Rick Weiss and vice-chair Ann Gerhart, noted that The Post has been demanding more and more of Guild-covered employees as the company has grown to emphasize the Web site, but has refused to entertain any discussion about compensation, now or ever, for all that extra work. Even Post ombudsman Michael Getler recently noted in one of his columns that wages and other labor issues relating to the Web site need to be worked out by The Post, Ehrmann noted.

The Guild has no gripe with the growing influence of the Web site, Weiss and Gerhart emphasized. We all recognize its importance to the Post’s future and most Guild-covered employees are ready and willing to make it even better than it is already. But precisely because the Web site is so valuable, the Guild team noted, the work people do for it ought to be recognized in a manner more tangible than the ghost-like merit raises that we all hear so much about but which, in fact, are so rarely seen. Our aim is not to undo what has been done so far in building a fine Web site, Ehrmann said. Rather, it is “to be forward looking and enter into negotiations on Web work.”

Dunn called the grievance “utterly baseless.”

“Yes, there are earlier deadlines. Yes, there are shorter stories that need to be sent to the Web,” Dunn said. However, she said, “We see no contract violation. Reporters work under pressure all the time.” And falling back on management’s oft-repeated defense that all early-deadline Web writing is voluntary, she said: “No one is being forced to write a story.”

While perhaps technically correct, Dunn’s statement rang contrary to what many members have been telling the Guild for some time, in particular many Metro reporters who are constantly being told -- not asked -- to file early to the Web, and who have not felt that their editors are open to an answer of “Not today, thanks.”

Since The Post cannot compel employees to work for free, that raises the issue of compensation. But when Weiss asked Wilkinson whether he thought employees ought to be paid for the work they do, Dunn interrupted Wilkinson before his first word got out. When pressed by Weiss to let Wilkinson answer, Dunn interjected: “Everybody here is doing more for less!” over

After considerable back and forth on the issue with no resolution in sight, both sides did come to an agreement: To try an alternative path while holding the grievance in abeyance. Without either side waiving its position or giving up the right to pursue the grievance further later on -- including, if need be, taking it up with the National Labor Relations Board -- the two sides agreed to open a dialogue on the issue between the Guild and top newsroom editors and other Post managers in the context of “Labor-Management” meetings. That kind of discussion can be helpful but is sometimes avoided because, under the terms of the contract, any topic not resolved in such meetings cannot then be pursued through the formal Grievance system. In this case, having already started the Grievance process and holding that process in abeyance, the Guild still has that option open even as it now moves forward in an effort to find a collegial solution with editorial managers.

A Note About Brand X

It’s worth noting -- and indeed, the Guild drew it to Post management’s attention at our grievance meeting last week -- that our competition to the North has taken a different and more worker-friendly approach to dealing with the growing demands of Web work. Virtually all the early deadline Web writing and editing is done by professionals specifically hired to do those jobs, not by reporters and others already burdened with the newsroom jobs they were hired to do. Only after the newsroom writers have done adequate reporting and research to feel that they can write a quality story -- not just a “branded,” wire story -- do they kick in with a version for the Web, often late in the day. Moreover, the New York Times recently announced it was going to be doing significant additional hiring of perhaps 20 people in part to offset the burden of Web coverage on its newspaper employees.

There is other good news on the The New York Times labor front: a tentative agreement between management and The Newspaper Guild on a new 8-year contract that will get Guild members nearly 3 percent raises annually. That’s two times the percentage wage increases under our own hard-won contract.

If you’re wondering why things seem to go so much better up North, we’d like to make a suggestion: It’s not because the managers there are any nicer than Don or Bo, but because Guild membership is mandatory in that shop, making for a strong union that can throw some weight around. If you’re not a member, you have no one to blame but yourself.

---- Rick Weiss
Guild Unit Co-Chair

Continuous News Survey

The Guild circulated the following survey in August, when many of you were away on vacation. If you have not filled one in yet, you may do so online. PLEASE fill out the following survey and submit it to the Guild.