Contract Talks Begin

Negotiations for a new labor contract began Sept. 14 between Washington Post management and The Newspaper Guild, which represents about 1,350 employees in Post's news and commercial departments. Opening talks were cordial, although the two sides expressed very different perspectives on the financial health of The Post and how its profits ought to be distributed. The goal is to achieve a settlement by Nov. 7, when the current contract expires.

Bargaining under the motto "No Worker LeftBehind," the Guild emphasized the need for all employees to receive a fairer share of the profits we all bring in, not only for the newspaper but also for the Web site, which is now in the black.

First, the Guild proposed an immediate wage increase to catch up with inflation, which has outstripped contractual wage gains at The Post by about seven percent locally since the expiration of the last contract. The Guild also proposed 1.5 percent wage increases every six months after that, roughly equivalent to those recently agreed to in labor negotiations at a number of similar publications across the country; including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, which is owned by the Washington Post Co. The Guild also called for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) clause, which would ensure that wages are not eroded by inflation when that rate exceeds 2 percent per year.

Solid wage gains are needed given the "absolutely stunning increase in the cost of living in the D.C. area," said Guild chief negotiator Rick Ehrmann, pointing to a Metro story in Wednesday's paper highlighting the crisis. "It turns out our area is the third most expensive in the nation," Ehrmann said.

The Guild also proposed modest but important improvements in the company's benefits package, including enhanced pension, holiday, vacation and sick leave benefits, and increased protections with regard to job security and basic rights in the workplace. Details of the Guild's proposals appear below.

Post Vice President for labor Trish Dunn, the company's chief negotiator, warned that declining circulation, increases in the cost of newsprint and ink, and assorted fiscal uncertainties made it unrealistic for employees to expect a generous package of wage gains or benefit improvements. Dunn did not reveal profit margins for the newspaper itself (the company publicly reports figures only for the "newspaper division," which includes The Post and other assets}. And by providing advertising data only in terms of inches of ads sold, not in terms of dollars taken in – and by leaving out of her presentation any mention of the increasingly important share of revenue obtained from advertising inserts – she left unclear for now the true health of The Post's advertising base.

"We are not pleading poverty," Dunn assured Guild bargainers, in apparent acknowledgment of the newspaper division's recently reported profit margin of 15 percent. "But we are predicting very serious challenges." The company is not planning layoffs, Dunn continued. "We prefer to find other ways to cut costs than laying off employees."

Dunn then unveiled the company's proposal, under which employees would endure more than a year and a half without any wage increases (our last contractuaJ increases occurred in April). Instead it would offer, upon contract ratification. a one-time, lump sum-cash payment of $1,000 for employees who work 30 or more hours per week and $750 for those who work fewer hours. The first real raises would kick in a year later, in the amount of $9 a week, or about $470 a year. That's less than a 1 percent increase in salary for employees making $50,000 a year, and less than a 0.5 percent increase for employees earning $100,000 a year.

Three additional $9-a-week raises would follow at six-month intervals after that.

Some of the other provisions the company is seeking to include:

Here are the Guild's central proposals:

Your representatives on the bargaining committee would like to hear from you. We will be working very hard in the weeks to come to win a fair contract for everyone who helps make the Post the great paper that it is.

ANNE MARIE DITCHEY; ANN GERHART; ROBIN GROOM; VERONICA INGRAM; STEPHEN KING; GERALD MARTINEAU; DARLENE MEYER; ROBERT PIERRE; DAVID ROBIE; KEITH SINZINGER; RICK WEISS; RICK EHRMANN