Sun Guild Unit - Sept. 1, 2004 Bulletin

Sept. 1, 2004

Sun Still Trying to Avoid Legal Obligations

Management's efforts to disregard your rights under the union contract continue unabated. Tribune managers are trying to take away access to retiree medical coverage, and recently tried to implement an ethics policy without bargaining it. The Guild is fighting both moves.

These actions violate the basic premise of a union contract, not to mention the very language of the Guild's with the Sun. Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), The Sun must negotiate issues relating to wages, hours and working conditions with the Guild, and both the Guild and The Sun must then adhere to the negotiated agreement. Any new policies and work rules The Sun wishes to implement must first be shared with the Guild and negotiated upon request of the Guild.

Disputes, unless specifically prohibited by the contract, are grieved and then submitted to a neutral arbitrator for a ruling that is binding on both The Sun and the Guild.

But over and over this year, management has made its own rules, compounding the wrong by refusing to take the dispute before a neutral arbitrator. Here's the latest issues in which The Sun refuses to meet its legal obligations:

Issue one: Retiree Health
Sun Won't Say Today What It Said at the 2003 Bargaining Table

Management again told the Guild last week that it would end access to the retiree health plan for all employees retiring after August 30, 2004, although just 14 months ago in contract negotiations Tribune negotiators repeatedly stated that its proposal to end access to retiree health for all employees hired on or after June 25, 2003 was "prospective only". Informed recently by the Guild that the bargaining history is plain -- The Sun's stated position at the table was that its proposal would not impact employees on the payroll as of June 24, 2003--management merely repeated that it would end the program August 30.

The contract language Tribune proposed, and got, is clear: "Employees hired on or after June 25, 2003 are not eligible to participate in any company-sponsored retiree medical program (Letter of Agreement #7, Retiree Medical)."

Chief negotiator, Trib VP Howard Weinstein, said at the 2003 table "we're getting out of the business for future hires only."

Now management is changing its tune. And that's putting it very politely. Many Guild members had more than a gut feeling that Tribune was bargaining in bad faith last year with its stalling tactics played out against a backdrop of scabs. Its actions on Retiree Health this year back up that feeling. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Tribune was either purposefully misstating its position last year or is willing this year to construct contorted legal arguments to avoid its legal obligation under its very own proposal. Either way, it's violating the contract, possibly federal law, and certainly common sense.

The Guild won't stand for it, and will take all necessary action to hold Tribune and its management to its legal obligations. Stay tuned.

Issue two:
Holding Workers to Unwritten Work Rules and Refusing to Arbitrate

When The Sun's public editor informed readers several months ago that an employee had violated an "unwritten ethics policy", the Guild responded with a grievance because there exists no negotiated ethics policy to which employees could adhere.

There was an agreement in the last contract to negotiate such a policy and those talks are underway. But to harm an employee for not adhering to a policy is clearly implementing one. That is especially true when the act in question is not a clear-cut violation of standard journalistic ethics that prohibit such things as plagiarism. It's a debatable issue, one to be worked out in a bargained ethics policy, not arbitrarily imposed.

After management denied the grievance (the remedy sought by the Guild was for any employee harmed to have the harm reversed, and for management to negotiate the policy), the Guild moved the grievance forward for arbitration.

However, just as in the layoff dispute earlier this year, management has refused to go to arbitration on the dispute. The contract identifies several specific issues that cannot be arbitrated, but a grievance over the Sun's obligation to bargain ethics rules before they are implemented is not one of them. Not a word in the contract bars this dispute from being placed before an arbitrator-the fastest and least expensive route to dispute resolution.

These Tribune managers are making the rules up as they go along, sad to say. So, for the second time this year-the first was over layoffs-the Guild has had to take the expensive and time-consuming option of going to federal district court to force Sun management to abide by the dispute resolution mechanism in the contract it negotiated with the Guild.

It's darn near impossible to believe a word that management says to the Guild when its actions belie its words, its legal obligations, good faith, and common sense ethics.

We've not given up on the possibility that management will act in good faith with its workers, but we're not holding our breath either. A truly well run company can do better, and Sun workers and the Baltimore community deserve better.

-- Lori Calderone
Guild Administrative Officer