LOCAL ACTION 2008

December 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Council approved a Working for America contract. Retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007, the unit's new agreement expires June 30.
* Council approved a one-year contract extension at Agence France-Presse. The new contract expires Dec. 31, 2009.
* Council approved a three-year contract at E-L & Associates. The new agreement expires Dec. 31, 2011.
* Council learned that more than 50 were in attendance at a Guild-sponsored holiday social at the Post Pub.
* Discretionary authority granted in the Change to Win step-increase and field-organizers scheduling grievances.
* Discretionary authority granted in the MCCSSE (SEIU Local 500) mileage-calculation grievance.
* Council received a report on the bankruptcy filing by Tribune Co., which owns the Baltimore Sun.
* Reza Namdar (BNA), Angie Kuhl (Sun), Amy Lampkin (AFL-CIO) were appointed as the WBNG Local Election and Referendum Committee.
* Council approved contributing $250 to the Newspaper Guild unit at the Puerto Rico Sun.
* Council approved contributing $200 to a fund to help United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (known as “UE”) members who had occupied a closed Illinois plant.
* A personnel caucus was held.

November 2008 General Membership meeting
* Membership received a financial report that indicates that FY 2008 revenue was not hit nearly so bad as was to be feared in the wake of layoffs at the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun.
* Membership learned that the Sun is shifting local/suburban ad sales to a Sun-owned nonunion operation. The Sun is also conducting rolling layoffs.
* Discretionary authority to arbitrate granted in the Sun jurisdiction-issues grievance.
* Council learned that an agreement has been reached to extend the tenure of seven temporary AFL-CIO employees represented by the Guild.
* Council learned that a one-year extension at Agence-France Presse, where a contract expires Dec. 31, is likely.
* E-L & Associates talks are nearly complete. The agreement, to run through 2011, will the last WBNG contract before the three-member unit is absorbed into West Publishing.
* Council learned that Research Associates of America (the former Food & Allied Service Trades unit, which began life as the Food & Beverage Trades Department of the AFL- CIO in the late 1970s and affiliated with WBNG in 1983) will be going out of business on Jan. 31. Management is allowing the eight members of the unit to look for work for the duration.
* $200 each was approved for holiday baskets for Metropolitan Washington and Metropolitan Baltimore AFL- CIO Community Services agencies. The Guild will have a team at the metro Washington federation’s annual bowling tournament fund-raiser on Jan. 25.
* Nominations were made for the officers of the WBNG Executive Council for 2009-2010. The following were the sole nominations the listed positions: President, Mark Pattison (Catholic News Service); Vice President, J. Darlene Meyer (Washington Post); Treasurer, Sheila Lindsey (American Nurses Association Staff Union); and Secretary, Mark Gruenberg (Press Associates Inc., Member at Large). The five “Localwide Delegate” nominees were Jim Grossfeld (Member at Large); Tiffany Heath (AFL-CIO); Brent Jones (Baltimore Sun); Ken May (BNA); and John Small (AFL- CIO).
* The next General Membership meeting was set for Jan. 31.

November 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Council discussed recent developments, including WBNG finances and other budgetary matters, then adjourned to discuss personnel matters, including contract-bargaining issues with WBNG staff.

October 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Council discussed WBNG finances and budgetary outlook; the most recent financial report was approved.
* Council approved Jobs with Justice bargaining committee consisting of Allison Fletcher Acosta, Scarlete Jiminez, Huy Ong, and WBNG Executive Director Cet Parks.
* Council discussed the outcomes of arbitration cases at the Baltimore Sun and UFCW.
* Council approved six-month extension of contract at the Washington Post. The agreement now expires May 7, 2009.
* The General Membership and Executive Council meetings were set for Nov. 19 in the Guild's Washington office.

September 2008 General Membership meeting
* Members discussed WBNG finances and the budgetary outlook.The June and July financial reports and the FY 2009 budget were approved.
* Members learned that an arbitration had been won at the Solidarity Center; a grievant has been reinstated without back pay.
* Members learned that several activists, including both unit co-chairs, had left the Sun in the latest round of buyouts.
* The MCCSSE, Change to Win, and United Way of America contracts were approved.
* Members approved sending Mark Pattison (CNS), Sheila Lindsay (ANA), and Connie Knox (Sun, retired) to the Newspaper Guild joint-district-council meeting in Albany from Nov. 7-9. Rich Bronson (BNA) was approved as an added delegate to the Baltimore Central Labor Council.

September 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Council approved affiliating WBNG with the Baltimore Allied Trades Council and appointing Agnie Kuhl (Sun) as local delegate.
* Council approved holding the next Executive Council meeting on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 6:45 p.m. in the local's Washington office.

July 2008 Executive Council Meeting
* Council welcomed Washington Post reporter Robert Pierre, the Post unit’s new co-chair. Pierre replaces Rick Weiss, who took a buyout.
* Council approved the American Rights at Work unit contract. The three-year agreement covers 14 workers.
* Council approved the Casa of Maryland unit contract. The three-year agreement covers 45 workers.
* Council received a report on the NLRB ruling in the local's unfair labor practices complaint against the Washingotn Post for unpaid work on the now-defunct Post radio station and, on the advertising side, for The Onion. A labor board administrative law judge ruled that while the issues were legitimate subjects of bargaining, the Guild had waived its bargaining rights on them in 1995. The Post unit will meet with WBNG Counsel Bob Paul to discuss potential further moves.
* Council received an update on the most recent Sun buyouts. Through its parent Tribune Co., the Sun wanted to be able to pick from among a group of workers in a category if that category was “oversubscribed” in numbers of people seeking buyouts; the Guild was able to negotiate seniority rights instead. Thirty-seven Sun employees took buyouts and another 16 were laid off. Almost all were Guild members. The Guild has sponsored financial counseling sessions for employees leaving the paper – among the attendees at these sessions have been Sun managers, who are saying “Tribune isn’t telling us what’s
going on.”
* Council approved a Post unit bargaining committee of Darlene Meyer, Robert Pierre, Ann Marie, Ditchey, Jerry Martineau, David Robie, Renae Merle, Eddy Palanzo, Amy Quinto, Chris Schoppa, and Guild staff Joe Kahraman and Rick Ehrmann. The Post contract covering approximately 1,000 workers, expires Nov. 7.
* Council approved the financial report and a budget for the fiscal year to begin Oct. 1, and appointed a budget committee: Bill Salganik, Darlene Meyer, Sheila Lindsay (chair), Mark Pattison, Ken May, Paul Reilly, and bookkeeper Elsie Thull.
* Council approved holding the September General Membership meeting and Executive Council meetings in the Guild’s Baltimore office on Saturday, Sept. 20.

June 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Council gave retroactive approval to contribution of $100 for quarter-page ad in Jobs With Justice event program.
* Council received update on investment in bonds (through Fannie Mae) at 8.25 percent interest.
* Council received update on Post buyouts: Several of the unit’s top leaders are taking voluntary retirement. The Post unit’s steward committee meets monthly to handle grievances and will be recruiting new leaders. All will be encouraged to take part in WBNG “unit leader” training sessions. With the buyouts, the Guild now represents just over 1,000 employees at the newspaper. Post activist Allan Lengel, a voluntary retiree, will work out of the Guild office on news-side organizing two days a week. The position is funded by TNG.
* Administrative Officer Cet Parks reported that the local will be able to balance much of the Post buyout hit (a loss of dues from more than 60 members) by not replacing Tiffany Harris with another Local Representative.
* Council learned that: the United American Nurses unit is changing in July from the ANA self-insured plan to United Healthcare. This finalizes the split between UAN and ANA; the Department for Professional Employees will survive the decision by The Newspaper Guild’s parent union, CWA, to no longer pay per capita contributions to the AFL- CIO constitutional department. Among other cost-saving measures, DPE is moving to the federation’s headquarters building; The Working for America Institute, an AFL- CIO “affiliate group,” recently moved into the AFL- CIO building; the BNA unit has formed an ad hoc committee to examine the management responses to a potential sale of the company. Retirees weren’t allowed to vote on the last sale proposal, which was turned back by a nearly 2-to-1 vote among remaining shares. BNA stock is held 15-20 percent by current employees who are in the Guild. The new CFO has a history of being involved in mergers and acquisitions.
* Discretionary authority granted in the BNA discharge grievance.
* Council denied a “hardship withdrawal” request from a BNA member who sought to end her Guild membership outside
of the company’s window period.
* Council approved posting on the Guild Web site and link to an Employee Free Choice Act support site/post card drive.
* In recapping The Newspaper Guild national election, it was noted that WBNG cast more votes than did any other local.
* Council scheduled the next meeting for Wednesday, July 23, at 6:45 p.m., in the local’s Washington office.

May 2008 General Membership meeting
After a motion to dispense with the regular order of business and set the next General Membership meeting for September (the date to be determined), the rest of the meeting consisted of the Front Page Awards ceremony. About 50 Guild members were in attendance.

May 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Council approved the minutes of the April 7 emergency Executive Council meeting.
* Council approved: the purchase of 50 tickets to sell to Guild members for “Labor Night at the Nats”; the purchase of a table at the banquet for the TNG Freedom Award Fund; the sponsorship of a tee or green at the Baltimore AFL- CIO Community Services Agency Golf Tournament; paying of the registration fee for the Sun softball team.
* Administrative Officer Cet Parks gave updates on arbitration at the AFL- CIO over what constitutes the “government” reimbursement rate for travel expenses and the grievance over non-contract health insurance premium increases for spouses of Sun Guild unit members who go with the Tribune Co.’s plan rather than their own.
* Council received reports that: about five dozen Guild members at the Post have indicated they will be taking the buyout. David Simon, a WBNG member while a Sun reporter during the 1990s, and the creator of the HBO series, “The Wire,” will speak to Post unit members at the Post Pub May 21 (prior to his appearance at the Freedom Award Fund banquet.
* Council approved the American Rights at Work bargaining team of Velena Petrova, Beth Handy, and Local Representative Paul Reilly.
* Council approved the CASA de Maryland bargaining team of Delia Aguilar, Alexis Desimone, Eddy Luna, Jessica Salsbury, Maria Maldonado, Paul Zilly, Violeta Ruiz, and Local Representative Paul Reilly.
* Council approved the United Way of America bargaining team of Bill Hauenstein, Armando Olivas, and Local Representative Paul Reilly.
* Discretionary authority granted in the National Labor College inclement-weather policy grievance, and in the NLC employee medical-expenses grievance.
* Discretionary authority granted in the Family and Medical Leave Act grievance at the American Nurses Association.
* A Post circulation driver recently joined the Guild; there is immediate potential for up to five more new members. A Post bid to cut their hours to below-pension-qualifying levels is a key issue. There is a push to recruit new members from the newspaper’s commercial side.
* Local President Bill Salganik thanked the members of the local Election and Referendum Committee, the unit election aides, and the voters who took part in the balloting for TNG national positions.
* There was discussion about the rumored sale of BNA and the possible ramifications for the unit members, including the effect on retirees' health benefits and potential loss of Guild membership. Inquiries have been made to WBNG legal counsel, CWA’s Research department, and TNG, which retains an Employee Stock Ownership Plan consultant in the event of bids from possible unfriendly buyers of Guild-represented entities.
* Council scheduled the next meeting for Wednesday, June 4, at 6:45 p.m., in the local’s Washington office.

April 2008, Executive Council meeting
* Council approved the minutes of the April 7 emergency Executive Council meeting at which it was agreed to appeal the TNG Sector Election and Referendum Committee decision regarding possible favoritism shown in a news story about the elections in the local’s Guild Forum. The TNG Sector Executive Council has heard WBNG’s appeal and will render a decision soon. SERC is also hearing complaints about Web endorsements by a local and candidates obtaining access to a local’s e-mail list.
* Council approved sponsorship of a TNG candidates forum April 14, with both presidential candidates and both Region 2 vice presidential candidates confirmed to attend.
* The WBNG “Strategic Analysis” report was distributed and discussed. Topics included ways to increase member involvement, mobilization, and political activism; to develop more inter-unit solidarity (outside of the workplace); to increase communications from the top down and among units; to provide follow-up to WBNG unit leader training and ther seminars; and whether to work toward a goal of merging the service model of unions with the organizational model.
* Council approved the purchase of tickets to “AFL- CIO Night” at Camden Yards in Baltimore and “Labor Night at the Nats” in Washington.
* Council scheduled the next meeting for Wednesday, May 7, at 6:45 p.m., in the local’s Washington office.

March 2008 General Membership meeting
* After a motion to dispense with the regular order of business and set the next General Membership meeting for May 5 (7:15 p.m., St. Ignatius Church, Baltimore), the rest of the meeting consisted of the “Bargaining to Win” workshop.

March 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Montgomery County Council of Supporting Services Employees (SEIU Local 500) bargaining team approved: MCCSSE unit members Larry McNeely, Sue Ginder, Kazi Wilkins, and Ed Forney, and a WBNG staff representative to be determined.
* Rich Ehrmann reported that the Post buyout talks concluded March 26. For the 196 Guild-represented employees, the “voluntary retirement incentive program” is laden with incentives: The Post wants 70 such employees to take the buyout, and the prediction is that more than 100 will do so.
* United Way of America bargaining team approved: UWA unit members Bill Hauenstein and Amando Olivas, and WBNG staff representative Paul Reilly.
* American Rights at Work bargaining team approved: ARAW unit members Velena Petrova, Erin Johannson, Elizabeth Buckley, and Beth Handy, and WBNG staff representative Paul Reilly.
* Council approved: contributing $300 to the Dayton TNG local, which is still seeking its first contract at the Daily News; and $250 to the Bay Area (northern California) organizing effort; buying two tickets and a quarter-page ad in the program for the Northern Virginia Central Labor Council dinner on May 2; and a quarter-page ad in the Coalition of Labor Union Women program booklet.
* A Guild Service Awards selection committee was approved: Salganik, Darlene Meyer, and Cet Parks.
* Local Election and Referendum Committee appointed: Mark Gruenberg (chair), Amy Lampkin, Tiffany Heath, Richard Bronson, Matt Beasley, and Bill Salganik.
* The holding of a TNG candidates' (all four international offices) forum was approved. A planning committee of Salganik, Lampkin, and Ken May was approved.
* Publication of an online Guild Forum featuring TNG candidates' statements was approved.

February 2008 Executive Council meeting
* Radio Free Asia two-year contract approved.
* WBNG-hosted TNG Candidates' Forum confirmed for Feb. 15 at the AFL-CIO.
* Request to arbitrate a job-performance discipline case at BNA approved.
* Request to arbitrate a part-time holiday-pay grievance at the Sun approved.
* Co-unit chairs welcomed at the Sun.
* Report received on MCCSSE midterm-contract discussions regarding implrementation of a performance evaluation system.
* Closing arguments have been given to NLRB in Washington Post Radio and Onion case. Decision expected in spring.
* Council approved buying two tickets and a quarter-page ad for the “Evening With Labor” event.

January 2008 General Membership meeting
* Two candidates for positions in The Newspaper Guild made presentations and fielded questions.
* The next General Membership meeting will be March 8, in conjunction with the local's bargaining/mobilizing workshop.

January 2008 Executive Council meeting
* National Labor College one-year contract extension approved.
* Catholic News Service two-year contract approved.
* CASA de Maryland bargaining team approved: CASA unit members Delia Aguilar and Paul Zilly, and WBNG staff Cet Parks and Tiffany Harris.
* Washington Post “Membership Improvement and Recruitment” plan approved.
* Funding approved for BNA's Black History Month events.

2007 Local Action