• 3.10.04

New parking program
starts March 22
Next change: Retirement plans

The company has informed the Guild that the new contract's parking provisions for downtown staffers working at least 22.5 hours a week will take effect March 22.

Free parking for downtown members is something the Guild has been pressing the company about for more than 15 years. The reaction to those efforts had been disappointing, but this time the company's response has been to go beyond what it was legally required to do.

The contract as signed called for 150 spaces, but it turned out 165 eligible members applied for parking. Though they would have been perfectly within their rights to stop at 150 spaces, management went beyond its legal obligations to us in accommodating the extra requests.

It was an action that was welcomed by the Guild leadership. Continued...

• 2.05.04

Friday is Retro Day
Support businesses that helped us

Some things to keep in mind as Retro Day approaches.

First, the tax bite will be big. Under IRS regulations, if retro pay is awarded in a check separate from your regular paycheck, 25 percent must be withheld for taxes. Expect a 6.2 percent bite for Social Security taxes, 1.45 percent for Medicare, 1.5 percent for temporary disability insurance and state income tax withholding, which will probably top out at 9.9 percent. Continued...

• 1.30.04

We have a deal.

At about 4:45 p.m. Thursday, the Boston office of the National Labor Relations Board notified the company that the contract we ratified last month was acceptable as a settlement for all charges against the company.

"The (NLRB) Regional Director approved the withdrawal request based upon a representation that a private settlement has been reached between the parties in this matter," the NLRB order states.

That means that the contract is now in effect and the retroactive pay provisions and the signing bonus will appear in members' paychecks next week.

It also means that in eight weeks we will get 150 free parking spaces downtown and in six months we can join the new 401K plans.

Your pay should go up by 12.46 percent, when this year's raise and the previous years increases are factored in. Continued...

• 1.8.04
Guild members to get 3% raise for 2004
NLRB action moving forward smoothly;
Guild leaders plan strategies for future

The Journal has announced that the wage increase for 2004 will be 3 percent, for Guild members as well as other employees. Guild members will not see the raise in their paychecks until the contract is finalized, but it will be retroactive to Jan. 1. With the retroactive raises back to 2000 and compounding, Guild members will get a total pay increase of 12.46 percent.

... The contract is contingent on action by the National Labor Relations Board, which must accept it as a settlement of the company's 27 labor law convictions. Recent communication with the board indicates that NLRB is likely to approve it. Continued...

• 12.18.03 (Coverage)

Guild ratifies contract
Providence Journal workers sign in to vote
at the Guild office Friday, Dec. 19.

Pact ends four years of strife,
marks failure of union-busting effort

PROVIDENCE, Dec. 19, 2003 --Members of the Providence Newspaper Guild voted 238 to 15 today to accept an eight-year contract offer from the Providence Journal, affirming the union's continuing vitality after a failed union-busting effort by management.

The new contract, to be in effect through December 2007, came after unprecedented activism by Guild members persuaded the Journal to abandon its campaign to crush the union, which represents 420 workers from editors to janitors.

In June, union members had voted to reject a contract offer that would have been contingent on a judge vacating the Journal's 27 convictions on labor-law violations. In the months that followed, the company refused to return to the bargaining table while Guild members kept up the pressure by holding rallies, leafleting major advertisers, telling their story in radio ads, and other actions.

On Tuesday, the company came forward with a contract offer that addressed workers' top concerns. The union leadership recommended a "yes" vote.

The contract offers retroactive raises of 0 percent for 2000, 3 percent for 2001, 0 percent for 2002 and 6 percent for 2003, plus a bonus of $1,000 for people who work 22.5 hours a week or more and $500 for those who work fewer hours. For the future, the contract guarantees of a total of at least 8 percent in raises over the four years; in each year, raises cannot be less than 1.5 percent or less than what nonunion workers receive.

The contract also offers improved retirement benefits and free parking. It will not go into effect until the National Labor Relations Board accepts it as an out-of-court settlement that ends litigation (the 27 convictions had been on appeal). But NLRB approval is expected within two or three months, and the convictions will stand.

"We're pleased to have a contract, but saddened that we had to fight for four years to get what we deserve," said Guild President John Hill. "The company's war on the union came at a high price to the newspaper and its readers. Some of our most talented people were driven away by the strife, and energy that could have gone to improving the newspaper was wasted on labor battles that the company initiated. I hope, at least, that the Journal now knows that the Guild is here to stay."

Contacts:
John Hill, Providence Newspaper Guild president: 401-461-9371.
Tim Schick, Guild administrator: 401-421-9466.
Email: png@riguild.org

• 12.18.03 Providence Phoenix: Peace breaks out at the ProJo
Although a likely contract for the Providence Newspaper Guild represents good news, the damage from a divisive four-year dispute will take time to fade

• 12.17.03

Tentative Agreement Reached : Voting set for Friday on contract proposal
The Guild Executive Committee today voted 9 to 1 to call a vote on the contract proposal that the Journal put forth at the bargaining session this morning, and to recommend that members vote "yes." A secret-ballot vote will be held Friday at the Guild office from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The company's contract proposal differs from the one that was rejected in June (pdf) in these ways: More...

The history: The road to our first contract in four years...

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