GUILTY!

The Providence Journal has been found guilty on every major charge brought against it by the National Labor Relations Board in the trial last spring. In his long-awaited ruling on the 44 unfair-labor-practice charges, Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol ordered the company to stop violating the law and the contract and to make workers whole for their losses.

The judge dismissed only several minor issues.

Kocol ordered the Journal to:
• Pay Guild employees the same raises received by nonunion workers retroactive to Jan. 1, 2000.
• Replace Blue Cross with an equivalent plan, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2000.
• Retroactively restore the original UnitedHealthcare and Delta Dental plans, or replace them with equivalent plans.
• Restore the cap on increases in employees' share of health insurance premiums and reimburse employees for the extra premiums they paid.
• Restore the second floating holiday and make employees whole for the loss of this holiday since Jan. 1, 2000.
• Restore the vacation policy as it existed before Jan. 1, 2000, and make employees whole for any losses experienced as a result of the change.
• Restore the parking voucher program for newly hired and part-time workers, and reimburse them for their losses.
• Restore the small-grid differentials for graduations lists and reimburse employees who were denied the differential.
• Resume the taxi voucher system as it existed previously.

The judge also ordered the Journal provide the Guild with a wealth of information that the union had requested and was denied. Guild leaders are still digesting the 45-page, single-spaced opinion, which arrived in today's mail, and will provide more details soon.

Meanwhile, the Journal is scheduled to go on trial on 22 additional unfair-labor-practice changes on Oct. 21.