Providence Newspaper Guild - Guild Leader May 30, 2002

Guild Accepts 'Holiday'
on Insurance Premiums

The Guild Executive Board has accepted a company proposal that it halt collection of medical and dental insurance premiums during the month of June.

The company made the offer late last week in a letter to the Guild. Human Resources Director Thomas McDonough said that lower-than-expected health insurance costs had left Belo Corp. with more money in collected premiums than it needed to cover its medical insurance expenses.The company decided to correct the imbalance by not collecting premiums for a month.

Federal law requires that employers who run surpluses in their self-insured health plans use the fund to benefit employees. Belo cannot keep the excess money for itself.

That can be in a premium holiday, such as Belo offered, or a delay in future rate increases.

The savings will vary from employee to employee, depending on type and level of coverage. The amounts are shown in the attached table. Belo officials advised, in a letter to non-union workers, that despite the premium vacation next month, employees should expect rates to go up next year.

Monthly Amounts of Insurance Co-Pay
	Employee	E+Spouse	E+Children	Family
United HMO	$33.36	$80.08	$63.40	$106.80
CIGNA	$33.68	$80.88	$64.00	$107.80
United PPO	$39.32	$94.40	$74.72	$125.84
Dental	$3.60	$7.44	$7.36	$12.28

Guild Updates

ARBITRATION DECISION -- An arbitrator has ruled that an Editorial Assistant is not entitled to a wage upgrade. The Guild had argued that the assignment of additional duties necessitated an upgrade in pay. The arbitrator ruled that the new duties were similar to those previously performed by Editorial Assistants.

-----------------------------------

Notice of Annual Membership Meeting

Wednesday, June 12, 2002 at noon Guild office, 270 Westminster St. 2nd Floor, Providence, RI

Nominations to Fill 1 Vacant Executive Committee Seat: Nominations may also be made in advance of the meeting by petitions signed by at least six members in good standing. In the event of multiple nominations, an election will be scheduled.

Scholarship Drawing: Winners of the 2002 Guild scholarship will be selected.

Contract Bargaining Update: Executive Committee members will review the status of negotiations and pending unfair labor practice charges.