Coverage of Indy News Guild’s appearance at SPJ convention

Dispute comes to convention
Against SPJ officials’ wishes, The Indianapolis Star guild President Tom Spalding came with multicolored leaflets in hand to give a message to media giant and convention sponsor Gannett Co.

“Gannett: Profits over People” read a yellow leaflet. “110% Effort, 90% Pay” read a blue leaflet.

Spalding, along with several members from the Indianapolis Newspaper Guild, came to the SPJ convention Friday to distribute materials criticizing Gannett over a recent agreement between the guild and Gannett-owned newspaper The Indianapolis Star.

Complete story from Society of Professional Journalists

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Indy News Guild Protest Not Welcomed at SPJ Convention
Just days after approving a new two-year contract with The Indianapolis Star — which includes a 10% salary cut and two-year wage freeze — the Indianapolis News Guild wanted to protest the pay cut at today’s Society of Professional Journalists convention.But SPJ wanted no part of it.

After Guild leaders asked for the right to pass out fliers protesting parent company Gannett’s pay cut deal at today’s SPJ sessions in Indianapolis, the SPJ leadership declined.

Complete story from Editor & Publisher

Indy Guild to deliver message to Gannett at SPJ convention

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Although we have ratified a contract, which will be signed Monday, we are trying to mount an effort to publicize our recent union vote. Toward that end, a handful of Guild members will distribute three handouts on Friday morning to an audience of 600 journalists in town for SPJ at the Westin. An image of the three are attached. We are trying to show Gannett that it might have been able to force this bad contract on us, with its 10% pay cut, but all our members are angry about it  – including the journalists who are appearing as speakers at the convention this weekend on behalf of the Indianapolis Star.

We are jazzed up about journalism too and want to let everyone know in a positive way the sacrifice made by Guild members. The flyers convey our spirit and resolve — one of the flyers, in fact, lists our numerous winners of coveted journalism prizes — including SPJ’s! — and there’s no better group to tell our story. We hope to provide flyers to Virgil Smith, vice president/talent management, Gannett Company, Inc., who is at the SPJ convention to speak at a career counseling panel.

We have chosen to take a big-picture, long-term view of things and recognize that the preparation for the next round of bargaining starts now, not in 2011. Over the next two years, we want to continually remind management here at the Star and at Gannett that we expect a better contract next time.

We want management to know that we are expecting to recover the lost pay and lost pay increases in our next contract when the economy improves. We want to remind management we are not happy about only union-represented employees being asked to take huge pay cuts. We need to remind them every day that our members are going to work the contract.

— The officers and stewards of Indy News Guild 34070

P.S.: Some good news: With respect to our inquiry regarding health benefits (in Wednesday’s e-Inkling), we have been told by HR that when an employee has a change in salary that puts them in a different salary band, the change will update automatically with YBR. Once internal paperwork has been submitted reflecting the pay change, a letter is generated by YBR to the employee notifying them of the reduced premium.

P.S.S: Some other (possible) good news. Although we did drop the arbitration over the “December 7,” the company has told us that, if and when the Star begins hiring Guild-covered positions again, they will first reach out to those that were let go in 2008. You know why? Because it’s in the contract.

Contract vote aftermath, a letter to the publisher

The following letter was sent out earlier this afternoon to the publisher, Michael Kane, which we wanted to share with you.

Michael Kane
publisher, Indianapolis Star

Aug. 26, 2009

Dear Mr. Kane,

The membership of Indianapolis News Guild 34070 voted 56-45 Tuesday to ratify a two-year contract with Gannett, running Aug. 30 through Aug. 29, 2011. The contract includes a 10% pay cut and no wage increases during the term.

We want to emphasize that the action by the membership of the Guild is a financial sacrifice meant to help the Star’s bottom line during this economic downturn. It is one of the highest permanent wage cuts of any newspaper in the country. It is a sacrifice that our unit (newsroom/building services) alone is bearing, as management and other non-union personnel have not been asked for the same sweeping, universal cut; our vote will save the company an estimated $2 million in payroll over the next two years.

Long-term, we expect the company to be aware of this sacrifice when the economy improves. Short-term, we expect the company to spare this unit should Gannett need to continue to cut costs.

As members’ pay is cut 10%, the Guild will accordingly reduce dues by a similar amount. The Guild requests that the company allow unit members enrolled in the company health care plan to have their premiums lowered immediately if their new hourly wage drops them down a level; premiums, as you know, are based on four “tiers” and some Guild members may drop from tier “C” to “B” or from “B” to “A,” for example. It is not only fair, but the right thing to do, in our opinion.

The new contract gives you flexibility to assign our team of journalists to work on products that we are not accustomed to working, including the possibility of advertorial. Out of a concern for ethics, we request that you never exercise that damaging option for ANY Guild-covered employees.

Finally, now that bargaining is over, the Guild hopes the company will allow Editor Dennis Ryerson to address the aftermath of this new contract with its employees, who are bewildered, upset and depressed over the economic hardship they now face. That hardship was forced on them to fulfill a company mandate that was never satisfactorily explained. They have many questions about why the Indy Star needed to improve its profitability at the expense of only a fifth of its staff.

They feel guilty that the company tied an unrelated arbitration to contract talks and that they were forced to “take sides” and sacrifice 7 former co-workers to save their own jobs.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Tom Spalding, president
Indianapolis News Guild 34070
with the contract bargaining team and officers

cc: James Keough, Dennis Ryerson, Jay Schmitz, Bernie Lunzer

2-year contract passes 56-45

The membership of Indianapolis News Guild 34070 voted 56-45 to ratify a contract with Gannett. Members voted for a 2-year contract that takes effect Aug. 30 through Aug. 29, 2011. The contract includes a 10% pay cut and no wage increases during the term of the contract. The vote today also provides a settlement to 7 Star employees laid off in December 2008. Eighty-six percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

The action by the membership of the Guild is a financial sacrifice meant to help the Star’s bottom line during this economic downturn. It is a sacrifice that we alone are bearing, as management and other non-union personnel have not been asked to make this sacrifice.

We expect the company to be aware of this sacrifice when the economy improves.

We will soon provide the new contract to members, and we urge members to work that contract to the letter. No more free overtime.

Thanks everyone for your support over the past nine months.

Indy News Guild bargaining team

Contract vote today

The Indianapolis News Guild vote will be held from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. today. We will count absentee and in-person votes and expect to have an answer by 8 p.m. tonight.The agreement, if ratified, would apply to about 170 hourly workers covered by the Indianapolis News Guild Local 34070, which includes reporters, photographers, librarians, copy editors, clerks; and to 17 maintenance workers also covered by the contract.

THE DEAL: The Guild negotiations committee, after nearly 10 months of off-and-on contract talks, reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that we agreed on Aug. 7 to take to duespayers for a vote on Aug. 25. It is important to emphasize that we feel that it is the “best deal” that could be reached at this time. It isn’t a great package, but it’s the one that does the least amount of damage.

PLEASE DO YOUR PART AND VOTE! AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT GETTING TO THE POLL LOCATION, 325 N. Delaware, across from the Star’ parking garage in Downtown Indy!