News Media Guild

The News Media Guild and the Associated Press reached tentative agreement early Saturday morning on a two-year contract that includes a 2 percent across-the-board wage increase effective March 2 and a $500 lump sum payment effective Dec. 1, 2009, plus improved job security provisions.

The tentative deal, which will be submitted to Guild members for ratification, includes a freeze on health insurance premiums and prescription drugs for the life of the agreement. In exchange, however, the agreement requires new cost-containment measures such as a generics-preferred program and, for the first time, health insurance deductibles. A new tiered sick-leave plan will take effect Oct. 1st.

“The Guild negotiated substantial changes to the company’s initial proposals,” said NMG President Tony Winton. “In the face of trying times, our members stood together and members deserve credit for the very important changes we achieved together.”

The generic drug program offers the greatest savings for generic drugs if they are available. If an employee uses a “brand name” drug, the employee must pay more: the cost will be the difference between the brand and the generic and a $7 co-pay. When a generic is not available, the current $16 and $22 co-pays will remain in effect. Also new is a mandatory mail-order program for maintenance drugs after two retail fills.

The union’s health care consultant said the cost-saving measures are common.

For technicians, whose health care costs will double to the levels of the editorial unit, the company will use a $316,000 health and welfare fund over four years to offset those increases so their current payments will be unchanged for the life of the contract only. The fund is a legacy account from the days before former Local 1314 merged with the Guild.

The agreement also includes new job security language that specifies in detail how layoffs will occur. The company announced earlier that it needs a 10 percent staff reduction worldwide either through attrition or through attrition and layoffs.

The Guild negotiated new buyout provisions that it hopes will reduce the number of involuntary layoffs. Should AP need to reduce the staff in a bureau it can seek volunteers to accept severance pay. AP will set the number and locations where buyouts will be offered, if any. If the number of buyout volunteers exceeds the number of buyout slots, AP will accept the applications of the more senior employees.

If there are layoffs, the new language offers a detailed seniority-based process that also protects qualified staffers who have not received training and orientation, and, in some cases, try-outs for remaining positions that might be outside a person’s work history.

The Guild’s attorney, who was deeply involved in the drafting process, said the new, detailed job security terms represent a significant improvement over current contract language.

“We believe this is an excellent contract, especially in these economic times, when newspapers are declaring bankruptcy and laying off people by the thousands,” said Martha Waggoner, bargaining committee chair and Raleigh newswoman. “We hope the members see the value of this contract.”

The agreement also eliminates the “Kentucky Derby” clause, effective Dec. 1, 2009. The list of assignments for which overtime can be paid at straight time is unchanged through Nov. 30.

The Kentucky Derby clause allowed the AP to pay straight overtime for some events, such as people who traveled to cover presidential conventions, rather than the premium overtime of time and a half. The Guild has sought to eliminate the clause since the 1940s.

The tentative agreement also includes a new way of handling sick leave, which includes 12 days of sick leave combined with short-term disability that’s handled by a third-party administrator in addition to the current long-term disability plan. Some staffers lose sick leave under the new policy while some benefit.

The new sick leave policy is effective Oct. 1, and the Guild was concerned about how many days of sick leave staffers would have on that date. The AP agreed that staffers will get 12 days beginning Oct. 1 to carry through the end of the year.

Staffers had expressed concern about the possibility of losing five days of pay if they had used all their sick leave and were waiting for short-term disability to kick in. The agreement allows them not only to use current vacation, personal days and compensatory time off to cover that time, but also to borrow up to five days’ vacation from the following year to cover the so-called “doughnut hole.”

The Guild successfully defended the current maternity leave benefit of eight weeks and fought back an AP proposal that would have negated seniority in the case of layoffs for anyone who has a final warning letter in their file – “the scarlet letter,” as the Guild members called it.

Supervisory differentials will end with the new contract, and more than 150 employees who have received that payment within the last two years will have the $35 weekly payment rolled into their regular weekly pay. AP said it will need far fewer supervisors because of regionalization.

The Guild agreed to exempt from contract terms 16 regional desk editors and four APTN broadcast engineers. In exchange, the company agreed to put about 25 jobs into the unit, of which at least 17 are in the technology unit. The AP also agreed to a special process for reviewing about 25 additional jobs in treasury.

The union also negotiated an agreement that persons whose positions are moving outside the unit may opt to remain covered by the contract without penalty.

The union was disappointed it was unable to achieve a union security clause.

In other items:

 The company had agreed earlier to pay $70,000 for an ergonomic assessment of photographers’ and videojournalists’ work, conducted by New York University.

 The company agreed to pay a photographer $1,000 for any stock photo removed for editorial use. In addition, the photographer maintains the copyright.

 An increase to $15, effective Dec. 1, 2009, for minimum daily allowance for personal car use, up from the current $12.50.

 The company agreed that a staffer will receive an extra day off if he or she is on assignment away from home on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s but off that day.

 The $55.17 weekly differential received by current senior technicians will end Aug. 31. A new classification of senior technician will be established Sept. 1 that will pay a differential of $110 a week. AP will select the new senior techs, who must be capable of working independently with minimal supervision; capable of providing guidance to other technicians; able to function as a team lead with the ability to instruct new technicians. They are not covered by the scheduling or on-call provisions of the contract but will be entitled to overtime.

 The Guild agreed that employees in sports, business news and entertainment may, by mutual agreement, opt out of the work scheduling rules in exchange for more flexible hours. Both the employee and manager can opt out with six weeks’ notice.

 The Guild agreed the company can change the schedule during the work week for news emergencies, which the company described as being “exigent and catastrophic.” Violations result in penalty pay for each day of the changed schedule rather than just the first day, as current language allows.

 The AP agreed to expand the recognition of work experience to online operations.

 The AP agreed that it would not use schedules to harass employees.

 Dismissal indemnity and severance remain unchanged.

 The company agreed that staffers are entitled to “at least one” vacation week with consecutive weekends off instead of one.

The tentative agreement includes other changes that will be included in a summary that the Guild will compile next week.