March 7, 2023
The News Media Guild’s bargaining team met with The Associated Press on Tuesday to discuss the Technology Unit Contract.
The primary focus of the meeting was to discuss the job security for our tech unit.
The company earlier proposed changing the titles and descriptions of the current jobs to be more expansive while merging the organizational units into one group.
The Guild protested the changes upend the nationwide seniority-term the guild negotiated during the last contract for the Global Help Desk and Customer Support Desks. The company wants seniority and other benefits to be based on a specific location. The guild stressed it would be a significant reduction in job security.
The guild made it clear it would not support the company’s proposal.
The company responded that only a handful of people would have their job security impacted by this proposal, which is still alarming to the guild.
The next bargaining session will take place Thursday, March 9, where bargainers will address the social media policy.
The guild was represented by Vin Cherwoo, a sports writer from New York; John Braunreiter, a customer support specialist from Milwaukee; Kim Kruesi, a newsperson from Nashville, Tenn.; Ed Morsett, a senior technician from Glendale, Arizona; Pat Turley, a senior technician from Chicago; and administrator Kevin Keane.