Wednesday, March 05, 2008

LA Times / GCC/IBT Negotiations


Dear Brothers and Sisters:

After several meetings with the Times there has been very little in the way of making progress. The Times and their mouth piece continue to come to the bargaining table and claim they are negotiating in good faith and will continue to negotiate in good faith. Their definition of good faith bargaining is to reject the union proposals and suggest that their proposals are in line with the company’s direction and the need for flexibility.

On February 17th they claimed that they have to cut $1.8 million from the pressroom bargaining unit and wanted us to suggest how it was to be done. On March 3rd they told us that there would be 31 lay offs in the pressroom, 4 of which would be utility employees.

These layoffs are to be effective March 28th. The parties have made proposals for buy outs and at this point the Times last proposal was nothing more than an insult to its workers.

They have mandated that buy outs must be negotiated and accepted by March 13th or the lay offs will take place on March 28th and they will be done by seniority.

We, the committee feel it is time to have a meeting with all the bargaining unit employees and get your input regarding this issue as well as others.

Listed below are the date, time and place for this meeting. There will only be 1 meeting so we ask that you please attend this very important meeting to discuss our future.

Sunday March 9th 1:00 PM
GCC/IBT Local 404
518 West Duarte Road
Monrovia, CA. 91016

Sincerely and Fraternally,
THE NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

By voting in the union we opened the bottle and the genie is out! Without the union we would have had the same 31 jobs lost but the buyout would have been much more palatable. By laying off 27 presspeople they seem to be targeting who they want gone. Taking a pay cut to save jobs will not work because then management will just come back for more later.

Anonymous said...

I Hope everyone shows up for this meeting. when Hitler came He came for the Jews not Me. and then He Came after the Prostandents not Me but by the Time He came for Me there was no one left.
NO PRESSEMAN NO PAPER

Anonymous said...

No pressmen, no paper? How about just hiring the guys from the Press-Telegram, Daily News, SF Chronicle, or any other paper that pays way less than us?

Anonymous said...

Hope you enjoy your meal tickets!!

"Jobs" for "meal tickets" great negotiating! What's your next step.... put everybody out of work?

Great strategy!

Be careful.. there are a lot of people out there that would like to have your jobs!

Anonymous said...

Listed below are the date, time and place for this meeting. There will only be 1 meeting so we ask that you please attend this very important meeting to discuss our future.

Sunday March 9th 1:00 PM


Ronnie,
If this meeting is truly as important as you think it is, would it not make more sense to schedule it at a time when more pressmen can attend? You are excluding 5 or 6 presscrews from this meeting by holding it at 1:00 PM, which is the 2nd shift start time, instead of at 10:30 or 11:00 AM. Hmmm, on second thought, perhaps that's your intention.......

To anonymous #1,
Good point, if you take a pay cut this time you will be opening the door for future pay cuts, definitely not in the best interests of the majority of pressmen.

To anonymous #2,
I hear what you're saying, all you pressmen need to get involved, the union is gambling with your future, get involved now!

To anonymous #3,
Thanks for pointing out the obvious, not everyone can see it.

Anonymous said...

How much was spent in the last several months on overtime? How can they say the pressroom is over budget by 1.8 mil? Is this a joke or are they just trying to punish?

Anonymous said...

I heard it was 1.3 million in overtime last year, 1.8 million the year before. were apparently short of workers already and the greedy bastards want to cut more people. Those of us with senoirity who stay are going to have pick up the slak most likely without being compensated financially. How long do you think it will take them before they get to us? What will happen if no one works overtime? HMM?

No workers, no paper!
Go to the meeting!

Anonymous said...

I find it ironic that the cut off point is at Rons seneorty number. its almost like a mob hit.
Well Teamsters were are those trucks that wont bring Rolls of Paper ? were are the trains that wont come ?
Come on Brothers bring on the fight Help Us.
If The Union wants to stand a chance its time thay stood up with some balls !
Hellow Marty Balls in Your court stand up now and be the Man.

MR Hoffa were are You ? Your about to lose the bigest contract in the History of the West coast Unions ever !
is this thing on ?

Anonymous said...

Dear anoyymous : Have You ever been to the Press room at the press Telegram or the Daily News ? and how would you go about shiping the newspaper from S.F. to L.A in time to meet the deadline ?
Also may I point out to You that they run 8 deck presses and have more work than than can do already.
The Clear choice is the L.A. Times for expancion of proudiction of such things as the Wall St. J or the N.Y Times local. We can do this if the Managment teams get off ther asses and Go Zell

Anonymous said...

Over budget? Didn't you here Sam say were 50million dollars off our cash projection?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"I find it ironic that the cut off point is at Rons seneorty number. its almost like a mob hit".

And who knows more about mob hits than the teamsters?