Congratulation !
To the brothers and sisters that voted yes thank you, to the bothers and sisters that voted no I respect your rights. I ask that you give it a chance, the system works for both sides.(company and union) I'm a little upset with Mr Hiller and his comments after the vote, I can understand that he is disappointed, but to review the OPTIONS with his attorneys? Howard Weinstein is going to be hard-pressed to find anything illegal the Gcc/Ibt did in this election. Maybe just maybe that is why we won,everything has to go your way! Well for now on the people will have a fair say. Mr. Hiller why don't you give a call over to your friend Tim Knight (the publisher at Newsday). Ask him how he deals with the unions at Newsday. At any publisher meeting I have gone too Mr. Knight has always said that he was proud of ALL the employee's (union or non-union). We all have a job to do hopefully we can do it together like always. A fair contract is a guideline that BOTHSIDES have to live with
Mike LaSpina
Local 406
To the brothers and sisters that voted yes thank you, to the bothers and sisters that voted no I respect your rights. I ask that you give it a chance, the system works for both sides.(company and union) I'm a little upset with Mr Hiller and his comments after the vote, I can understand that he is disappointed, but to review the OPTIONS with his attorneys? Howard Weinstein is going to be hard-pressed to find anything illegal the Gcc/Ibt did in this election. Maybe just maybe that is why we won,everything has to go your way! Well for now on the people will have a fair say. Mr. Hiller why don't you give a call over to your friend Tim Knight (the publisher at Newsday). Ask him how he deals with the unions at Newsday. At any publisher meeting I have gone too Mr. Knight has always said that he was proud of ALL the employee's (union or non-union). We all have a job to do hopefully we can do it together like always. A fair contract is a guideline that BOTHSIDES have to live with
Mike LaSpina
Local 406
Mike LaSpina Said, "I'm a little upset with Mr Hiller and his comments after the vote, I can understand that he is disappointed, but to review the OPTIONS with his attorneys?"
ReplyDeleteWhy should you be disappointed? That's exactly what the union boys would have done if you had lost this election. Your statement is a bit hypocritical, don't you agree?
nope
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEd who ever number 3 is ,the person should give his view but don't call people idot's in this forum please remove it let's give what's done a chance work and everyone take a deep breath and I did not vote union
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a picture of the guy that played the burglar in the movie Home Alone?
ReplyDeleteMr. La Spina , this is your contract?? LONG ISLAND, N.Y., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall..
ReplyDeleteKey elements of the new agreements include:
-- 4-year contract terms
-- no base-wage increase in January 2006
-- 2% annual pay increases each year for 2007 - 2009, and .5% lump-sum
payments in 2007 and 2008
-- an increase in employee healthcare contributions beginning in 2007
-- workforce reduction of approximately 65 employees in pressroom and
transportation areas, and severance payments for affected employees
-- replacement of the current pension plan with a defined contribution
plan
-- outsourcing of single copy delivery in Queens
-- lump-sum payments for contract-related savings, including severance
payments for affected employees
This your contract. I AM NOT IMPRESSED.
Dear Mr. Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteLet's walk thhrough this.
1-contract
that would be 4 1/2
note: all six bargaining units are up at the same time,Very important
2-no wage Jan.2006
that wage was part of the 13 MILLION DOLLAR check the company gave the union for the menbership.
3-2% pay increases
All journeypersons now make $1257.15 pre week(whether you work up or down)or $37.49 pre hour,pressperson in charge gets $55.00 more a week. Oh what was your lump-sum.
4-healthcare
no more then 3% in one year(2007 28%.Oh is your locked in
5-workforce reduction
the only one's that got layed-off was 6 porters could not be helped, still no journeyperson runs more then 2 reels at any given time
6-pension plan
Tribune now puts in 5% into my 401k from 3%
7-outsourcing
the drivers got $25000.00 signing bonus
8-lump-sum payment
well from 1995 to date every journey person have received $82000.00 in signing bonus
To end i did not agree to this contract to impress any one.I agreeed to this contract to know every page is locked in(wages,healthcars,working conditions,the right to go to arbitration on any grievance)Oh and the thing that section that's under successors and assigns that reads THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE BINDING NOT ONLY UPON NEWSDAY BUT UPON ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS
THANK YOU
Mike LaSpina
I assume “negotiations” produced this contract. As I understand it negotiations are a “give and take” process. I don’t think that each point was negotiated by the union presenting what they wanted and the company just saying OK! What did the union have to give up to achieve each point on this contract? There is a old saying “there is no free lunch.” So...... what did you have to give up to get what you got? And also what concessions did the company get from the union? I think that answers to these questions could better help us understand the process, if you are willing to share that with us.
ReplyDeleteCongratulation on the Union victory. Mike Horn Springfield,Il 32M GCC/IBT
ReplyDeleteAs a former Chicago Tribune pressman I persnally feel Union is better then non union.Esp. when dealing with big companies.
Stay United and Strong
I'd like a chance to help Mike explain our contract.
ReplyDeleteYes there were concessions made; we lost a person from the upstairs crew that left us with 3 people up, and we agreed to move a reel guy from press to press when presses are running adjacent to each other. No person has to run more then 2 reels.
We agreed to a wage freeze for 1 year but received the money in the form of a cash payment. We agreed to freeze our Times Mirror pension and to start receiving the new plan with the company depositing 5% every year.
We agreed to a health care increase of 2% this year and no greater then a 3% increase overall.
For these concessions the company gave each pressman $18,400.
The drivers who outsourced the Queens area and collections (which they got back 6 months later at a greater cost) received $25,000.
You should be aware that every pressroom in the country has been subject to concessions over the last 10 years.
The point is that while we all have had to make concessions ours were paid for not just taken.
The $82,000 that was referred to was the amount in total of what a pressman received over our last 3 contracts.
I hope this helped.