Save Our Trade: Unsettling Settlement Dis-Agreement!

By Ronnie Pineda

Greeting's Brothers and Sisters.

Negotiations began exactly one month ago today and we have met with management three times during this period. We are scheduled to meet again in a week on December 5th and 6th.Alot has been accomplished and nothing has been accomplished. Confused? That's what management wants. I was hesitant to post anything until giving the negotiations an opportunity to get on the right path. The company is on a different path all together and continues to show that they are as out of touch as ever with their employees and their employees needs. That is why WE need to fight for what is in our best interest.

Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement approved by NLRB Regional Director James Small, the company declared:

"We Will Not" discriminate against our employees by ceasing to award meal tickets for work performance or by changing our current practice of permitting employees to"LEAVE EARLY" when the work we assign to them is completed, because our employees supported and/or assisted the Union.

They also declared "We Will" continue our practice of permitting employees to leave early when the work we assign to them is completed.

The ink on this settlement between the company and the NLRB has barely dried, yet Walker and the company have intentionally and arrogantly ignored THE AGREEMENT. We filed Unfair Labor Practice charges informing the NLRB that as a result of certification, unilateral changes intended to punish us for voting for representation were being made in violation of our rights under section 7 of the NLRA. The NLRB was preparing to charge the company with violating our rights, so as to avoid the charge, the settlement was proposed by the company and we signed on because we believed that the company would obey the law and abide by the settlement agreements, it's obvious to our brothers and sisters in L.A. that they have no intention.

In our few negotiation sessions, the committee attempted to resolve the matter of washing blankets twice in a shift, and informed management that we view this unilateral change as retaliation and in violation of the settlement agreement because it extends the work hours and punishes the bargaining unit by not allowing employees to leave early at the end of their run as we have done for decades. We have never washed twice, it was either before or after a run and management knows this fact because of all the arguments we have had over the years as to when washing is best, before or after. We have ran multiple runs without washing and because of this time honored practice, having to wash twice clearly is a form of retaliation. Those attempts for resolution by the committee have been intentionally ignored as well.

Another way the settlement and our rights are being blatantly ignored, and the bargaining unit punished, is by the new procedure of having crews "change over" and stand by until all other production is complete, never producing a single newspaper, at expense and unnecessary cost to the company.

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Unsettling Settlement Dis-Agreement!