Monday, April 21, 2008
Save Our Trade: Recent Negotiations
By Ronnie Pineda
I apologize for having not posted any information from the recent negotiations. I have spent the last few days restoring my computer once again. I apparently picked up a virus while at the negotiations location. Their server must have been spreading this virus without their knowledge.
We met on Wednesday April 16Th and 17Th for negotiations and they, in my opinion, went well. International Representative Sonny Shannon re-joined the team and did an excellent job at the table representing our interests. Attorney Dave Meyers was also present representing the Union and also did an exemplary job presenting our proposals to the company.
We did exchange several proposals and counter proposals regarding Seniority, and another proposal regarding Arbitration. We did get alot closer to language we can both agree to. We will resume negotiations on April 30Th and May 1st with several more days in May.
Patience is our greatest asset at this point. We have to keep our eye on the prize, which is a Collective Bargaining Agreement" We all have to understand that this can and will take time. The company is obiously in no hurry to give us one and hopes that we will abandon the fight. That will not happen as long as we remain diligent in our efforts and build solidarity.
Save Our Trade: Recent Negotiations
21 comments:
For now, we're opening this blog to Anonymous comments. This will continue as long as civility rules. Disagree as you may, just keep it clean and stay on topic. No profanity, and no name calling. We reserve the right to moderate such comments, though the person who made it may come back and reword their message in a more civil way.
Are you in denial of what is happening in the newspaper business? Never in this business have we seen what is occuring at the moment. You are worried about seniority, meal tickets and pool tables?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is the "union" wont agree on the new seniority list untell your name is higher up the list.
"We have to keep our eye on the prize, which is a Collective Bargaining Agreement"
ReplyDeleteI thought the "prize" was a job!!!!
I thought you/union said you/they were going to save our jobs!
Why don't you guys "partner" with the company and figure out how to reduce costs and save jobs rather than spend a lot of wasted time on a "Collective Bargaining Agreement" that does nothing to help save jobs!!!!!
Ronnie .... prize??
ReplyDeleteI will tell you what is pathetic, you thru the utility workers under the bus.
To all who do not know I will gladly tell you 3 of the 4 utility workers are handicapped. The Times hired them back in the late 70s early 80s. They do there jobs and want to have a good life like the rest of us. Have you ever been to Carls Jr. ? They hire handicapped people also as some of there restraunts.
Ronnie how do you sleep at night? What has Scottie, Timmy or Larry ever done to you? God help us when when cant have compassion for these people.
Ronnie this union is all about you, you dont give a darn about anyone .
Ronnie said...
ReplyDelete"Patience...The company is obviously in no hurry to give us one (collective bargaining agreement)..."
The word "give" is an interesting, and telling, choice Ronnie. I'd agree the company is not willing to "give" anything but is indeed willing to "negotiate" everything.
I can tell you haw to save hundreds of millions.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of the meat heads who get a bonus for downsizing and shrinking the paper.
We got to pay big bucks for that?
With the "new" Seniority list now poised to help those that came from other Departments, I can see why certain Individuals are happy. Ronnie, you didn’t have the Seniority changed just for you, did you, being that you ARE the negotiator????? That would be so "un-brotherly"
ReplyDeleteIn defense of Ronnie it was the company that threw the utilities people under the bus. The union made no proposal to cut any jobs ,that lies solely on the company's shoulders. Also the seniority list is not being changed to benefit people from other departments, just getting the list where it should be is being done, with some people out of place on the list.
ReplyDeleteTo Idiot #3, First of all The Company came to the table naming the utility workers as fodder for their cut's, NOT ME OR THE UNION!
ReplyDeleteThe company decided to hire these men and the company decided to terminate their employment.
Your rant should be aimed at Russ Newton, David Hiller and his management team, but as usual misinformation and speculation drives your ignorance.
I would never throw anyone under the bus except maybe you because you are so far from the facts that you would not be missed.
Our effort to negotiate a contract is not, and has never been about me. I understand the landscape of this industry and that is the main reason we need a collective bargaining agreement.
To Anon 1, do you even work in the pressroom? If so I'm sure you ate the food that the meal tickets provided you as did all the other critics. As far as pool tables we didn't ask for them and Zell can stick one up his ass and the other up yours.
I am now 15 from the bottom and accept that spot for the fact that I knowingly and willingly gave up 18 years of seniority to become a pressman and learn this dying trade.
Did anyone give up their seniority and get it back? NOT ME! I don't have special agreements with the company and I am subject to all the rules everyone else is supposed to be. Not everyone else is.
I have said for the billionth time that I have no intention of manipulating the seniority list.
At the table we sought ways to cut costs in the pressroom other than staffing reductions, but the company was deadset on the numbers and who THEY targeted, we sought alternatives such as reducing management and supervision. Where's that Bus when you want it?
I'll bet Scotty, Timmy, and Larry can do as good as or better job than our management and supervision
has. I have absolutely nothing against these men and am just as devastated by their terminations.
Scotty and I attended the High School Basketball playoffs at The Honda Center one week before the announced cut's and we have agreed to attend future sporting events.
You guy's really need to get the facts before you make fools of yourselves in this open forum or at least have the courage to speak to me directly. You won't.
COWARDS run from fights and hide behind anonymity. How was that Phil?
Ronnie you said "how was that Phil"
ReplyDeleteThe same Phil you WOULD NOT ALLOW TO VOTE??
This is all about you, you just havent come terms with it yet.
When all unions are unable to stop layoffs what are you trying to make better for the employees?
1. Second highest wages in the USA
2. Excellent benefits
3. Access to the free gym
4. Free parking
5. Free work shoes
6. 401k contribution , now paysop
7. Safe work place
8. bustouts
9. No time clock etc.
That is just for starters.
As for yourself try spending more time doing your job after all you need to know your trade.
The most dangerous part of your job is getting a paper cut in between smoking breaks.
Try to avoid the bus when you are outside on one of your dozen or so smoking breaks. Maybe Russ should exclude smoking breaks in the contract. Oh wait that would impact you... after all this all about you
Yeah, the same Phil who's vote I challenged. He understands exactly why we challenged his vote and he has no beef with me about anything, so let it go.
ReplyDelete(1)I disagree with your wage statistic, we are NOT the second highest paid in this industry. Our sister paper, Newsday surpassed us in wages two years ago and a journeyman pressperson makes over $36.00 an hour. N.Y. Times also makes more than us. I believe USA Today pressroom employees are also paid more.
(2)Our benefits have diminished and now cost us over 25% more since 2000. Co-pays have doubled and prescriptions as well. Emergency room co-pays doubled too.
(3)Free Gym, Pool Tables, what's the differnce.
(4) The company's proposals contain language enabling them to charge for parking and segregating the Union employees parking from all other employees parking areas.
(5) If the company requires you to wear them, they have to pay for them. No gift's there.
(6) The company has changed our retirement plans several times now from our original Savings Plus Plan which contain a 50 cents on the dollar match. That Plan is known as a "Defined" 401k.
The company attempted to convert the SSP to a "Cash Balance Plan" but the courts ruled in favor of IBM employees who sued for this conversion because it discriminated against their employees who were close to retirement, and employees who had been long term employmees. (like most of us.)
Tribune reversed their plans and retained the Savings plus plan for one year until converting the SSP to the Tribune 401k which is a nothing more than a cash balance plan in disguise.
This type of plan is a "contribution" 401k plan and it doesn't require us to invest our money unless we chose to. It is a poor retirement vehicle.
At the beginning of this year Tribune again went after a cheaper version of the same and converted the Tribune 401k to a "Cash Balance Plan.
We in the pressroom are still participating in the Tribune 401k.
(7)Apparently all the oil eludes your vision.
(7a)How many of you had your lockers broken into because the company allows anyone on the property these days to say a buck, theirs, not yours.
(8)Bust outs are the norm in our trade. when the work is complete, you go home. They tried to take them away until we filed a ULP and then the company settled with the NLRB. Their proposals have language stating "all time belong to the employer" which will elimate bust outs completely.
(9) We have never had time clocks in the 30 years I've been here and the company had included a disclaimer on our sign in sheets stating that with your signature you confirm that all time is acurate and acual time worked. That could have allowed management to sign you out when your work is complete. We filed a ULP for this and it removed.
Those are just for enders.
Everything we have has diminished or been taken away completely because we were "At Will Employees"
All of the things we work for we deserve because of the fact that what we do is a Trade. That fact still eludes some.
It's only about me when you critics make it about me, because I don't.
Now I'm gonna go have a smoke!
Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie, you old windbag. You are starting to believe your own propaganda.
ReplyDeleteRonnie said.
"As far as pool tables we didn't ask for them and Zell can stick one up his ass"
From what I heard Sam could not fit a pool table up his ass because when he went to Oly you were so far up his ass there would not be any room for a pool table. Shaking his hand and taking pictures with him.
Ronnie said.
"I knowingly and willingly gave up 18 years of seniority to become a pressman and learn this dying trade".
The only thing you know is how to put tape on paper. I wish you would learn our trade.
Ronnie said.
"I'll bet Scotty, Timmy, and Larry can do as good as or better job than our management and supervision
has".
Then why did the union challenge their right to vote? Now you want every one to think you supported them.
Ronnie said.
"COWARDS run from fights and hide behind anonymity. How was that Phil"?
Good Ronnie bring up Phil another person whose vote didn’t count. And finally talk about anonymity, you hold secret meetings with the company and do not bother telling the rank and file what’s going on. You even kicked a fellow "brother" out of your meeting to keep it secret.
Ronnie said,
ReplyDelete"...All of the things we work for we deserve because of the fact that what we do is a Trade."
Operators and 1st color positions could be called trades. What you do, Ronnie, is unskilled labor. Putting tape on rolls is the least skilled job in the entire plant.
The truth is, someone could be trained to do your job in a single shift, bust-out included.
pud you should be drawn and quartered by paper rolls.
ReplyDeleteHey Grand Pud,
ReplyDeleteThat video aboutthe collapse of the Middle Class is about puds like you who think anyone who isn't born with a silver spoon and has a free ride to college should live outside the Garden of Eden.
No more mayberry's and regular guys with a blue collar job will afford a house and send their kids to college in your Reptillian Capatilist world.
Where is Robspierre when you need him.
"Bust outs are the norm in our trade. when the work is complete, you go home."
ReplyDeleteWho determines what the "work" is or when the "work" it is complete? You.... I don't think so!
I don't believe that the "norm" determines when the job is done! The "norm" has got us into this mess and the norm won't get us out!
We need to do more than the "norm" in these very tough times to save as many jobs as we can.
Open your eyes Ronnie!
Ronnie said,
ReplyDelete"...Bust outs are the norm in our trade. when the work is complete, you go home..."
So, I guess when there is so little work remaining you go home and just stay home? That is becoming the new norm, in your "trade".
For me, I think I'd rather evolve. Learning new, in-demand skills is the path to salvation and self-respect. It may sound insensitive, but the truth often is.
Grand Pud says,So, I guess when there is so little work remaining you go home and just stay home? That is becoming the new norm, in your "trade".
ReplyDeleteYou must be new, because that isn't the new norm.
In the old days when we were rotary letter press you wouldn't even come in the Pressroom to see what we did or didn't do.
When you couldn't see across the pressroom from the mist of ink.
Blow your nose and it came out black. It was a Pretroleum based ink not Soybean based as now.It was everywhere.
When they use to spray Trico on Pasters and used it for cleaning. Breathing it and using it without gloves. Now banned as carcinogenic that accumalates in the liver.
We used to used kerosene to clean units along with a cleaner called Steammite. We used with no gloves and full strenght or half and half. Now we find out we weren't to come in contact with Steammite unless mixed 50 to 1.
Maybe the noise that revererated through your chest was a reason to get out when your work was done
We were allowed to get out of an abusive environment as soon as possible when the work was done for a good reason.
You must be a new guy. Yea I know, we seen your type come and go in the last 30 years.
Fill us full of happy horse shit and then leave before all the fairy tales of the new millenium catch up.
So... why didn't you unionize then? The reelroom today is more like a Borders store, everyone sitting at a table reading and drinking lattes.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I've been here since hot set type. The most dangerous chemicals in the pressroom were the ones they sold each other to smoke or pop.
It's like talking to a little kid who doesn't listen.
ReplyDeleteThings are going down the tubes with the Chicago boys and their slash and burn management.
Look at the take aways on, "Save Our trade". Look at what we have lost since they came in.
Now do you want me draw a picture for you.
Sound like your Jealous.
ReplyDeleteShould have come in the pressroom when you had a chance.
. I want to work online ..
ReplyDeleteThere are some thin if the legitimate work as a line there. Most are sites and marketing study for the site owner rich, not you. The only thing is true legitimacy Ebay, selling things you already own
www.onlineuniversalwork.com