Mgmt. Finally Responds To Byko Memo Machine

Yes, it took forever, but Brian Tierney & Co. — or, more likely, a different PR person — drafted a memo to respond to the constant barrage of memos sent from the Newspaper Guild in the past weeks.

Although it contains language that is the textual equivalent of Ambien — for example, “we will consider a lump sum payment that will help offset a portion of the diversions members will need to divert in order to fund an ongoing pension” — it’s also an old fashioned passive-aggressive shot at the union asking them not to strike.

We think a strike would be a mistake, as it would cause long-term damage to our company that would hurt all of our employees, including Guild members…. We are optimistic that we can continue to work with the Guild to resolve all of these issues in the next few of days. Hopefully, the Guild leadership will put a higher priority on resolving the issues than on a strike threat.

Oh snap! Full (pretty boring, though) memo after the jump.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 – We want to update you on the status of our negotiations. In addition to reaching today’s tentative agreements with Local 628, we continue to make solid progress on non-economic issues with the two unions who do not yet have tentative agreements, including the Guild. Meetings were held Monday and Tuesday, and we met with the Guild today.

We know the Guild has been telling its members and the media that it may be going out on strike this Thursday. We think a strike would be a mistake, as it would cause long-term damage to our company that would hurt all of our employees, including Guild members. We also think it would be a mistake because we have made significant progress with the Guild, having moved in the last week on all of the major issues.

We hope the following summary will help the Guild membership understand where negotiations stand on the major issues still on the table.

• Pension – We modified our pension proposal to give PN and the Guild a year to implement a process that could allow the Guild pension plan to continue. PN is still proposing to terminate contributions to the Plan, but we have told the Guild we will consider a lump sum payment that will help offset a portion of the diversions members will need to divert in order to fund an ongoing pension.

• Sick & Accident – We proposed that S&A would be at 65% for up to 40 weeks, but we again amended our proposal regarding the waiting period. We have reduced the wait from 4 days to 3 days, and have proposed that the first absence each year would not be subject to a waiting period.

• Seniority – PN has modified its seniority proposal for the newsrooms to make seniority the primary criteria for layoff, unless there is a documented basis to establish that an employee’s performance is superior, or the employee has unique skill, unique experience or special importance to the paper. PN’s proposal allows the Guild to grieve/arbitrate those decisions.

• PN has proposed to move the SWP group into the Main Unit. The Guild identified this as their number 1 priority.

On most of the remaining issues, only a few words separate PN and the Guild from tentative agreements.

We are optimistic that we can continue to work with the Guild to resolve all of these issues in the next few of days. Hopefully, the Guild leadership will put a higher priority on resolving the issues than on a strike threat.