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The Newspaper
Guild of Detroit, Local 34022 | ||||
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NEW! Voluntary Severance Plan (VSP) Program Meeting” (06/28/08)
GANNETT FREEZES CORPORATE PENSION PLANS
NATIONALLY Gannett's June 11th announcement that it is going to "freeze" it pension plan and phase out its "defined benefit" plans nationally doesn't affect Free Press, Observer & Eccentric and Maintenance Unit employees working in the Guild's jurisdiction. While these changes are a significant financial hit for those affected, Guild represented employees will continue to enjoy the retirement benefits and protections afforded them in the Guild contracts. Under a "freeze", employees do not continue to build additional pension benefits while working. Gannett will reap immediate financial benefits from its "freeze". In a Company message to employees covered by the corporate plan, Gannett estimated that it will save $90 million in 2009 plus another $48 million in a one-time accounting gain. For the non-represented employees, it's another story. Gannett estimated that the average benefit loss will range from 10% to 20% depending on whether an individual is immediately eligible to retire. For employees with less than 10 years of service, they can expect "larger losses." Gannett said it is merely following a "national trend" of corporations dumping their "defined benefit" pension plans and replacing them with 401-k plans. 401k plans are used as a device to shift the financing of retirement benefits from employers to employees and to avoid guaranteeing a known, specific monthly pension benefit. The Gannett announcement boasts that it is "easier to attract and retain employees who value a 401-k over a company pension plan." Unlike the situation for union-represented employees, Gannett did not have any legal obligation to consult with its employees regarding this cut in benefits or to negotiate whether, how and when to make these change in pension plans. At the Free Press, Guild-represented employees are covered by a defined benefit pension plan that provides substantial retirement income at the plan's normal retirement age of 62. The Free Press/Guild plan carries a current market value of $78 million, which is jointly administered by three Guild and three Company trustees. The plan's investments have performed well enough to spare the Company from having to make any weekly contributions for more than 10 years. Current financial estimates show no need for Company contributions during the next five years. In the Maintenance Unit, Guild-represented janitors are covered by The Newspaper Guild International Pension Plan, which is also a jointly-administered defined benefit pension plan. Gannett has no role in administering this multi-employer plan, which currently requires the Company to make weekly contributions of $57.per employee into the Guild plan. At Observer & Eccentric, the Guild contract spells out a specific monthly benefit, based on years of service for the Company. Detroit News employees are also covered by the Guild International pension plan. The Guild contract calls for a weekly Company contribution of $45.30. per week for each covered employee. Gannett tried to soothe affected employees by emphasizing that the frozen pension plan "is still protected by all the relevant pension laws." The federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act provides insurance for a minimum level of "vested benefits" if a pension plan cannot pay benefits. It does not guarantee all the benefits that employees have worked for. And, it does not prevent employers eliminating or reducing current benefits. The Guild plans are protected by those same laws but have the added protection of binding contracts and federal labor law. While Gannett said it would increase its 401-k matching contributions
with Company stock, it was quick to remind workers that it reserved
the right reduce or eliminate 401-k contributions in the future.
GUILD WINS POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ARBITRATION
The Guild scored a significant legal victory for its Free Press members and represented employees with the decision by Arbitrator Paul Glendon, who ruled that the Company prohibition on all political contributions by editorial employees violated the union contract. Glendon ordered that the Company's revised ethics policy that banned such donations by staff "is set aside and declared null and void retroactive to the date when it was promulgated, June 25, 2007." The arbitration stemmed from a June 2007 article published by MSNBC.com, which listed 143 journalists who made political contributions, including Free Press Reporter Joel Thurtell and a Free Press copy editor. Thurtell, who was a Community Free Press reporter before he retired last November, had made a $500. donation in 2004 to the Michigan Democratic Party. Thurtell was notified by Free Press executives that such donations were improper, and he was threatened with discipline or discharge if he made any future contributions. The Free Press then issued a revised ethics policy that said, "…it is not acceptable for newsroom employees to make local, state or national political donations, or engage in demonstrative support for political candidates." The Guild challenged that policy saying it was too broad because it included all editorial employees, not just reporters regularly covering politics, and it violated the Guild contract because it improperly limited the outside activities of all employees. Arbitrator Glendon agreed. He also chastised Free Press editors for issuing the revised rule without being aware of the Guild contract provisions under its Professional Integrity clause. "Even in the terms in which management chose to view this (namely, risk of harm to reputation) it failed to make its case, because it had no evidence that even one reader complained," Glendon said. Guild Attorney Duane Ice applauded the decision, saying there are many important clauses in the contract, including the Professional Integrity clause, which pertains to "outside activities by employees and the employer limitations on those activities." "With its broad rule against all political contributions, the Company went too far in pursuing what it perceived to be its interest, at the expense of the employees' rights, Ice said. "I am gratified that, through the grievance and arbitration procedure, we were able to uphold the negotiated balance." Arbitrator Glendon denied one part of the Guild grievance, which sought to rescind the threatened discipline against Thurtell as for not being "for just cause." Glendon said Thurtell obeyed the directive and later retired while the Guild grieved, making "this aspect of the grievance moot." In a seven-page binding decision, Glendon wrote the Free Press cannot ban outside activity of editorial employees without any documentation that such behavior was compromising the paper, or the employee's work. "Without any evidence that political contributions, in and of themselves and whether or not publicly disclosed, would make it impossible for bargaining unit editorial employees to fulfill their Artricle XI obligations, the Company cannot justify such a unilateral incursion upon the Section 7 prohibition against limitation of outside activities," Glendon wrote. "There is no such evidence whatsoever in this case, so the rule
prohibiting political contributions by bargaining unit newsroom employees
violates Article XI, Section 7 and is thus unreasonable, in violation
of Article XX Section 5, and the grievance must be sustained." INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAIL BALLOTING Dear Guild Members: This is your official notice of The Newspaper Guild (TNG) election
of sector officers (President, Secretary-Treasurer, Sector Chairperson).
Please follow the directions listed below. If you don't your ballot
will not be counted! If you have any questions, please call the Guild
Local 34022 office at: 313-963-4254. After marking your vote on the enclosed balloting, fold it face in. Do not otherwise mark the ballot. Place the folded ballot in the smaller, white envelope and seal it. Do not sign or otherwise mark the smaller, white envelope containing the ballot. Place the smaller, white envelope containing the ballot in the yellow, addressed return envelope. SIGN YOUR NAME ON THE YELLOW, ADDRESSED RETURN ENVELOPE (hand written or hand printed signature only). ONLY BALLOTS IN THE OFFICIAL YELLOW RETURN ENVELOPE, IN THE LOCAL ELECTION COMMITTEE (LEC) POST OFFICE BOX WHEN MAIL BALLOTS ARE PICKED UP FOR COUNTING, WILL BE COUNTED. This procedure is designed to assure the secrecy of your ballot. Your signature on the outer envelope is to assure that an eligible voter is casting the ballot. The election rules on the handling of the official return envelopes
and the counting of ballots are such that there is no chance your
signature can be compared with your vote. TO BE COUNTED YOUR BALLOT MUST BE RETURNED TO THE LEC POST OFFICE BOX BY NO LATER THAN APRIL 29, 2008. DOUG FRASER - LABOR STATESMAN; FRIEND
OF THE GUILD The labor movement, and the Newspaper Guild, have lost a dear friend and ally with the death Feb. 23rd of retired UAW President Doug Fraser. Decency, integrity and a life-long dedication to working people, Fraser embodied all of those attributes and more in a career that spanned more than 70 years from the sit-down strikes of the 1930's to the presidency of the UAW and then to an academic career of labor studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. Fraser, 91, was the last of the UAW leaders that helped found the auto union during the Great Depression. After playing an instrumental role in the UAW obtaining its first contract at the Chrysler Corp. in 1937, Fraser soon rose through the union ranks and served three terms as President of UAW Local 227 in Detroit. He soon caught the eye of the late UAW President Walter P. Reuther and became Reuther's top administrative aide during the 1950's and 1960's when the union won unprecedented contract benefits for its members. COLA, fully paid health care, defined benefit pensions and better pay moved the UAW and other unions firmly into the American middle class. Like Reuther, Fraser championed the cause of the Civil Rights Movement and for the rights of women in the workplace. Major legislation such as the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, Medicare and OHSA all bore the UAW imprint. When Fraser became UAW President in 1977, he played a key role in rescuing his former employer, Chrysler, from bankruptcy and became the first American union president to sit on a corporate board of directors. During the bitter Detroit Newspaper strike of 1995, Fraser took part in outdoor rallies in front of the newspapers, decrying their use of scabs and uniformed guards against the Guild and other striking unions. "I never dreamed I would again see the spectacle of hired thugs trying to break a strike in Detroit," Fraser lamented in addressing a rally. After the strike, Fraser would demand to see the union cards of journalists wanting to interview him as he attempted to help the Detroit Guild rebuild its membership. At a 100th birthday anniversary celebration of Reuther last year, Fraser smiled and said he was pleased that the Guild again had contracts in Detroit. The Newspaper Guild's 73rd gathering salutes Doug Fraser and thanks him for being our friend and ally. We shall miss this true labor statesman. |
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