St. Paul Guild

Here is the new contract in Adobe PDF format. (With apologies, as ever, to Rachel Stassen-Berger).

Here are the accompanying wage tables, also in PDF.

They'll be available on the sidebar after this post moves down the list, for your future reference. 

On Wednesday, Nov. 14, the Guild and the Pioneer Press signed the four-year contract that was ratified by Guild members 159 to 6 on October 25.

An electronic copy of the contract will be uploaded to www.stpaulguild.com in the next day or two. A copy of the new wage tables, created in Excel, is attached for your reference.

The Guild will order printed versions of the contract and distribute them to all members as soon as they're available.

St. Paul Guild leaders already have begun work on issues that require follow-up from the settlement, including the creation of a joint committee in advertising to investigate and address workplace concerns there, as well as the creation of a joint committee to begin work on an application for a training grant from the state of Minnesota.

Anyone interested in volunteering for either of those committees should contact Guild unit chair Alex Friedrich.

Newspaper Guild members have nearly unanimously voted to approve a tentative contract agreement reached last week with the Pioneer Press.

Voting finished this afternoon, and members voted 159 to 6 to approve the contract. It runs through July 31, 2011.

The tentative contract agreement: Questions and answers

Below you’ll find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions that the Guild bargaining committee has received since the agreement on a new, four-year contract was announced on Thursday, October 18. Committee members will be available by phone, email or in person to answer questions before the settlement is presented to members at a unit meeting this week. That meeting will begin at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, October 24 in the Kellogg Room of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 11 E. Kellogg Boulevard , St. Paul . Voting will begin at that meeting, and also will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 25 in the Pioneer Press basement conference room. You must vote in person; there will be no absentee balloting.

The bargaining committee includes Julie Forster, Alex Friedrich, Meggen Lindsay and Jim Ragsdale of the newsroom; Dave Noble of advertising; Lance Forys and Duane Maxson of circulation; and Darren Carroll and Marilyn Clements of the Guild office.

Q: When does the new contract take effect?

A: It takes effect after ratification. Health care plan changes will take effect January 1. You will be getting more information from the company during open enrollment, which begins soon.

Health insurance

Q: What are the changes to health insurance in 2008?

A: There are four basic changes:

1. On January 1, to reduce benefit costs locally and nationally, MediaNews will replace the former KR Blue and Green plans (United HealthCare) with two national Blue Cross plans called PPO Core and PPO Buy-Up with lower premiums. The Blue and Green plans, therefore, will no longer be offered.
2. The lower-cost PPO Buy-Up Plan will replace the Blue Plan as the new “base plan” for calculating the company’s contribution to HealthPartners.
3. A second, less-expensive HealthPartners plan with deductibles will be added as an option.
4. There will be four coverage options, instead of three: employee only, employee plus spouse, employee plus children, and family.

The company also plans to add a monthly surcharge for spouses who work full-time, have access to insurance coverage at their place of employment, and who to be covered through a Pioneer Press plan.

Q: I’ve heard my share of the HealthPartners premium is going up a lot. Why?

A: The company’s switch to Blue Cross is causing rates to increase significantly January 1.

More explanation: By contract, the company’s contribution to the HealthPartners plan is capped at the amount it contributes to the base plan. So the less expensive the base plan is, the lower the company’s contribution to HealthPartners will be. The new base plan in 2008, the PPO Buy-Up plan, is 25 percent cheaper than the Blue plan was in 2007. That means the company contributes less to HealthPartners premiums.

(Note: Premium sharing on the PPO Core Plan and the PPO Buy-Up Plan remains the same. Singles will pay 22 percent, while all other coverage options will remain at 30 percent.)

Q: Why agree to the changes?

A: It’s important to know this: MediaNews was going to make the switch in 2008 to the Blue Cross plans, locally and nationally, to cut benefit costs – even if we hadn’t been in negotiations. Those changes would have caused our members in HealthPartners to be priced out of the plan in 2008.

Here’s how bad it would’ve been: Guild members’ share of HealthPartners premiums in 2008 was going to nearly double under the company's plan. In 2007, our members paid $207, $379 and $485 for employee, employee plus one, and family coverage, respectively. In 2008, if we hadn’t been in negotiations, those same rates would have been $366, $700 and $954.

Guild members told us before and during negotiations that keeping HealthPartners was a key priority. While we were in negotiations, however, the company proposed to eliminate HealthPartners as an option altogether, even though two-thirds of our members use it.

So the bargaining committee fought to keep HealthPartners as an option, and focused on easing the financial impact of the company's planned changes. The committee sought new quotes from HealthPartners directly. We were able to price the current HealthPartners plan at a cost lower than what the company intended for 2008, but still significantly higher than 2007. The new rates for employees will be $276, $647, $475 and $708 for employee only, employee plus spouse, employee plus children, and family coverage, respectively.

In addition, the bargaining committee secured a bid for a separate, less expensive HealthPartners plan with deductibles. The rates: $216, $578, $373 and $548 for employee only, employee plus spouse, employee plus children, and family coverage, respectively.

So, in 2008, if you're on HealthPartners, your premium costs will rise significantly. But without the contract settlement, it would have been much worse. (Members were emailed a table detailing the costs more thoroughly.)

Vacation

Q: How does the vacation change affect me?

A: You should notice it only when you cash out upon leaving your job. When employees leave the Pioneer Press, they receive a lump-sum cash payment of 1) all the unused vacation from the previous year; and 2) all the vacation they’d accrued but not used that same year. Once the transition to the new system is complete on January 1, 2009 , employees only will be cashed out for unused vacation accrued but not used in the same year.

We know this is a difficult issue, but the company insisted on the cost savings as a condition of any settlement. The committee decided that achieving an overall agreement and protecting other important working conditions was in the best interests of all Guild members.

Q: I usually take my vacation in February? Can I still do that?

A: Yes. Although you will start accruing vacation in real time, you can "borrow" during the year. Let's say you have four weeks of vacation. Perhaps by February you may only have earned 4 days of that total. You still could take a longer trip and simply borrow the difference. If you leave the Pioneer Press and have taken more vacation than you earned, however, you'd have to pay it back.

Conversely, if you left the company in December and had taken little or no vacation time, the company would owe you whatever you hadn’t used.

Q: I get five weeks of vacation. Do I lose the ability to take any of it?

A: No. You’ll get to take five weeks in 2008, 2009 and each year thereafter. The change does not affect your ability to take vacation in any year.

Q: When does this all start?

A: It is phased in. At the moment, we are using vacation actually earned in 2006. Next year, we will use the vacation we’ve earned this year – but will not accrue vacation in 2008. In 2009, we’ll start with a blank slate and start accruing vacation, which we’ll use that same year.

Q: What happens to the money in the pension fund?

A: The money in the pension fund will remain there. You will stop earning additional benefits if and when the new contract is ratified. Anything you have already earned to that date you will receive at retirement. It cannot be taken out as a lump sum earlier.

Q: I've been with the company for 22 years. Will the pension freeze bar me from taking an unreduced early retirement?

A: No. You still may earn service credit during the life of the contract. Here's how that would work: Let's say you've been with the company for 22 years. The benefit you have earned will be frozen if and when the new contract is ratified. But, if you work for three more years for a total of 25 under the plan, you will qualify for an unreduced early retirement at age 62 -- but at the value of your 22-year benefit.

This applies for vesting in the plan -- the point at which you become entitled to a benefit. Under our plan, vesting occurs at five years. If you’ve been here for two years and work three more years, you will reach the five-year mark and thereby become vested in the plan -- but at the value of your benefit as a two-year employee.

In short, earning service credit doesn't add additional monetary value to the accrued value of your pension, but it does allow you to become vested in the plan, or to qualify for an unreduced early retirement at age 62.

Q: The pension plan is underfunded. Does the freeze mean the company doesn’t have to make up the difference?

A: No. The company still is required to bring the pension plan up to full funding, so that it has enough assets to pay earned benefits to all participants in the plan when they elect to retire.

401(k)

Q: How does the company contribution to the 401(k) plan work?

A: First, to be clear, it’s a match. You have to contribute to the plan to get money from the company. Second, the company matches half of what you put in. Third, the company’s match is capped at 3 percent of your salary.

So, if you contribute 4 percent of your salary to the 401(k), the company will contribute 2 percent. If you contribute 6 percent, the company will contribute 3 percent. If you contribute 8 percent, the company still will contribute 3 percent – that’s the maximum.

Q: When does the match begin?

A: As soon as the new contract takes effect.

Q: Explain more about the training. What’s the process? When would the training begin?

A: First, the Guild and the company have to partner with a college, which will apply for the training grant of up to $400,000 from the state’s Job Skills Training Program. We’ll know more about when the training would begin when and if the grant is approved. We want to start the application process immediately after ratification.

Our members identified training as a key priority in several departments, pointing out its importance to the future of the newspaper. Members of the Guild bargaining committee researched and identified programs with the state that the Pioneer Press could take advantage of. We presented a strong case in negotiations to expand training as an important way to improve productivity and job satisfaction, and to help the Pioneer Press build and expand its presence on the Internet.

Guild members and Pioneer Press management, in consultation with the college we choose to partner with, will create the training program jointly. So it’ll be a program customized to the needs of the Pioneer Press and its employees – not something that’s pulled off a shelf.

Q: Our department has many training issues. How do we make sure that we get the training we need?

A: Get involved. Guild members will play a key role in shaping this program. To volunteer, contact Julie Forster of the Guild’s bargaining committee.

Q: What’s the significance of the change to the severance language?

A: The change – adding “gross misconduct” as a reason that disqualifies a terminated employee from collecting severance pay – isn’t a big deal. Under our current contract, employees can’t collect severance if they’re fired for proven dishonesty or for provoking their own dismissal to collect severance. “Gross misconduct” – a very serious or flagrant offense – adds a third reason for which a fired employee wouldn’t get severance.

The accrual of severance – two weeks for each year of employment – and the cap of 38 weeks remain the same. (The company had wanted to cut the severance cap to 12 weeks and to eliminate seniority as the basis for layoff – two changes that the committee argued would undermine job security. The bargaining committee argued against both changes, and neither is part of this settlement.)

Job security

Q: Is the job security provision a guarantee or are there exceptions?

A: There are no exceptions. The company guaranteed no layoffs for a period of 14 months. That doesn't mean there will be layoffs following that period. The bargaining committee simply secured a guarantee for a specific amount of time.

   Guild negotiators will resume contract talks with Pioneer Press management on Oct. 15-16.
   The negotiations will be the first since the parties met on Sept. 29 and agreed to expedite talks, with a goal of reaching a tentative agreement this month.  The Guild bargaining committee wants to use the expedited talks to narrow the broad list of issues now on the table.
   Committee members met Oct. 4 and will meet again Oct. 8 to discuss Guild bargaining priorities.  They're working from a list of key issues identified by the membership in small group meetings and written surveys done earlier this year.
   The committee will provide an update on negotiations after the second day of talks on Oct. 16.
   Guild activists, under the leadership of reporter Mara Gottfried, continue to work on preparations to support the campaign for a fair contract.  Please contact Mara if you're interested in volunteering to help the campaign.
   If you have questions or concerns you'd like to relay to the bargaining committee, please talk with your Guild contact, a unit officer or any member of the Guild bargaining committee.  The committee members include Alex Friedrich, Meggen Lindsay, Julie Forster and Jim Ragsdale from the newsroom; Duane Maxson and Lance Forys from circulation; Dave Noble from advertising; and Marilyn Clements and Darren Carroll from the Guild office.