Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I guess this means no raises this year

The Indianapolis News Guild has reached a tentative agreement with The Indianapolis Star for a new contract that would include a 10% pay cut, the guild revealed in a statement.
The pay cut is slightly smaller than a 12% salary reduction that was in a previous contract offer rejected overwhelmingly by rank-and-file members June 30. The new deal, which will be voted on by members Aug. 25, would take effect Aug. 30.
"Additional details will come early next week, once the company provides our union with its final proposal," the guild statement, issued late Friday, said.
The guild plans to allow absentee balloting and hold two informational sessions for members this week and next week. About 185 Star employees are represented by the guild and would be affected by the pay cut.
The new deal followed two sessions with federal mediator Conrad Bowling of the federal mediation and conciliation service last Thursday and Friday.
In recent weeks, the union had stepped up its public pressure on management, with organized unity appearances at public meetings with Publisher Michael Kane and Gannett corporate officials who visited the paper. In each case, guild members were asked to wear red as a sign of support.

1 comment:

Lauri Shillings said...

My god, at least they had a vote of choice to reject the 12%... Unlike the newspaper where I work, where we were TOLD we had to live on less... Even though, historically, this location makes less than the national average for newspaper associates...