June Ongoing Issues/Concerns Update

These are some of the issues we are looking into and keeping an eye on:

Circulation redeliveries

The Guild is investigating an instance of a manager redelivering newspapers. This work is normally performed by circulation helpers, a Guild position.

Circulation managers doing Guild work

The Guild is investigating an instance of a manager making calls for seasonal starts.

Issuance of a verbal warning

The Guild is investigating the issuance of a verbal warning for failure to follow company procedure.

Holiday scheduling

The Guild is investigating an issue involving scheduling of part-timers on a holiday.

UPDATE: The Guild believes the scheduling was a violation of the contract. The Guild has made an offer to resolve this matter. The matter will move before the grievance committee.

Artists not doing work online

The Guild is investigating the exclusion of advertising artists from some online products.

UPDATE: The Guild and company have signed an agreement to extend the trial period for sales to sell into online under the New Business Venture side letter in the contract to include the artists as well.

Seniority scheduling

The Guild is looking into a seniority scheduling issue between the day and night shift in South Portland.

UPDATE: The investigation continues on this matter.

Minimum mileage

The Guild is investigating to see if all members have been getting paid the daily/monthly mileage reimbursement correctly.

UPDATE: The grievance committee moved to grieve this matter. A grievance meeting has occurred. The Guild is waiting for the company to respond on this matter. Some departments have started to address this issue.

Travel time

The Guild is investigating a situation where a manager refused to count travel time within Portland as part of a member’s work day.

UPDATE: The member was paid for the time in question. The grievance committee moved to dismiss as resolved.

Unapproved overtime

The Guild is investigating a situation where a member was disciplined for working “unapproved overtime.”

UPDATE: The grievance committee has moved to file a grievance on this matter. An initial grievance meeting occurred June 27.

Terminations on probation

The Guild is looking into the terminations of employees while on probation.

UPDATE: The NLRB has made a ruling on this case. The Board issued a partial decision to dismiss and a partial decision to conditionally dismiss in this matter. The Board found that it appears that the employee was told by the employer “I cannot legally tell you this, but do not go to the Union.” Because the Board deemed this an isolated incident it has put it in abeyance. If the Guild files another meritorious charge within six months the decision will be reconsidered. The Guild has filed an appeal in this matter as it believes there was further discrimination beyond the one comment cited.