November's Ongoing Issues & Concerns

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

Job change from full time to part time

The Guild is looking into the change of a job from full time to part time when a position became vacant.

Sick time bank

The Guild is looking into a sick time issue where a manager has told an employee he was out of sick time. The member does not believe that to be the case.

Termination on probation

The Guild is looking into the termination on an employee while on probation.

VoicePort

The Guild is reviewing the use of a new automated answering service for circulation.

Worker’s compensation claims

The Guild is looking at recent worker’s comp claims and the utilization of sick time and payout.

Circulation managers doing Guild work

The Guild is looking into various circulation managers performing Guild work, including data entry work and district manager work.

Use of temporary employees in distribution

The Guild is looking into the use of temporary employees in distribution.

UPDATE: The grievance committee has moved to file a grievance on this matter. This use of temporary employees is in violation of a side letter in the contract, a 2000 agreement with the company, Article VIII and past practice. The company and Guild have met on this matter and disagree.

Pay for new photo imager position

The Guild is looking into the slotting of the wage scale for the new photo imager position.

UPDATE: The company and Guild met many times to discuss this issue. The company rejected the Guild’s offer in this matter. The Guild offered to toll the matter. The company refused, so the grievance committee moved the matter to arbitration.

Dust on the fifth floor

The Guild is looking into safety concerns raised by members of the Guild working on the fifth floor recently when dust was entering the building from work being done outside.

UPDATE: The company has agreed to put a letter in each member’s file about this incident.

Seniority scheduling in South Portland

The Guild is looking into why senior employees were overlooked for shifts in South Portland.

UPDATE: The company has said the manager overlooked an employee in one instance. The company is looking into the second instance. The Guild has asked the employee who was overlooked be paid for the missed time.

Universal Waste Storage

The Guild is looking into managers performing checks on the Universal Waste Storage area in South Portland. This work was previously done by Guild members.

UPDATE: The company has agreed to assign this work to Guild members.

Dust in South Portland

   The Guild is looking into a safety issue in the South Portland facility involving cleaning of the ceiling and the resulting dust that affected employees below. One Guild member was injured as a result of the dust.

UPDATE: The company has agreed to stop cleaning the area while employees are below. The matter is still being pursued.

Outsourcing of circulation work

The Guild is looking into more instances of Guild work being outsourced to outside vendors.

UPDATE: The Guild has discussed this issue with the company, and we are still in discovery. The issue has to do primarily with billing, and the amount of work lost isn’t going to be readily known until we cycle through the accounts.

Scheduling of overtime

The Guild is looking at how overtime is being offered in circulation.

UPDATE: The grievance committee has moved to dismiss this incident. This was not a straight seniority issue because of when the need for overtime became known and who was on the floor at the time.

Guild work performed by managers

The Guild is looking into an incident involving a manager performing Guild work in South Portland.

UPDATE: The grievance committee has moved to dismiss this incident. It was determined that if the manager did do the work, it was done in accordance with our understanding with the company in relation to duration and scope.

Liability issues

Some circulation employees have been going the extra mile, delivering missed newspapers to customers on their way home from work. A circulation manager has claimed that these employees are not covered by worker’s compensation because they’re not on the clock. The Guild is checking into this issue just in case an accident occurs (dog bite, tripping over a toy on the stairs, ice in winter, etc…) to make sure our members are covered. We’re also looking into why no one is being compensated for this work, which is typically performed by Guild members on the clock.

UPDATE: The company has agreed that employees are covered by worker’s comp when doing this type of duty and that they should be paid. The company agrees that employees should either be allowed to leave early in order to make the delivery while still on regularly scheduled time or paid overtime. The Guild is awaiting a letter memorializing this agreement.

A final written warning for a member for opening interoffice mail

The company gave a final written warning to a member for opening an interoffice envelope that didn’t have her name on it. The member was doing some mailing and her paycheck got accidentally mixed in with the items that were to be mailed. The member realized what had happened and called down to have the check pulled out of the mail before it went out. The check was pulled out and put in an interoffice envelope with her manager’s name on it. The envelope finally arrived, the manager wasn’t around and the member was about to leave, so she opened the envelope to get her check.

UPDATE: The employee involved in this incident has since left the company. The Guild is waiting for a letter from the company saying this matter does not set precedent.

Correct steps

The Guild is looking to make sure a number of new members were hired at the appropriate step under the language in our contract.

UPDATE: One member involved is being accelerated through the steps based on a review of experience and skills. The Guild is waiting for a response on the other member.

Job change in accounting

We are looking into the changes, combining of jobs and downgrading of a position with a recent resignation of a Guild member.

ORIGINAL UPDATE: The Guild is researching the origin of the company’s claim that this work is indeed classified correctly.

CURRENT UPDATE: The Guild and company are setting up a meeting to discuss this issue.

Outsourcing of insertion work

The company had carriers, who are independent contractors, lay a copy of the product “The Southern Maine Medical & Good Health Journal” on top of the newspapers they delivered instead of inserting the product into the paper in distribution. There’s contract language that guarantees this work to distribution (Article XVI, Section 2). In addition the company reportedly paid 7.5 cents per copy delivered to the independent contractors, which comes out to around $4,000 to have it delivered. Hiring a couple of distribution assistants for the night to feed machines would have cost less than $200.

UPDATE: The Guild is waiting for a reply from the company on this matter.

Use of stringers in news

We brought to the company’s attention the recent use of stringers in a couple special sections. The company agrees it was a misuse of stringers and that it is Guild work.

LAST UPDATE: The company has agreed (per a past agreement with the Guild) that correspondents are not allowed to write centerpiece articles for these special sections. The Guild has a separate issue that has been tolled involving the use of outside contractors writing for the newspaper. Research into this issue is ongoing.

CURRENT UPDATE: The Guild and company are scheduling a meeting on this issue. The company is attempting to draw a distinction based on frequency of publication.

Working out of classification

The Guild is looking at a number of situations in Portland and South Portland where members are being asked to do significant new activities that aren’t in their job descriptions and/or significant activities that our outside of their job descriptions.

UPDATE: This discussion with the company is ongoing.

Relationship between print and online mediums

There have been a number of issues raised in the relationship between print and online mediums. These issues include reporters being asked to write separates for online, sales people being asked to sell into online, and having online write for print. The contract calls for a New Media committee of company and Guild representatives, so we’re going to address these issues in that forum, hopefully successfully.

LAST UPDATE: The company has approached us for a meeting on convergence issues, and we will be setting a date for a meeting shortly.

CURRENT UPDATE: With management changes in both online and news, this issue has been pushed to the side. When all parties are up and running with this issue, we’ll try to meet again.

Managers doing Guild work

We have filed a grievance relating to a manager in South Portland performing plant maintenance person work.

UPDATE: This issue has now had three grievance meetings and it will either be resolved as a part of on-going negotiations regarding job classifications and training at the South Portland plant or go to the grievance committee for arbitration. Timelines were waived on this issue.