Tentative Agreement Reached

The Guild and company reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract for the Portland unit at 8:30 Thursday night. Contract language changes should be available by Tuesday.

The negotiations committee has made a unanimous recommendation of endorsement of the agreement to the Executive Board. The Executive Board will meet Wednesday and make a recommendation on the agreement.

There will be a general membership meeting Tuesday at noon at 385 Congress St. for questions. In addition, a schedule will be announced shortly for times C.J. Betit will be available over the next two weeks in both Portland and South Portland to answer questions. Feel free to call the Guild office or contact bargaining team members Kathy Munroe, Tom Bell, David Abildgaard, Dave Northrup or Colin Smith with any questions as well.

The Guild and company reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract for the Portland unit at 8:30 Thursday night. Contract language changes should be available by Tuesday.

This serves as notice of the mandated 15-day waiting period before a vote on the contract. The secret-ballot vote will be held on Monday, Nov. 26. All members in good standing are eligible to vote on the contract.

The contract includes (This is meant to be a summary. If there are any discrepancies between the summary below and the language at the table, the table language rules. The following is roughly in order of the Articles in the contract.):

Retro payment of 2% for June and July and a $250 signing incentive.
Wage increases of 2% upon signing, and 2% on June 1 of 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Outsourcing, all employees currently employed can not be laid off due to outsourcing. There is also protection against “shadow departments” (the company can’t create non-Guild job that perform the same jobs as Guild members) and no more than 15 percent of jobs can be outsourced under this provision.
Change from daily to hourly overtime. Overtime will be paid for more than 10 hours worked in a day as well. On the weekly overtime, full-timers schedules can not be changed, and if you’re called in on your day off it is overtime regardless. Holiday, vacation and personal days count toward overtime in the week. However, sick time does not count toward overtime. If you call out sick you must still work 37.5 hours before receiving overtime, unless you are called in on your day off.
Flexible schedules, comp time and working from home can be done by mutual agreement with the employee and the company.
Schedule starting times can be changed with 72-hour notice for business needs. However, permanent changes, changes between night and days and changes in days off need to be made with two weeks’ notice. The company will give reasonable consideration to legitimate situations for employees who have appointments, child care issues, etc… when changes in the schedule are made.
Distribution assistants, provision for the creation of full-time jobs by seniority in the distribution center, and clear language on scheduling practices in distribution.
Sick leave, change from seven to five days before qualifying for short-term disability. Change in short-term disability payment to needing one year of service before qualifying and a change from 66% to 60% of payout for employees with one to five years of service.
Doctor’s appointments, employees will be given reasonable amounts of unpaid time away from work for attending doctor’s appointments, with adjustments to the work schedule to accommodate with reasonable notice.
Transfers for current employees will be by mutual consent. For new hires, transfers under 40 miles and to Augusta can be made without mutual consent for business reasons.
Inserting, products other than the daily and Sunday newspapers may be inserted at other locations. However, there shall be no “shadow departments” and the company will meet with the Guild with 30-day advance notice of any insertion.
Layoffs, clarification that bumping continues until all bumps are exhausted, and that after a bump the person retains their hours worked in a higher classification for seniority purposes in the bumped to classification.
New or modified process, all current employees can not be laid off due to new or modified processes. For new hires, employees with 10 years experience cannot be laid off and after seven years effects bargaining shall take place.
Vacation rollover with mutual consent for certain reasons.
Holidays, full-timers will get two-weeks notice of who will work on holidays (was one week)
Frames reimbursement increases to $150.
Mileage increases by $.035 for miles driven under 10,000 and $.045 for miles driven over 10,000. Stop-and-go stipend of $20 for full-timers and $10 for part-timers per week for district managers and circulation home delivery helpers.
401K, vesting for all contributions and earnings after one year for all participants. New hires, will receive an enriched 401K plan that includes a company contribution of 1% of pay plus $.50 on the $1 match to 4% of pay. Current employees will remain with the same matching schedule.
Pension, a “soft freeze” where all current employees will continue to stay in the pension and accrue benefit without change and new employees will not participate. There also can be a merger with the Walla-Walla pension plan.
Health care, the company will have the right to change plan design. The 80-20 split will remain for the duration of the contract. The plan will have to be the same offered to non-represented employees. As well, if the plan design changes, the Publisher shall not pay less than they paid in the year prior to the change and there can be no more differential in percentage of premium paid between exempt and Guild as there was in 2005.
Flex spending accounts, the limit will increase to $4,000 per year. Expenses can be submitted to March 15 of the next year, including expenses occurring until March 15 of the next year. The company will make a $200 deposit in 2008. The company will pay for “benny cards.” And the Wellness Committee will be charged with exploring incentive-bases wellness programs.
Life insurance, the company will offer supplemental life insurance for employees to purchase through payroll deductions.
Severance pay, employees can accrue up to 35 weeks of severance, with employees with 25 years experience receiving 40 weeks. There is no severance for just cause dismissals.
The parking committee will be no more. The current parking fees are guaranteed throughout the agreement.
Fill in for exempt employees, increase in pay for employees who fill in for exempt employees to $10 per day and 15% of pay if filling in for more than 30 days.
Commission plan for outside sales, base pay will increase at 2% annually with the guarantee of key rate. A commission pool of eight-tenths of a percent of total sales revenue will be paid out monthly. If revenue increases by 102% year over year, the pool will be 1 percent. There will be 30 days’ notice of change in plans. A committee will be established to advise the management on the commission plan design.
MaineToday, all future hires for MaineToday in advertising production specialist, marketing coordinator and web consultant (sales) positions along with any other support positions created in advertising, marketing or content (news) will be represented by the Guild. Current employees in those positions have the option of joining the Guild.