The company sent a letter on April 18 giving its contractual 30-day notice to terminate the contract. The contract would terminate June 1.
The parties met on April 15 and the company presented a “last, best and final” offer to the Guild. The offer included regressions, including a shorter duration, elimination of one wage increase and elimination of a flex spend payment from the company’s previous proposal. The company’s position wasn’t that the offer wasn’t regressive, but that with the sale and change of business environment that it was legal to do so. The Guild is seeking legal counsel on the matter.
The parties have agreed to meet again on May 7.
The Guild has stepped up its actions, contacting local advertisers and working on running paid advertisements to bring public awareness to the company’s demand for the unilateral ability to outsource and an unfair wage proposal. The sticking points for the Guild are the company’s demand for no limits on outsourcing with no protection for future hires and an unfair wage proposal.
Members of the Waterville unit last had a raise January of 2005 and the contract expired in January 2006.
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