Waterville Tentative Agreement

The documents and record of bargaining are controlling for final language and intent of the parties.

All contract language not below is old language (current contract).

Article IV Management Rights

4. The Employer is a content company that must be prepared to disseminate via print, wireless, pod cast, the Web, or on platforms yet to be created. Employees are working in a changing environment and with changing technologies. For example, reporters may be required to take photos, videos, prepare and up-date on-line content and engage in a variety of functions not traditionally a part of historical print journalism. Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as restricting such assignments for any employee covered by this Agreement.

As a result of changes in the work environment, employees may be required to perform duties and functions that have not historically been part of their job classification. By way of example, but without limitation, reporters and photographers may be required to write stories, edit news material, take photos, produce videos, audio, prepare and up-date on-line content, do voice-overs, re-purpose content and engage in a variety of functions not historically part of their job classification or, in some cases, not even traditionally a part of historical print journalism.

The Employer commits to provide employees with the necessary training and equipment to perform such functions.

The Employer recognizes that these duties are ancillary to the normal duties and as such employees will not have as much expertise in performing these duties and functions. This shall be taken into consideration by managers and supervisors as employee evaluations occur.

The Employer recognizes that these ancillary duties have not been required of employees previously. While employees are not expected to be immediately proficient in all of these duties they are expected to give a fair effort and endeavor to improve over time, and an employee who meets the obligation to give a fair effort and endeavor to improve over time shall not be subject to discipline, provided further, that no employee shall be unreasonably disciplined.

The Employer agrees to guarantee that as long as the incumbent photographer are employed during the term of this Collective Bargaining Agreement that no less than two (2) full-time photographers shall be employed by the newspapers and that these two (2) positions shall not be eliminated due to the multiple platform and new media work of other employees.

5. The Employer shall have the right to assign work within the jurisdiction of the Guild to persons not covered by this Agreement as outlined herein provided that such assignment shall not result in the layoff of any employee named in Appendix A. The Employer shall give the Guild not less than thirty (30) days’ notice of such contemplated assignment and the parties shall meet and engage in effects bargaining over these matters.

Nothing contained in Article IV, Section 4 shall be construed as:

a. altering the definition of the bargaining unit and/or

b. depriving the Guild of the right to contend that persons performing any reassigned, subcontracted, or transferred work are to be included in the unit.

The parties agree that this language is not intended and does not allow the Employer to create “shadow departments” consisting of non-union employees of the newspaper provided further that this sentence shall not be construed as limiting any rights that the Employer had prior to the effective date of this Agreement.

Appendix A includes all employees employed as of the date of ratification.

Article VII Minimum Wages

2.5% upon signing

2.5% May 4, 2008*

Signing bonus:
$1,600 full time$600 part time
$300 casual part time

Bonus will be paid to all employees as of date of ratification plus any employee on laid-off status as of signing.Unit employees who replace supervisors shall receive at least ten dollars ($10) per shift or fifty ($50) per week covered in addition to their regular rate of pay, except the assistant city editor who shall receive replacement pay in full week increments only. The company shall not temporarily assign the duties of the city editor to an employee other than the assistant city editor solely to avoid payment of the premium pay.

News Librarian added under Salary Grade II

* This portion will be paid retro from May

Article VIII General Wage Provisions

Night differential increase from $12 to $14 a week

Article IX Hours and Overtime

2. (c.) Flexible Work Scheduled: The parties agree to consider flexible work schedules which shall be determined by mutual agreement between the employee and the employer.

4. Time worked in excess of 37.5 hours in a week, (7.5 hours in a 5 day week, or 9.5 hours in a 4 day week) shall be paid at the overtime rate of time-and-one-half. Any compensatory time taken at the employee’s option in lieu of overtime pay shall be at the straight time rate for each hour of overtime worked over 37.5 straight time hours in a work week. Holidays, scheduled vacation and paid leave shall be considered time actually worked for purposes of this section. Paid sick leave shall not be considered time actually worked for the purpose of overtime.

Article XII Vacations

Adds language for rollover of vacation with company permission.

Change for new hires from an accrual system to vacation upfront.

Article XIII Holidays

Change from Washington’s Birthday to President’s Day.

Article XIV Sick leave

1. Effective each January 1st, all regular full-time employees will be allocated a total of seven (7) paid sick days per year to be used in the calendar year. Two days per year, if available, may be carried over with a cap of nine (9) per year. New hires will receive the pro-rated number of days following the completion of probation period.

2. Effective June 1, 2008, all full-time employees will be allocated seven (7) paid sick days to be used in 2008. Any employee currently on sick leave will continue under “reasonable” sick time policy for the duration of the current leave.

Short-term disability

3. All regular full-time employees will be covered under short-term disability. The balance of sick time will be used prior to commencing short-term disability

First 7 days: remaining sick time
Day 8 through week 9: paid time at 100%Week 10 through week 14: paid time at 80%
Week 15 through week 20: paid time at 70%
Week 21 through week 26: paid time at 60%

4. Short-term disability will run concurrent with Family Medical Leave (federal or state). Short-term disability will be up to a total of one hundred and eighty (180) consecutive days of an injury/illness.

5. Employees who are within their probationary period shall not be entitled to sick pay.

6. An employee may access any remaining sick time while on short-term disability to make themselves whole until sick time is exhausted beginning week 10.

Part-time employees shall have pro-rated benefit.

Article XVII Expenses

Grid looks like:
Cost per gallon Compensation

2.905 to 3.00 .385

3.005 to 3.10 .39

3.105 to 3.20 .395

3.205 to 3.30 .40

3.305 to 3.40 .405

3.405 to 3.50 .41

3.505 to 3.60 .415

3.605 to 3.70 .42

Etc…

Anyone driving over 10,000 miles per year will be paid at 2.5 cents higher than the rates above, once they exceed 10,000 miles.

Minimum mileage payment remains at $3/$15.

Section XXII Promotions and Transfers

Section 1 (a) paragraphs 1 through 3 to apply to employees with ten (10) years of service as of the date of signing.

Section 1 (b) Employees with ten (10) years or less seniority as of the date of signing may be transferred at the behest of the company to an editorial department controlled by Blethen Maine Newspapers within a 25 mile radius of the Morning Sentinel newsroom for legitimate business needs. For those individuals affected, the company will pay a one-time transfer bonus of $1,000, $500 upon the transfer and $500 at six months following the transfer, assuming the individual is still employed.

Article XXIII Insured Benefits

4. The Employer agrees to provide medical coverage for active, full-time employees and their eligible dependents. Employees shall continue to participate in the 2007 plans until the first of the month following ratification. New full-time employees shall become eligible for coverage under the medical plans provided herein the first day of the next full month following a thirty (30) day waiting period following their date of hire.

5. The plan design for 2008 is the same as the plan which has been in effect for other employees of Blethen Maine Newspaper, Inc., since 2006. This plan includes HMO Choice/POS, a straight HMO called HMO Maine and Blue Choice/PPO. The Guild shall be educated and consulted about any changes to the medical plan design that are contemplated and the Employer will carefully consider the Guild’s views when making decisions about health care plans. At all times thereafter, the plan design shall be the same for represented employees as that applying to non-represented employees at the relevant time(s). This provision does not modify Article V, Section 4, (part-time employees).

6. The Employer and the Guild agree to participate in a health care advisory committee which will include participants from both represented and non-represented employees, the purpose of which is to educate ourselves and our constituents with regard to the state and national health care trends, wellness programs. Employees shall be eligible to participate in any incentive-based wellness programs implemented within Central Maine Newspapers.

7. Health insurance premium sharing shall remain unchanged, with the Employer paying eighty percent (80%) of the cost of the medical premium and the participating employees paying twenty percent (20%) of the cost of medical premium. The parties agree that the differences in the amount of premium sharing paid by non-represented employees and represented employees shall not be more than the percentage point difference that existed in 2007.

8. Should the plan design change during the term of this Agreement, the Employer’s share of the premium for an individual employee shall not be less than the actual per-employee premium paid by the Employer in the year prior to the plan design change. In subsequent years, if there are increases, employees will pay the increase up to their twenty percent (20%) premium sharing level as set forth in Section 7 herein.

9. In the event that federally or state mandated health care plan(s) become effective or changes in the tax treatment of employers or employees as they relate to health care benefits occurs during the term of this Agreement, this Article may be reopened by either party upon thirty (30) days’ notice. Resolution of a reopening pursuant to this Section 9 shall not be subject to the grievance or arbitration provisions of this Agreement.

10. In consideration of the agreements noted above, the Employer shall offer the following:

a. Effective January 1, 2009, employees may make an annual pre-tax contribution of up to four thousand ($4,000.00) dollars into the health care flexible spending account of each eligible employee.

b. Effective January 1, 2009, in addition to submitting for non-covered medical expenses, employees may submit for reimbursement from their health care spending accounts for certain over-the-counter drugs and other items as permitted by law. Employees may also carry over from one calendar year to the next for a period of up to ninety (90) days monies in their account to be used for reimbursable expenses incurred in the old year. The balance in any such account will be lost after the ninety (90) day period has passed.

c. Effective January 1, 2009, the Employer will make a four hundred dollar ($400.00) deposit into the health care flexible spending account of each eligible full-time and part-time employee who is participating as the enrolled employee in the Employer’s health insurance plan.

d. If Central Maine Newspapers engages a third party to administer flexible spending accounts and the third-party administrator offers a “debit card” access, this shall be made available to members participating in the medical plans at no cost

Article XXIV Pension

Agreed to “soft freeze” of pension for new hires. Current employees will continue to accrue pension benefits undeterred. Also agreed o merger with Walla Walla pension

Article XXIII 401(k)

Agreed to enriched 401(k) for new hires who are not eligible for pension. New hires will receive 1% of pay as a combination contribution directly into 401(k), plus company match of $.50 on the dollar up to 4% of pay.