Bargaining Bulletin, Nov. 19: We reached tentative agreement with management’s bargaining team Wednesday on job security and grievance arbitration procedures that will protect employees once our contract is ratified.

The company agreed to lay off employees for business reasons only, providing two weeks notice (or two weeks pay) to those targeted. We continue to negotiate severance terms for the future contract.

The terms clarify that company intends to decide which employees to lay off based on individual qualifications, length of service, performance and the ability to perform remaining work. In another tentative agreement, the company agreed to rehire laid-off workers if they qualify for jobs open within six months.

Only disciplinary grievances involving discharge will be subject to binding arbitration, the costs of which will be borne equally by the Guild and the company. Terms of discipline and discharge remain under negotiation.

Representing the Guild: Sara Steffens, chair of the BANG-EB guild unit; Karl Fischer, vice-chair; bargaining committee members Cecily Burt, Eric Louie and Jeremiah Oshan; Carl T. Hall, Northern California Media Workers, Luther Jackson, San Jose Guild; Darren Carroll, CWA-TNG.

Representing the Company: Marshall Anstandig, general counsel; Laurie Fox, human resources; Jim Janiga, senior vice president.

Bargaining Bulletin, Nov. 17: Eight members of our bargaining unit targeted for layoff last week will be kept on payrolls a week longer, until this Friday, under an agreement reached today between our Guild committee and Bay Area News Group-East Bay management.

Other terms remain essentially as announced, with some additional efforts agreed by management to make it easier for those laid off to apply for any openings at other MediaNews papers in California.

We met in Pleasanton on Monday to discuss the proposed layoff after insisting that the job cuts be negotiated.

The company returned to the table proposing to lay off the same eight employees to help generate approximately $560,000 in annual savings of salaries and benefits. BANG-EB counsel Marshall Anstandig said the revenue outlook was grim.

“It would be fair to say continued decline quarter over quarter, and frankly we don’t see an end in sight,” he said.

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Bulletin, Nov. 13: BANG-EB management has rescinded last Friday’s layoff of eight of our bargaining unit members after we protested that the layoffs first had to be negotiated.

The company began notifying those affected this afternoon. Based on our agreement, all eight may immediately return to work if they wish, or stay home with full pay while the company negotiates the proposed layoff with us.

This action follows a charge we filed Monday with the National Labor Relations Board challenging the company’s failure to bargain the layoff decision, as well as its effects on members of our bargaining unit.

We agreed to meet first thing Monday to discuss what the company should have discussed with us to begin with: The need for layoffs, alternatives to job cuts to meet the need, and, if layoffs turn out to be the only answer, the method by which employees were chosen, timing of the dismissals, rehire rights, and other severance terms.

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Bulletin, Oct. 30: We filed unfair labor practice charges Monday to protest the Bay Area News Group-East Bay’s refusal to negotiate a proposed layoff of eight of our members before the company implemented the layoff last week.

Guild representatives met with management Monday after the company on Thursday asked for a meeting to discuss yet another workforce reduction. But before we could meet, the company notified the eight layoff victims and locked them out of the workplace. Severance and other terms were dictated rather than negotiated.

We filed the charge to assert our right to a meaningful opportunity to negotiate the decision to lay off additional employees, as well as the effects of this move on our members. Token discussions after the fact are not sufficient, we told the company Monday.

We filed the ULP with the Oakland office of the National Labor Relations Board. After the regional office investigates, a complaint may be issued if the NLRB finds merit in our charge.

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