Update, June 10:  With our contract set to expire in November, the BANG-East Bay bargaining committee is already preparing for upcoming negotiations. That means we need to hear what your goals and priorities are for our next agreement with the company.

You may have already received a copy of a bargaining survey from your shop steward. If not, your steward will be approaching you in the coming days to fill out a copy of this short, anonymous survey. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to complete and return this to your steward, and help our unit get ready for negotiations.

Also in this update:

• Online filing
• Membership clarification
• San Francisco Chronicle bargaining update
• Sacramento Bee tentative agreement
• Hawaii Newspaper Guild merger

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Update, Jan. 19: Last week, we all received an email from Dean Singleton stating that MediaNews has, in consultation with its lenders, created a “prepackaged” bankruptcy filing for its holding company, Affiliated Media Inc. Filing could come as early as this week.

The official documents and the resulting hearings should provide more details of the arrangement, including the new ownership structure, and what, if any, compensation Hearst will receive for relinquishing its stake in the company. In the meantime, MediaNews has promised that neither workers nor daily operations of our newspapers will be affected by the bankruptcy, and we intend to hold them at their word.

What the Guild is doing on our end:

The Newspaper Guild has represented workers at five newspaper company bankruptcies, and in every case, employees continue to work and get paid, noted Carol Rothman, secretary-treasurer of TNG. “None of the guild properties have been affected any more drastically than anyone who is not in bankruptcy,” said Rothman.

The Guild has hired a law firm that specializes in bankruptcy to monitor workers’ interests as the filing proceeds, and representatives across the country are gathering relevant financial information.

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Bargaining bulletin, Oct. 7: Guild negotiators and Company representatives continued talks regarding a proposed wage reduction for the BANG-East Bay unit Wednesday without reaching an agreement.

The Guild offered several alternative proposals, including one that would shave 2 percentage points from the Company’s pay cut plan by requiring employees to take one week of their vacation unpaid in 2010. Details of the plan would be worked out in later discussions.

Company representatives said they would respond by Monday. Parties are scheduled to meet again at 11 a.m. Monday.

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We’ve ratified our first contract — and now we have new leaders, too!

Members of our unit elected a new unit chair and vice chair during a meeting Saturday at  the CWA Local 9415 union hall in Oakland.

Oakland Tribune political writer Josh Richman (center) remains as unit secretary, joined by reporter and Unit Chair Eric Louie (right), and Vice Chair George Kelly, a multimedia expert and online coordinator based in the Walnut Creek office of the Contra Costa Times.

Louie, who works out of the Pleasanton office of the Valley Times, was among the original organizers of our unit. He took the gavel from Sara Steffens, the East Bay’s founding chair, who stepped down in anticipation of welcoming a new addition to her family. Steffens hopes to return to active Guild service in the fall.

Louie and his colleagues discussed an ambitious agenda Saturday that includes organizing a full roster of shop stewards and committee members. (Photo by Jane Tyska)

Bargaining bulletin, May 28: Negotiators for the Bay Area News Group-East Bay Guild Unit reached a tentative agreement with company management Thursday for a new labor contract.

The proposed labor agreement would be the first for the 180-member BANG-East Bay Unit, which organized in June 2008.

Guild members now get to vote whether to ratify the accord.

Two meetings are scheduled Tuesday June 2:

• 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in Conference Room 202 at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, and
• 5-8 p.m. at the CWA Hall, 1831 Park Blvd., in Oakland.

Ballots will be collected at both locations, but results will not be announced until after the Oakland meeting.

We strongly encourage all members to study the proposed contract, consider the views of bargainers and your colleagues, and participate in this vote — so critical for the sake of our jobs, our new union and our company. Any bargaining unit members who have not yet joined the Guild may still do so. Contact any shop steward or unit officer, or call 415-421-6833, for an application form.

The negotiations were complicated by an unprecedented downturn in the economic fortunes of the newspaper industry, which has led to ongoing layoffs, pay cuts and benefit losses around the country. In the Bay Area, Guild members at the San Francisco Chronicle recently endured 150 job cuts after the Hearst Corp. threatened to close the paper, while the San Jose Mercury News Guild Unit is facing paycuts and other concession proposals in a separate contract proposal scheduled for a membership ratification vote on Monday.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we think this proposal is a strong starting point to build our future relationship with the company,” said Sara Steffens, unit chair of the East Bay Guild unit. “There are some things in this contract that nobody’s had before at BANG-East Bay.”
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Update, Feb. 26: Our bargaining bulletins are usually brief, but Tuesday’s contained some pretty big news: Company representatives are proposing that we explore merging our new BANG-EB Guild unit with the established Guild unit at the Mercury News.

What does this mean exactly? In a consolidated Guild unit, we would share the same contract with our coworkers at the Mercury News, and managers likely would have more leeway to coordinate operations across our newsrooms.

We’ve always used the term “One Big BANG,” and we think the idea of formally creating a seamless Bay Area News Group deserves a serious look amid our current financial crisis. So our bargaining team and its counterpart from Merc have agreed to talk about the idea. With the help of federal mediator David Weinberg, we’ll enter talks with the company in early March to begin discussing what a merged unit could look like, and how employees might be affected.

This is by no means a done deal: A merger would be a complex undertaking, requiring support from members of all the affected units, and involving separate votes of our members and Guild members at the Mercury News. It won’t happen unless all sides see evidence that it’s in the best interest of our company and its workers.

So we want to hear from you: How would you feel about sharing a union contract with our colleagues in San Jose? What concerns or questions do you have?

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Bargaining bulletin, Feb. 10: Our Guild bargaining team met Wednesday with company representatives after exchanging revised proposals in talks for a first contract at the Bay Area News Group-East Bay.

Discussions in a newly begun “expedited framework” have moved a number of issues closer to settlement but considerable distance still must be covered.

We hope to reach a tentative accord on a comprehensive agreement, subject to ratification vote by membership, by the end of the month. Although we appear to be making progress, specifics are subject to change. If the company and Guld teams fail to reach total agreement by the end of these fast-track bargaining sessions, both sides will revert to the tentative agreements and proposals we began with.

Our committee intends to issue a complete status report as soon as we are reasonably confident that our progress is genuine.

Representing the Guild: bargaining team chair Karl Fischer, bargaining team member Jeremiah Oshan and staff negotiator Carl T. Hall and Darren Carroll. Representing the company: attorney Marshall Anstandig and vice-president Jim Janiga.

Update, Jan. 21: Many of us worried that the New Year would ring in a new round of staff cuts at the Bay Area News Group-East Bay. But several weeks into 2009, we have yet to see a layoff in our bargaining unit.

Lately, we’ve been hearing from credible sources that newsroom layoffs aren’t coming any time soon. Our best reports say our managers have found other ways to trim the budgets, including a plan to shift deadlines and change workflow on the copy desk. (There’s a meeting on that one later this afternoon). We’ll send specifics as we get them; as always please share any details you hear or concerns you may have.

No one likes to see cuts that change deadlines or make the newspaper smaller, and there’s still a chance that more of our colleagues outside the newsroom will lose their jobs.

Still, we’re relieved to hear that our company has been looking beyond newsroom layoffs to balance the budget, at least for the immediate future. Saving jobs is a top priority for guild leaders, and everything we’ve heard tells us that the rest of you agree.

So take a deep breath. In a volatile business climate, there are no guarantees. But if you’ve been yearning to settle in and focus on doing your job, maybe even tackle a special project, now seems like a good time.

 After the jump:  A new contract in Long Beach, Broun awards deadline nears; plus bargaining road-show, big-picture stuff and depressing industry news (as if you needed any more)…

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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.

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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