Seattle Times Negotiations Information

SEATTLE TIMES NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE #6

By PATTY WARREN, Organizer
(Posted March 10, 2008) On February 27, 2008, Teamster Locals 174 and 763 met with the Seattle Times to continue our discussions on the outsourcing proposal. At our last meeting, the Union gave the Times a proposal that would give us a contract covering our Ad Service drivers at Fairview with language saying if it didn’t work out with Penske, they would either bring you back in house or make sure any new contractor would have to hire you and accept the contract. If the Times was willing to do that, we would have the future secured and could get serious about negotiating with Penske.
       Unfortunately, on February 27th they rejected that concept out of hand. They also rejected out of hand our proposal made on January 17 which would have given you a three-year contract with the Times with 3% a year wages increases and no other changes. They did revise their “Transition Agreement,” which includes the severance pay proposal, to add language saying if they bring the work back in house, they would grant voluntary recognition and bargain a contract. That did not include any guarantee you would be offered the jobs.
       A number of questions are outstanding as to whether their severance pay proposal would work as there are different formulas if you are full- or part-time, based on straight time hours, not including premium pay. We clarified that all wages, including the wage differential for driving the semi and substituting for a dispatcher, are considered wages not premium pay and would be factored in to the severance checks. They are sending us some additional information so we can better determine for whom the severance pay would work.
       We updated the Times on Penske, pointing out the same problems we described in the “Good News, Bad News” flyer. We told them it was our intent to set another meeting with Penske, to follow up with an information request on the impact of Penske’s offer on medical and overtime, and then get back to them.

NEWSFLASH!!!   
On February 26th, we received a letter from the Times. The letter acknowledged you would still be working on February 29th and will continue working until a 30 days notice has been sent. A copy of the letter is posted on the Union bulletin board.

BACKGROUND BEHIND THE ABOVE UPDATE:
On November 30, 2007, the Seattle Times notified Teamsters Local 174 of its intent to outsource the bulk hauling of newspapers between the production facility in North Creek (Bothell) and the warehouses and drop sites around the Puget Sound region. The move will affect the 67 drivers and dispatchers who are Local 174 members, and seven mechanics who are Local 763 members.
       In its letter informing us of its decision, the Times asked for expedited bargaining to enable their plan to be rid of us on February 29, 2008, the day after our contract expires.
       Given the nature of the announcement, it was determined that joint bargaining with the two Teamster Locals as well as a Representative from the International’s Newspaper Division were in order.
       Despite pressure from the Times, our initial meeting did not take place until Friday, December 14, due to Yours Truly Patty Warren’s absence on vacation. At that meeting, the Times attempted to get us to sign a confidentiality agreement in order to get access to the “Letter of Intent” it had signed with Penske to take over our work.
       We refused to sign the confidentiality agreement. First, we wanted to see what information they would give us without confidentiality assurances. Once we knew what they would not provide, we would decide how important the missing information was and re-evaluate our position. We sent a lengthy information request, including asking for contact information for Penske so we could reach out to them and see what they were willing to do.
       We met again on January 4. Between the meetings, Local 174 was asked, through International Newspaper Division Representative John Peralta, to consider signing a one-month extension to the contract, which would delay the implementation until the end of March. We said we would consider it, but the request was coming when 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks was off on vacation over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and it would have to wait until he got back and we were able to confer with our Bargaining Committee. Apparently, the Times was under the impression we had agreed to sign the extension and became upset when we refused to do so.
       We’ve met with the Times twice and with Penske twice since the January 4 meeting. Right now, as we get ready to go to press with the Teamster Record, the Times is continuing to propose outsourcing our work. While Penske is willing to sign a contract with us and hire our members for the jobs, the conditions are substandard to what we have in our current contract and substandard for the local in general. Some examples:

In addition to losing our transportation work, the Times has proposed that we voluntarily give up our four ad service drivers that work out of Fairview. They are not directly impacted by the outsourcing, but the Times wants rid of Local 174 and has proposed we relinquish those jobs to Local 763.
       Legal and political maneuverings are ongoing. Needless to say, we are not going down without a fight!

Good News:

Bad News:

SEATTLE TIMES NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE #4
January 17,  2008
Teamster Locals 174 and 763, along with John Peralta from the International met on January 17, 2008.  Late in the day on January 16th we received the response to our latest information request.  For the first time, we have information that shows us enough data to have meaningful discussions with Penske.  It would have been nice if they’d given us this information at the outset of discussions rather than after a second request.  We have a meeting scheduled for NEXT WEEK, FEBRUARY 25, 2008 AT 9 A.M.  Your bargaining committee will be attending that meeting.  We will have a much better idea of what our options are after we talk to Penske.

The Union made two proposals at today’s meeting:

FIRST, we proposed a new 3-year agreement.  We included a proposal for a labor-management committee which would be charged with finding ways to increase efficiencies with the current workforce.

SECOND, we proposed a 30-day contract extension, but conditioned the proposal on the Times tabling their outsourcing proposal for 30 days to attempt to negotiate a new contract and keep you employed at the Seattle Times.  Management said they would agree, provided we scheduled 10 bargaining sessions over that 30 day period.  That would have been fine if they would agree to bargain a contract.  But they wanted us to agree only the first 4 meetings would be contract negotiations, and the next 6 on their outsourcing proposal.  They also did not want to establish a committee, but wanted us to bring our ideas to the bargaining table.  It takes a lot of time to review the operation, come up with sound ideas, and figure out how to implement them.  Impossible to accomplish in 4 meetings.

We did not accept their counter.  We left our proposal on the table and scheduled a follow-up meeting on February 6.

We received a severance proposal from the Times.  We will be carefully reviewing the offer.  At initial glance, it appears that few employees would qualify.

As always, we will keep you posted.

At the meeting, the Times gave the Union a copy of the November 29, 2007, Letter of Intent it has entered into with Penske Logistics, confirming their intent to enter into a Logistics Agreement pursuant to which Penske would perform some of the work currently being performed by members of our bargaining unit.   The Times also made a three-point proposal to the Union:

The Times has not promised to ensure that all Local 174-represented drivers will be hired by Penske, nor that Penske will honor any of the terms and conditions of employment which currently exist under the Times-Local 174 collective bargaining agreement.   To the contrary, the Times made it clear, in the Letter of Intent, that “Penske will determine the material terms” of any offer it may choose to make to any driver, including “compensation, benefits, and working conditions.”  

Finally, the Times has not identified how much severance it is willing to pay to impacted Local 174 members nor which of our members it will be willing to pay that severance to (e.g., whether it will pay severance to all of our members, or only to those members who are not hired by Penske).

Local 174 intends to respond to this very vague proposal by seeking additional information, such as a copy of Penske’s Dedicated Contract Carriage Proposal, which apparently spells out the precise services Penske would be providing to the Times.   Local 174 also intends to attempt to meet with Penske representatives to learn more about the conditions of employment which would exist for our members if they were to go to work for that company.   

Finally, Local 174 intends to meet again with the Times on the earliest date that such a meeting would be useful and, at that time, we will make a counteroffer which we believe will better serve the interests of our members than the proposal given to us by the Times.  

They asked us to sign a confidentiality agreement before they would provide us with a copy

We responded with an information request.  Important points:

At that meeting, a lot of questions were asked, but the Times didn’t have many answers.  The Unions wanted to know whether or not Penske had agreed to offer jobs to our members, on what basis would they be making their hiring decisions, if they were willing to sit down with us to discuss wages, pension, etc.  The Unions were told those were not decisions for the Seattle Times to make, those were decisions for Penske.  We told the Times the two Unions would talk and get back to them about dates for negotiations and the Unions would be sending them a written information request.  John Peralta from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters delivered the message to the times in the strongest terms that the Teamsters were not interested in having our work outsourced.

Since that meeting, Rick Hicks, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 174, and David Grage, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 763, have agreed that the two Unions will enter into joint negotiations with the Times.  To that end, we have set an initial meeting for January 4.  Both Unions will work together to produce the best possible result for our members, with the primary interest of keeping the work in house and keeping you all employed by the Times.

We will continue to issue joint publications to keep you informed.

On December 14, Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks, Business Agent Patty Warren, Organizer Michael Gonzales and Local 174’s Seattle Times bargaining committee members were joined by John G. Peralta, the International Representative for the Newspaper, Magazine & Electronic Media Workers Division of the IBT, and representatives of Teamsters Local 763 in our first meeting with the Seattle Times regarding the Times’ stated intention of outsourcing Local 174’s work, and drivers, to Penske.

At the meeting, the Times was asked, point blank, whether it had already made a firm decision to outsource the bulk hauling of newspapers between its facilities.   Chris Biencourt, Vice President of Labor Relations, speaking for the Times, stated that this was not the case.   However, Chris made it clear that it believes that there are compelling reasons for the Times to take this step.  

Local 174 representatives expressed their very deep concern about the Times’ plan and asked a number of important questions, including questions about how Penske would deal with the Teamsters that it hired from the Times.   Chris said that he had no knowledge about that.  There were a number of other questions that he could not or did not answer.

At this point, all of the Teamster representatives caucused without the Times representatives being present.   We decided that we could not respond in any meaningful way to the Times’ November 30, 2007, letter to the Union declaring its intent to outsource our work without first receiving much more information from the Times than we currently have.  

Sometime in the next few weeks, we expect to sit down with the Times to commence bargaining on a successor collective bargaining agreement to the current one, which expires on February 28, 2007.   Prior to the next meeting, we will have sent the Times a written request for the information we need regarding its outsourcing proposal.   We will keep all members informed of all developments regarding our effort to obtain a new agreement with the Times that continues to cover both our bulk hauling and dispatch drivers.  

Secretary-Treasurer Hicks told the members at the Seattle Times “We entered these negotiations with two major goals. First, we were not going to take a two year wage freeze like all the other crafts were doing. And second, we were going to break the cycle and have the opportunity for Local 174 to set the pattern so we would not be back in this situation again in the future. We accomplished both!”

Thanks to Teamsters Local 763 for postponing their vote in order to give us an opportunity to meet with the Times and the International Union one final time. Their show of solidarity helped us reach a tentative agreement. We wish them well with their upcoming vote and pledge our support for their ongoing negotiations.

And please extend your thanks to the negotiating committee for their time and patience.

Bargaining Committee: Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks, Business Agents Patty Warren and Michael Gonzales, Rank & File members Jonathon Harris, Bill Phillips, Sam Taylor, Nate Wickliff, and Mike Tresslar

The decision is yours.  Please come and vote.

NOTE:    If this offer is rejected, the strike authorization remains in place.

    DATE:            July 1, 2007

    TIME:            2 P.M.

    PLACE:         TEAMSTERS HALL
                         Room to be determined
                         14675 Interurban Ave S
        

Bargaining committee: Jonathan Harris, Sam Taylor, Nate Wickliff, Mike Tresslar, Bill Phillips, Negotiator Patty Warren and Organizer Michael Gonzales

STRIKE AUTHORIZATION PASSES BY 98% MARGIN
On Sunday, May 20, 2007, Seattle Times members voted to authorize a strike by a 98% margin, with only one vote against.

We have agreed to go to Federal Mediation to attempt to resolve our differences.  The Mediator was available on May 31, a previously scheduled bargaining date.  We will be signing another one-month extension which will take us through the month of June.

Thanks to the Times members who participated in the vote.

SEATTLE TIMES NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE #2
March 19, 2007
The Union bargaining team met with the Seattle Times on February 27, March 12 and March 15.  Bargaining is going slowly.  Both February 27 and March 12 were spent asking questions of the Employer about its extensive offer.  They have proposed substantial changes in language which give them broader management rights and weaken our rights. 

Chris Biencourt, spokesperson from the Times, has explained that many of their proposed language changes were not prompted by any actions taken by our bargaining unit, but rather are a response to things happening with other Unions.  The Times is interested in having all the Unions agree to the same language—language that would strengthen their hand and weaken ours.  We are not interested in going backwards, either in language or economics.

The Union made its initial economic offer at the March 15 meeting.  We proposed a three-year contract, with increases in wages and pension.  We also reserved the right to propose an alternative medical plan and are analyzing plans and costs now.  We expect management to respond to the economics at the next meeting.  But given what we’ve heard so far, we are not expecting a favorable response.

Local 763 has also started negotiations.  They had their first meeting this week.  When possible, a Local 174 representative will sit in on their bargaining.  Let’s show management some solidarity, both at the bargaining table and on the shop floor!  We are all in this together, and we wish the best for Local 763’s negotiations.

Bargaining committee:   Jonathan Harris, Sam Taylor, Nate Wickliff, Mike Tresslar, Bill Phillips, Negotiator Patty Warren and Organizer Michael Gonzales.

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The meeting began with a discussion of future dates and times. The group agreed to meet on February 22 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Union Hall and on February 27 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the North Creek facility

The Union laid out the issues which will be covered by our proposal, including economics (wages, medical, pension, etc.) and non-economic items such as Safety and Drug Testing. We requested information on the Company’s long-term disability plan, and asked for a presentation on what has happened to with the cost and structure of the medical plan and what they see happening with the plan in the future. We also said we wanted to discuss the Company’s exercise of its discretion in the sick leave arena, an explanation of their policies on when to drug test, and needed to have a full discussion around the seniority layoff language.

At the next session, the Union will be presenting a comprehensive proposal. Talk to your bargaining committee or call Patty Warren for more information.

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