SAVE THE DATE: MARCH 18th at NOON
The credit union will provide lunch at the guild’s “Financial Planning in a Recession” Q&A with planner Dave Murdock. We’re looking at noon, March 18th for this one hour session in the 2nd floor conference center. (We’ll know date for sure by tonight). Dave Murdock will help you develop smart strategies for uncertain times.
Topics include:
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Emergency funds - tips to save, save, save
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401K & IRA options
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Retiree Health Care costs (due to the March 31 cutoff)
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Tax considerations
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Tips for uncertain times: bankruptcy, furloughs, layoffs, strike, etc.
Credit Union Loan Officer Nate Criego will also participate and answer your questions about home equity loans, credit cards, rates, and general trends and smart tips seen among the membership.
Please RSVP to Dee DePass if you can come. It should be valuable.
Jenna Ross Meetings
This is good news, obviously, for our compatriots in St. Paul and Duluth. But what you might not know is that Star Tribune Guild negotiators last summer successfully negotiated a clause in our contract specifying that the U of M will apply for a training grant on behalf of the Strib, too.
The U’s Journalism School could qualify for up to $400,000 to train Guild members in the newsroom. We would design the curriculum. The idea is now serving as a national model for training journalists.
Proof positive that great ideas come from our members, in this case, PiPress reporter Julie Forster.
Jenna Ross Contract
According to an article by David Phelps:
The Star Tribune asked a federal bankruptcy judge late Thursday to cancel the labor contract for its 116-member pressmen’s union and impose new language that would save the debt-laden newspaper $3.5 million a year …
The company wants the pressmen to accept lower wages and new work rules that would reduce staffing and overtime requirements on the presses.
To check out the motion itself, click here.To read CFO David Montgomery’s arguments for filing it, click here.
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
A second meeting on mobilizing efforts was held Wednesday. While we had decent attendance, we want to send out another call for help. If you’ve ever thought about getting involved with your Guild, now is the time.
Here are the committees:
- Alternative ownership: Janet Moore, chair
- Mission Statement/Shaping Our Message: Jackie Crosby, chair
- New Media Projects: Jenna Ross, chair
- Rallying Community/Labor support: Chris Serres, chair
If you are interested in serving on any of these committees, contact the mobilization co-chairs, Mike Kaszuba and Paul McEnroe. Ideas are starting to fly, and we are want to focus our message and how to get it out to the community most effectively.
Anybody interested should plan to attend our next meeting Wednesday Feb. 25 at 4:30 in Joel Kramer’s old office. We’ll hear from the chairs of each group.
*As of Thursday, Feb. 19, there isn’t any new news to report on bankruptcy proceedings. Other unions at the Star Tribune continue to negotiate with the company. The Newspaper Guild has yet to receive a proposal.
David Chanen and Graydon Royce, unit co-chairs
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
The following is a transcript from a recent hearing regarding the arguments for paying severance.
The U.S. trustee had asked the judge to reconsider the cash management system ruling, which prompted the filing of the transcript.
So why do we want to pay $436,000 to all these people when they are no longer actually providing services to the company? One, because it will save us money. It is cheaper to pay this for Star Tribune than to not pay it. In fact, it maybe substantially cheaper to pay it than to not pay it.
The unions have already begun to grieve the nonpayment of various amounts, including these, and we can talk until we’re blue in the face about the automatic stay and the filing date, but we still need to expend the time and resources and attorneys’ fees to address these grievances. And given that the amount of money is very small, and given that we could easily wrap up this amount in professional fees just talking about it, that’s one reason that it’s rational to pay it.
To read more, click here.
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
What: A meeting to mobilize
When: 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11
Where: Conf. room on third floor — Kramer’s old office
Who: Anyone who cares about saving this newspaper
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
Interested in what the Star Tribune of the future could look like? Read on.
Chicago’s newspapers could find a lifeline to solvency and a return to social purpose in a new kind of business structure called an L3C, or low-profit limited liability corporation.
Why is that?
Illinois foundations have $350 billion in assets and they are required to invest 5% of that, or $17 billion, in programs that serve a social purpose each year. If the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune were to be reborn as L3Cs — a structure that encourages foundation investment while allowing a profit –they could tap into some of that $17 billion. With foundation heavyweights on board, other investors seeking a decent, but not excessive, return might contribute to the coffers.
Several local Guild members (including Mike Bucsko, Janet Moore and Karolynn Delucca) are involved with a national Guild committee looking at possible alternative ownership structures for newspapers. Among those options discussed: An L3C low-profit model.
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
The court gave the Star Tribune permission Friday to pay outstanding severance payments to 43 workers who were owed a collective $436,478. As David Brauer noted, one worker stood to lose $52,400, while 15 were owed more than $10,000.
In a note to employees, publisher Chris Harte said he was “glad we can pay our former employees as we promised.” The company had told the former employees last month that they would not receive any remaining severance – or that it would be capped at $10,950 (the maximum amount the company could pay without court approval).
The creditors committee supported the request to pay the employees, illustrating how our presence on that group benefits our interests, said co-chair Graydon Royce.
The only opposition came from U.S. trustee Diana G. Adams. To read a document that outlines that opposition, click here.
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
Former Strib worker Annie Breitenbucher is one of seven Guild employees who have their biweekly severace payments cut. In a letter she sent last week, Breitenbucher, who spent 23 years at the paper, outlines her “bitter disappointment and sense of betrayal”:
According to the Guild, the total amount owed to the seven members whose payments ceased is about $125,000. When I read, recently, that the company paid the Blackstone Group $150,000 a month plus a $4 million reorganization bonus I, literally, cried. I am aware that this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but there’s a message here about what the company values. And it is not the collective 100+ years of service given by myself and my Guild colleagues - service which contributed to the value of a newspaper Avista once considered an asset.
To read her letter, click here.
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy
In a letter to the publisher, executive officer Mike Bucsko asserts that management’s buyout programs were “problematic,” and in some cases, “contrary to the language” in the contract. Here’s an excerpt:
- The notification of the workforce reduction that occurred on Jan. 29 was problematic in that two bargaining unit employees in the A-scale copy editor classification were told their jobs were being eliminated and they faced a layoff on Feb. 13. This was premature and is contrary to the process outlined in Article XIII, Para. 3. A general buyout should first have been offered to the entire employee group of A-scale copy editors.
- The Guild maintains, as a matter of equity, a buyout offer should also be extended to the A-scale photographer pay classification.
- The Dec. 15 memo offered numerical limits on buyouts in various pay classifications, but broke down the classifications by specific job titles… The Guild maintains that this is contrary to the language of Article XIII, Para. 3, which states that “job titles” are defined as the pay classifications listed in Article IV, Para. 2, with the exception of certain sub-groups of the A-scale as outlined in that section of the CBA. “Editorial Writer,” “Editorial Cartoonist” and “Metro Columnist” are job titles, not pay classifications.
To read the entire letter, click here.
Jenna Ross Bankruptcy