DMs Brace for Changes

By Dick Fay
District Manager Vice Chair

With the changes needed in the circulation department, Buffalo News management proposed to the Guild the creation of new sales advisor positions.

In departmental bargaining, the Guild negotiated hard to make the positions available through the bidding system, but The News insisted they needed the right to pick the best sales people to fill the jobs. Ultimately, the parties agreed that the company could have the right to appoint up to four district sales advisors, and the local also agreed in August to allow the company to fill three of the positions for a six-month trial period. The six-month trial expires at the end of January, and if the contract isn't settled, the Guild expects The News to seek an extension of the temporary period.

All regular DM positions, single copy positions and float assignments continue to be available through the bidding system.

The parties also negotiated two improvements to the bidding system. The first makes it clear that a DM has the right to `bump' if there is a gross change of 40 percent of the district in any 12-month period. The second change requires that bidding seniority be based only on continuous DM service time. The effect of that change is that, in the future, if a supervisor returns to the bargaining unit after being in management, they will no longer be able to use their accrued DM time for bidding purposes.

The Guild is planning to conduct a DM meeting this month to talk more about these changes, as well as the effect of the 8 p.m. last call.

Thanks for all your help.

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