The glacial tempo of grievance talks between the Guild and The Buffalo News seems to be moving somewhat more quickly.

In our most recent meeting with News management we were able to reach agreement on grievances filed over the $6 Differential.  The total award to employees in both Inside Circulation and Editorial will top $8,000.  After ratification of the tentative agreement by members at the May Local meeting, Guild and News representatives signed the grievance settlement.  Monies should be allocated shortly to employees named in the grievance.

A tentative agreement may be close on the "Snow Day" grievance filed on behalf of three employees in Classified and one in Accounting who in effect had their shifts cancelled by The News on January 4 of this year.

Settlement on a grievance filed for a Classified employee who was not granted primary care leave in a timely fashion seems close as well.

A grievance of harassment filed by an Inside Circulation employee has been settled.  The supervisor whom the grievance was filed against submitted a letter of apology to an employee who complained of insulting and harassing remarks made by the supervisor.

The Guild and The News are also close to agreement on a grievance filed over News 1 and News 2 assignments in Editorial  Once language is finalized, a tentative agreement will be presented to the Local for approval.

That is the good news.

However, the Guild and The News are at a stalemate over the issue of extended sick leave in the case of a Classified employee who utilized the leave from October of last year up until April of this year.  The company contends that employees on extended sick leave must use benefits accrued during the extended sick leave period therefore have nothing left in accrual to use upon their return to work.

The Guild disagrees based on the language of the contract and past application of extended sick leave.  Guild leadership will ask for approval from the members to pursue arbitration on this issue at the next Local meeting.

The News also seems to have taken a new, hard line on their right to require bona fides from employees for sick time usage.  The News can, under the contract, request bona fides.  But, the contract states, this is a right that shall not be abused.

The News claims they have the right to conduct surveillance on employees whenever they see fit, as a method of obtaining proof related to sick time.  The Guild sees this as an abuse of the right to require bona fides.  Recently, the Guild approved pursuing arbitration on the issue.

On June 7, the Guild and The News began the arbitration over a racial discrimination grievance filed for an African American employee in Classified.  The basis of the complaint is that the employee was passed over for a transfer in favor white employees.  The arbitration did not finish on June 7.  A second hearing date is set for September 10.

On July 23, the Guild and The News will arbitrate the issue of the unilateral transfer of a Group B Circulation clerk without just and sufficient cause.  The grievance was filed in January of this year after The News unilaterally removed the employee from his job as Service Desk Coordinator without cause.  The Guild believes that the contract protects the rights of employees to retain their jobs after they have successfully completed the designated trial period.  The News claims they have a right to transfer employees at will.

The pipeline is full.  The Guild will seek to meet with the company on a weekly or biweekly basis to move some of these issues to a fruitful conclusion.

At a recent grievance meeting, the Guild expressed its concern over The News' denial of grievances out of hand - leaving the Guild with the impression that the company was not interested in bargaining over possible settlements.

The company denied at the meeting that they are unwilling to bargain.  They said that they will give more thoughtful consideration to the Guild's complaints and try to include substantive reasons for any grievance denial.  In this manner, future grievance meetings can be based on well-reasoned issues instead of blanket denials.

The leadership of the Guild is working extremely hard to settle as many of these issues as quickly, and as diligently, as possible.

Keep the faith.