President's Column

Getting to Know You
Know All About You

By Bob DiCesare

It won't be all that long until our collective bargaining agreement expires and we're back at the bargaining table trying to reach a new contract with The News. And then at some point the Local membership will convene to discuss an issue vital to negotiations or vote to ratify or reject a contract proposal.

A brother or sister will take the microphone to present a point of view, and during the presentation no less than 75 fellow Guild members will whisper, "Who is that and why do they think their agenda is any more important than mine?"

This I guarantee. I've heard the whispers for 16 1/2 years.

Contract negotiations remind us of our union's diversity and quite often that realization is cause for indignation. Here's a recollection from 1990: "What do you mean you want us to sacrifice part of our pay raise to bring the district managers up to reasonable scale? What, if I may ask, is a district manager? What is it they do? Exactly how much do they make? And if it has come to this, how do we get them out of the Unit?"

Reactions such as these aren't a product of indifference so much as a result of the time-cramped lifestyles that have evolved with the advent of dual-income households. We do our jobs, we funnel what time remains toward our families and our self-interests and we really don't give a moment's thought to the plight of a district manager - unless we happen to be one.

The diversity of the Guild can make it difficult to develop personal relationships with our co-workers, particularly those outside our departments. Our members are spread over three floors at The News if, that is, they're not working out of satellite offices.

However, although we can't know all our brothers and sisters on a personal level, it's in our best interests to have sound knowledge of the departments that comprise our Guild, the titles of the jobs in those departments and the work those jobs entail.

With this issue of the Frontier Reporter comes the debut of a new feature. It's entitled "Know Your Guild" and it is brought to you via the efforts of Greg Ramsdell, the Guild's vice-president of mobilization, and your union stewards. The first department featured is advertising customer service.

The goal of this feature, scheduled to run in every Frontier Reporter over no less than the next 18 months, is to foster familiarity within our Unit. The feature, presented as an information box, will provide the name of the department, the weekly wage scale, the hours of operation, duties of the job and, in some cases, behind-the-scenes insights.

Our hope is that this information will heighten awareness and understanding within the Guild and better prepare us for future contract negotiations. Your input is welcome.