Petition in Circulation
Expresses Employee Frustration

by Tina M. Destro
President

We, the undersigned members of the Circulation Department, wish to show our support for the Newspaper Guild as it tackles morale problems in our department.

Over the past several months, we have endured a growing lack of respect despite our daily efforts at improving circulation, customer services and, ultimately, the bottom line.

We wholeheartedly support the Guild’s enforcement of the collective bargaining agreement we worked so hard to achieve and which we consider the centerpiece of our rights as workers. We also resent the not so subtle forms of retaliation directed at our elected leaders.

Perhaps, the most telling example of this disrespect is the proposed change in the customer service desk -- one of the more efficient and professionally-run aspects of this department. We can’t help but wonder why The Buffalo News would tamper with success?

This is the wording of a petition that was signed by over 95 percent of the Guild employees in circulation, clerks and district managers alike, in an attempt to inform management of the frustration of the employees over the treatment that they and their union representatives have received in that department, particularly at the hands of the Inside Circulation Customer Satisfaction Manager.

The signed petition was submitted to Buffalo News management the week of May 18.

Although the Guild has been able to work with Circulation management in recent weeks to settle many grievances in that department, certain actions have not ceased and the members of the Guild are mobilizing to have their voices heard and their wishes respected.

The most serious infractions in Inside Circulation have occurred against the department’s union representatives. Guild Secretary Carol Ann Burke and Inside Circulation vice chair has been subjected to various forms of intimidation as a union representative. These tactics by management are against the law and the Guild, upon approval from the Executive Committee and the Local, intends to file Unfair Labor Practice Charges with the National Labor Relations Board if the activities do not cease.

One of our current outstanding grievances relates to the unilateral transfer of a Division Lead Clerk from the Division 7 office back to the downtown office. This action violates a grievance settlement, the Group B Transfer Agreement, that was reached in 1996 over a similar instance in Inside Circulation. The premise of the grievance settlement is that employees who apply for, interview and are selected for a specific position and pass their probationary period in that position have a right to expect that the position is theirs barring removal for just and sufficient cause by the company.

As we are trying to settle this issue, the Customer Satisfaction Manager in Inside Circulation is attempting the same action by removing the employee currently in the Service Desk Coordinator position in the downtown office, a Group B position, and forcing him to take the vacant position at the Division 7 office. That employee happens to be the Guild’s Treasurer, Robert Snyder.

The employee unilaterally transferred from the Division 7 office to downtown is one of the Guild’s Executive Committee delegates and a steward in Inside Circulation, Greg Ramsdell.

The employee involved in the Group B Transfer settlement in 1996, was, at the time, the vice chair for Inside Circulation.

While we have made great strides in achieving respect for the Guild, and our contract, in Circulation, it seems as though we have a long road ahead of us. The strength of the members is what will make positive changes happen.

We hope that through these actions and the efforts of Guild leaders, that the Guild can achieve respect and dignity for its members and representatives.

If these actions aren’t enough, we hope to take this fight company-wide to all of our Guild members to stand together for the rights, respect and dignity that we all deserve.