Tentative Agreement Reached in Circulation;
Other Issues Outstanding

by Dan Herbeck
Editorial

The Guild and The Buffalo News have reached a tentative agreement on the grievance over the unilateral creation of a second Assistant Single Copy Sales Manager where the contract only allows for one exclusion.

Under this proposal, the Assistant Circulation Division Managers, under the exclusions in Article 1, Section 1 B of the contract, would be removed from the language. In exchange, management would be allowed three (3) Assistant Single Copy Managers, instead of one.

The Local will vote on acceptance of this agreement as a resolution at the October meeting.

The Guild and News management continue to discuss two grievances involving the rights of editorial staffers to do freelance work on their own time.

News counsel Joseph Saeli and Guild attorney Robert J. Reden will discuss a grievance involving Vic Carucci, Larry Felser, Jim Kelley and other sports staffers.

"It was decided that the two attorneys will get together and try to fashion an agreement that will be acceptable to all parties," said Phil Fairbanks. "We hope to resolve this matter short of an arbitration hearing."

In a related grievance, the Guild met with management on Oct. 8 to discuss The News' efforts to prevent Dale Anderson and Tony Cardinale from writing for Buffalo Beat and Artvoice, alternative weekly publications.

"Murray Light stated at the meeting that The News' position has absolutely nothing to do with advertising. That surprised us," said Tom Ernst, Editorial vice chair. "Murray said the concern is that we are competing with those publications for the attention of our readers. We took the position that these are not competing publications." Discussions will continue, Ernst said.

Meanwhile, Twana Williams, an African-American woman in Classified Advertising, has filed a grievance against the Buffalo News based on racial discrimination.

In accordance with Article 5, Section 3 of the contract, the Guild requested a meeting with The News to attempt to resolve the issue prior to any formal filing.

At the meeting, The News denied that any of their actions in the case resulted from racial discrimination.

A grievance has been filed on the issue. Williams has also contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. The Guild is pursuing resolution of the grievance through a make whole settlement. The EEOC, is conducting an investigation into the claim.

A status report on other grievances:

The grievance over the unilateral transfer of a Circulation Division Lead Clerk from the Williamsville-Clarence office to the Downtown office was scheduled for arbitration on Oct. 2. The arbitration was canceled -- General Counsel for TNG-CWA felt the arbitrator would not be able to resolve the issue because of a change in circumstances from the original filing of the grievance.

The question of unilateral transfers remains an issue.

While the Guild has withdrawn the original grievance, discussion continues on a unilateral transfer involving an 18-year employee recently transferred from his job as Service Desk Coordinator. The Guild and management are attempting negotiate an acceptable procedure for transfers. If that cannot be accomplished, a new grievance will be filed.

Discussions also continue with management to return bargaining unit work assigned to an independent distributor to District Managers in Single Copy Sales.

The Guild still awaits a response from The News on the grievance filed over the $6 Differential. This grievance involves back pay to Circulation and Editorial employees who were not paid the proper differential for working in a higher classification.

- The arbitration case regarding Dan Skinner, a Circulation clerk who was terminated in November of 1997, was dismissed by the arbitrator on July 24, 1998. The arbitrator dismissed the case because the grievant did not, after several requests from the Guild, provide documentation to substantiate his absence from the June 12 arbitration hearing.