GOOD UNION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NEWSPAPER GUILD AND HUDSON NEWS
(Hudson News is the company that runs the newsstands in NYC.) 2008-2012
Excerpts from 45-page contract. To see the full contract, contact one of your colleagues or blog admin.
“Section 1 -- Minimum Salaries
The following minimum hourly rates for each job group listed shall be in effect during the term of this Agreement...Effective upon ratification, all current employees shall be slotted into the appropriate wage level commensurate with their length of service with Hudson News. However, no employee shall suffer any reduction in salary or benefits as a result of putting this Agreement into effect.” (pg. 10)
“Section 2 -- General Wage Increases
On the effective date of the general wage increase in each year of this contract, each employee shall receive the general wage increase for that year, or the ‘step up’ increase due based upon his or her experience level for their applicable job group, whichever is higher. All wage increases due under this section shall be applied to the employee’s actual weekly base salary, inclusive of any merit pay or other salary increases granted by Hudson News.” (pg. 14)
“Section 5 -- No Pay Cuts
There shall be no pay cuts during the term of this agreement.” (pg. 14)
“Section 6 -- Merit Pay Increases
The Salaries established in this Agreement are minimums only. They do not keep an employee from seeking or Hudson News from putting into effect increases above the minimums to recognize individual merit...Under no circumstances shall merit increases be revoked.” (pg. 14)
“Section 11 -- Longevity Increases
Upon ratification employees who have attained 5 years of service or more shall receive the appropriate increase (which shall be included in their rate for all contractual purposes) as per the schedule below.” (pg. 15)
“Section 1 -- Named Holidays & Floating Holidays
An employee shall be granted holiday pay as specified in this article, for each of the following six named holidays and a day off for each floating holiday that occurs during his or her service with Hudson News: New Year’s Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas Day, and 1 floating holiday.” (pg. 18)
“Section 1 -- Length of Vacation
The following annual vacation with pay shall be granted … to each employee … as follows:
Continuous Service:
10 years or more - 4 weeks
5 years or more but less than 10 years -- 3 weeks
2 years or more but less than 5 years -- 2 weeks
7 months or more but less than 23 years -- 1 week” (pg. 19)
Health Insurance
“Employee contributions for the plan(s) shall be according to the following schedule:
Less than 1 year -- Employee contribution of 25%
1 year but less than 3 years -- Employee contribution of 20%
3 years or more -- Employee contribution of 15%” (pg. 21)
Sick Leave
“Hudson news shall pay sick leave to each full-time employee at his or her normal base pay rate who is absent due to illness, injury or disability...
Less than 2 years -- 5 paid sick days per year
2 years or more -- 5 paid sick days per year
5 years or more -- 6 paid sick days per year
10 years or more -- 7 paid sick days per year” (pg. 22)
“Regular part-time employees who work at least twenty (20) hours per week shall be entitled to pro-rata sick pay based on their normal work schedule and the schedule in sub-section a above.” (pg. 22)
The full contract also includes additional sections of employee benefits, including leaves of absence for pregnancy, bereavement, etc.
This is meaningless without knowing what they had before the contract. It's also impossible to know what Hudson News would have given them on its own.
ReplyDelete"It's also impossible to know what Hudson News would have given them on its own."
DeleteUnion Avoidance (aka "union busting") tactic #143: "You don't need a 3rd party, we can work this out on our own..."
Actually we do know that in this case, Hudson News lost their first attempt at gaining union representation after getting 2/3 of workers to sign union cards. This means that they had one year to work things out on their own, since NLRB rules state you cannot file for another election until one full year passes.
Obviously whatever they worked out wasn't good enough, since they won the next vote.
Incidentally, tactic #143 is right below #142 (Collective bargaining is SCARY!! Who knows what THEY will bargained away?!?)
...and right above #144 (Shop Stewards: Satan's representatives in your workplace).
- ESB Teacher
Interesting. What's wrong with making a fair comparison, instead of just throwing random articles from their contract out there?
DeleteI've been reading this blog and just so you know, it's a huge turn off whenever you resort to screaming "UNION BUSTING!" when someone disagrees with you. We teachers tend to appreciate logic and clear thinking, not scare tactics.
There's nothing wrong with making a fair comparison. In fact, I think this sentence is right on the money:
Delete"This is meaningless without knowing what they had before the contract."
The only reason why I didn't acknowledge it is because someone else down below already answered it. (Although Section 6 stipulating merit raises not be revoked and the part about pro-rata sick pay are meritorious enough on their own, for nothing else than to let people know the kind of things that *can* be in a collective bargaining agreement)
Anyhow, I agree that a blog posting that specifically points out how things were before and after the contract would be most helpful. Someone should make that happen.
"I've been reading this blog and just so you know, it's a huge turn off whenever you resort to screaming "UNION BUSTING!" when someone disagrees with you."
I'm sorry if you got offended. I may have gotten carried away. However, your entire comment is a red herring, since I made it clear that I was only looking to refute this: "It's also impossible to know what Hudson News would have given them on its own."
I gave reasons why I thought that was false, and you did not give any counter reasons. In fact you made a straw-man fallacy when you implied "screaming UNION BUSTING!" was a common occurrence (mine is the only comment I've seen that mentions Union Busting, and I certainly didn't use all caps)
Truth be told, I'm a little disappointed in the comments offered by non-supporters. Not your fault, I know, but you're the first one to even make an attempt at a comment that wasn't a total red herring. If you'd like to debate the original point about not knowing what Hudson News could have gotten on their own, I'd like to have it with you.
Respectfully,
- ESB Teacher
What I would find really interesting is if we knew what they had before and, for a true comparison, factored in the dues money that had paid the union.
DeleteThen we'd have an accurate picture that would show if they did better or worse, although we still wouldn't know what they would have received from their company without having a union represent them.
I'm not anti-union, but as my screen name implies, I'm skeptical that the Guild can do anything for us that we can't do on our own merits. If we are going to pay for a service (representation) it should deliver tangible results.
Is the Guild willing to put guarantees of better pay and benefits in writing?
The Guild cannot make guarantees because they have to negotiate with Kaplan. There are two parties involved in negotiating.
DeleteThe Guild will negotiate a contract for us. If we like the contract they are able to negotiate, then we vote in favor of that contract. ONLY AFTER we vote in favor of a contract, do we start paying dues.
I only plan to vote in favor of a contract that gives me salary/benefits that cost more than the dues. Otherwise, I'd be kind of stupid.
I think this is far from meaningless. It shows that the Guild can create a contract that doesn't result in a reduction of pay for anyone, as Kaplan would like us to think will happen. It seems like some longer term employees think a union will take away whatever benefits they've gained over the years, but this shows a contract that sets minimum pay, not maximum.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if the people selling your newspapers and magazines are entitled to paid vacation and sick days and have access to health care, shouldn't you have the same rights?
But you make a good point, because I'm sure their terms of employment are better after unionization. You should try to find out for us.
According to the lawyer for the Newspaper Guild, the Hudson News workers had no health insurance coverage, paid time off, consistency in scheduling, or assurance of job security before this contract.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAuthor asked to have their comment moved to a different section.
DeleteAre you sure this wasn't just censorship of a different opinion?
DeleteAnonymous, that doesn't make any sense ... half the comments on this blog are against the union. It's unfair to cry censorship.
DeleteI hope you're right and the union isn't trying to censor discussion. That would be very bad form.
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear ... this blog is not written, sponsored by, or affiliated with "The Union." This was blog was created by, and is written and maintained by a group of Kaplan teachers.
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You know what else is "bad form"? Pretending like you're a teacher.
Really KIC, is this the best you and your lawyers from Jones Day can come up with? Corny handouts, disingenuous meetings with people obviously paid to be there, and now posing as teachers on message boards?