Quick response from management on sick leave

Well, that was fast.

Guild bargainers for the Composing unit brought a counterproposal on sick leave on Wednesday, and company representatives spurned it almost immediately.

The rapidly rejected proposal would have given Composing members 10 days of sick leave per year, and mirrors what’s on the table in Guild main-unit talks.

Composing members currently have no paid sick leave.

We also told the company that we are not interested in reducing minimum shifts for associates to 4 hours.

“The main concern is that it would continue to be an erosion of work for those folks,” Guild Administrative Officer Liz Brown explained.

Another “me, too,” proposal we made is to ask for the same 45-cent-an-hour raise that Guild main-unit members are seeking.

In a “housekeeping” issue, Times and union bargainers are hammering out the last details of overtime language, to reflect the fact that Composing members went from a 35-hour work week to a 40-hour work week in 2002.

We had proposed to get rid of the Memorandum of Understanding on competency testing. Times management had proposed to remove just the language on buyouts. Brown told them we think the buyout language should stay.

“Some people might want to take that,” she noted.

Times Labor Relations Director Chris Biencourt asked whether she meant that people were interested in bonuses for retirement generally, or only if faced with competency testing. Brown said she thought that it was the former.

Also under discussion was the possibility of Composing members joining the company’s long-term disability plan. Copies of the plan will be distributed to Composing members for review.