Small steps forward

Composing-room bargainers and Times management made modest progress on a few more items on Wednesday.

When we discussed the company’s proposal on part-time schedules for journey-level workers last week, we told them they already had the flexibility under the contract to schedule people to work part time if they want to.

After thinking about it over the weekend, management was still unconvinced.

They said that without formal part-time language, they’d be accused of playing favorites by giving some workers part-time arrangements.

Guild bargainer Dan Beaumont said that throughout the company, there are examples of people being given unpaid time off when it worked for both the company and the employee.

“There’s never been a restriction by the union for this type of action,” Beaumont said.

After further discussion on the impact that these schedules would have on other workers, and the way that priority would be handled, the company withdrew its proposal on part-time status.

To address our question about vacation for new hires, the company offered “bounce back” language explaining how vacation time gets put into employees’ time bank at the end of probation (BLUE is newly inserted language):

“10.1 Employees with six (6) months but less than two (2) years of continuous service will accrue one (1) hour of paid vacation for each 20.0 hours compensated, to a maximum of eighty (80) hours per year, of which vacation accrued by this formula may be taken after six (6) months of service. Once employees achieve six months of service, their vacation balance shall be credited based on this formula from their date of hire. If the new employee terminates prior to six (6) months, no vacation will be accrued or paid.

This describes how the system currently works. We agreed to add it to the contract.

We also discussed the company’s proposal to reduce associates’ minimum shifts from five hours to four hours, and the Guild’s proposal seeking sick leave for Composing-unit members.

The final big issue we talked about on Wednesday was vacation scheduling. The company withdrew its proposals to change the current scheduling system. Their remaining proposal would take scheduling out of the hands of the chapel chair and instead have a manager do it.

We’re considering their proposal, but want to ensure that the signup process wouldn’t change. Current contract language is going to need an overhaul in order to accurately describe the way things are done now.