What's the problem?

Times management and Composing-unit members exchanged proposals Wednesday, resulting in tentative agreement on several small "housekeeping" items.

While we reached common ground on the smaller stuff, we remain far apart on some major issues.

Chapel chair Rena Mefford took particular exception to management proposals to change longstanding practices that have been working well for the company and its workers, in some cases for decades.

These proposed changes include:

1) Changing the way vacations are scheduled. "It's worked well the old way for 100 years," Mefford noted.

2) Eliminating the practice of paying holiday pay for those who work on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

3) A drug policy that would require workers to inform managers when taking any medication (even over-the-counter medications) that "could cause them to be impaired in the performance of their job duties

4) Moving full-time workers to part-time work, "by mutual agreement."

5) Reducing associates' minimum workweek to 20 hours (from 25 hours).
We think these changes are unnecessary. The union's bargaining team has approached this round of negotiations from a problem-solving perspective, and we fail to see what problems these proposals would resolve.

Take the drug-policy proposal as an example: The average age of Composing workers is 56. Not a lot of wild party animals in that group, and they're concerned that this proposal could result in violations of members' privacy.

Times chief negotiator Chris Biencourt said that the intent of this proposal (and an identical proposal in the main Guild contract) is to ensure employees' safety. People on drugs that make them drowsy might be unsafe while driving or operating machinery, he said.

Guild chief negotiator Liz Brown pointed out that no one in the unit drives on the job.

Bargaining member Dan Beaumont added, "We don't operate machinery; we don't even use sharp knives anymore. It's like sitting in this room. We're a very safe group. You've gotta almost stab yourself with a pencil to hurt yourself."

Among the problem-solving proposals that we've offered is a\ncommon-sense plan to transition Composing members to a sick-leave policy that brings their benefit level a little closer to what other Times employees receive.

The Composing unit creates ads for the newspapers. They are under a separate contract from the main Advertising, Circulation, and News contract.