The N.Y. Newspaper Guild Mayday Protest at McGraw -Hill

Thank you for Joining Us! 

The Mayday Guild Protest,Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 8:30am-10:30am McGraw-Hill Corporate Headquarters at 49th Street and 6th Avenue was a Huge Success!!

Guild members along with OWS protested CEO Terry McGraw's plans to move thousands of McGraw-Hill jobs, including a number of the 460 Guild represented workers at Standard and Poors, to India.

Call Terry at 212-512-6205 NOW!

Tell Terry to Stop Offshoring American Jobs

Read more at http://www.nyguild.org/

My Faith-Based Retirement

By JOE NOCERA

Op-Ed Columnist

JOE NOCERA

Photo by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

My 60th birthday is less than a week and a half away, and if there is one thing I can say with certainty it’s that 60 is not the new 50. 

My body creaks and groans. My eyes aren’t what they used to be. I don’t sleep as soundly as I did just a few years ago. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of doctors, just to make sure everything still more or less works.

I’ve also found myself with a sudden urge to get my house in order — just, you know, in case. Insurance, wills, that sort of thing. Sixty is when you stop pretending you’re going to live forever.

You’re officially old. Or at least old-ish.

The only thing I haven’t dealt with on my to-do checklist is retirement planning. The reason is simple: I’m not planning to retire. More accurately, I can’t retire. My 401(k) plan, which was supposed to take care of my retirement, is in tatters.

Like millions of other aging baby boomers, I first began putting money into a tax-deferred retirement account a few years after they were legislated into existence in the late 1970s. The great bull market, which began in 1982, was just gearing up. As a young journalist, I couldn’t afford to invest a lot of money, but my account grew as the market rose, and the bull market gave me an inflated sense of my investing skills.

I became such an enthusiast of the new investing culture that I wrote my first book, in the mid-1990s, about what I called “the democratization of money.” It was only right, I argued, that the little guy have the same access to the markets as the wealthy. In the book, I didn’t make much of the decline of pensions. After all, we were in the middle of the tech bubble by then. What fun!

The bull market ended with the bursting of that bubble in 2000. My tech-laden portfolio was cut in half. A half-dozen years later, I got divorced, cutting my 401(k) in half again. A few years after that, I bought a house that needed some costly renovations. Since my retirement account was now hopelessly inadequate for actual retirement, I reasoned that I might as well get some use out of the money while I could. So I threw another chunk of my 401(k) at the renovation. That’s where I stand today.

When I related my tale recently to Teresa Ghilarducci, a behavioral economist at The New School who studies retirement and investor behavior, she let out the kind of sigh that made it clear that she had heard it all before. The sad truth, she told me, is that I’m the rule, not the exception. “People have income shock, like divorce or loss of a job or a health crisis,” and those crises tend to drain retirement accounts, she said.

But even putting income shocks aside, she said, most human beings lack the skill and emotional wherewithal to be good investors. Linking investing and retirement has turned out to be a recipe for disaster.

“People tend to be overconfident about their own abilities,” said Ghilarducci. “They tend to focus on the short term rather than thinking about long-term consequences. And they tend to think that whatever the current trend is will always be the trend. That is why people buy high and sell low.” Financial advisers — at least the good ones — are forever telling their clients to be disciplined, to create a diversified portfolio and to avoid trying to time the market. Sound as that advice is, it’s just not how most humans behave.

That data starkly backs up Ghilarducci’s contention. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, for instance, only 22 percent of workers 55 or older have more than $250,000 put away for retirement. Stunningly, 60 percent of workers in that same age bracket have less than $100,000 in a retirement account. Ghilarducci told me that the average savings for someone near retirement in America right now is $100,000. Even buttressed by Social Security, that’s not going to last very long.

What, then, will people do when they retire? I asked Ghilarducci. “Their retirement plan is faith based,” she replied. “They have faith that it will somehow work out.”

I laughed, but it’s not funny. “The 401(k),” she concluded, “is a failed experiment. It is time to rethink it.”

In truth, I’m one of the lucky ones. I do work that I love, which requires no heavy lifting and has no mandatory retirement age. If I become incapacitated, I will have assisted-living insurance. Otherwise, I can keep writing till I drop.

But, for the millions of others who have discovered, as I have, that their original enthusiasm for investing was unwarranted, their faith-based retirement plan is all they’ve got left.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on April 28, 2012, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: My Faith-Based Retirement.

“Race to the Top” protest by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and the Writers Guild of America, East of reality production company Atlas Media for refusal to provide employee health benefits.

 

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, NYCCLC AFL-CIO President Vincent Alvarez, and an assortment of Labor and OWS activists joined the Writers Guild of America, East, (WGAE) Protest Against Reality-Show Production Company Atlas Media, and urged Atlas to join the "Race to the Top" by providing Health Benefits for their Writers and Producers.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, NYCCLC President Vincent Alvarez, along with members of IATSE, IBEW, CWA-NABET, RWDSU, TNG-CWA, SAG-AFTRA, UAW, and OWS joined Atlas Media employees and their union, the Writers Guild of America, East, along with WGAE President, Michael Winship, as they called on Atlas Media, a major reality-television production company, to join the "Race to the Top" and to provide health care for its employees. The protest started on Fri., April 27 at 10:00 a.m.

 Writers and producers gathered outside of Atlas's offices and staged an actual race along West 36th Street to demand that the company not settle for "last place" when it comes to employee health benefits.

 

Atlas, which has reality series on several major cable channels such as Discovery and Travel Channel, is one of the production companies that is a focus of the “Non-Fiction Writers & Producers United” campaign by writers and producers to provide health benefits to a part of the industry long considered to be the “sweatshop” of the writing business. 

You can get more information on this campaign on the WGAE website at; www.wgaeast.org  or by contacting Justin Molito, WGAE Director of Organizing at jmolito@wgaeast.org.

Gail Bynoe, Elaine Lindsay, Geoff Betts, Karen Young, and Ursula Lawrence were among the members of The New York Newspaper Guild, CWA Local 31003 represented staff at WGAE, that came out to support the WGAE bargaining unit at Atlas Media.

Guild Protests Offshoring by Standard & Poor's

MAYDAY CALL TO ACTION!

Join Members of The New York Newspaper Guild, CWA Local 31003 Protesting McGraw-Hill Offshoring Guild Jobs at Standard & Poor’s

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

8:30am-10:30am

McGraw-Hill Corporate Headquarters

1221 6^th Avenue at 49^th Street

Call McGraw-Hill CEO, Terry McGraw at

212-512-6205. Tell him to keep our jobs here.

Newspaper Guild Seeks New Contract

 By Marc Bussanich, LaborPress City Reporter

Robert Daraio (r.) with Newspaper Guild members Photo by Marc Bussanich

Robert Daraio, mobilization coordinator with the New York Newspaper Guild, CWA Local 31003, said that two journalists who write for the New York Times won the esteemed Pulitzer Prize this year, one for writing a series about corporate greed. 

The bitter irony is, however, that the New York Times Company wants givebacks from the 1,100 members of the Guild who work as journalists, editors, photojournalists, digital content producers, and security guards.

According to Daraio, the local’s members have been negotiating a new contract with The Times for over a year. On Wednesday, April 25 the local held a “dignified silent protest” outside The Times Center during the annual shareholders meeting to express their concern over the company’s lack of movement towards forging a new contract.

Daraio noted some of the contract issues at stake.

“The company wants to freeze the pension plan and replace it with a 401k plan that will result in a value loss of one-third to one-half for our members.”

Anthony Napoli, Business Representative for the Guild represented Times employees, said the company’s current pension contribution for all 1,110 members is approximately $10 million dollars per year.

Guild member outside shareholder meeting. Photo by Marc Bussanich

“With the 401k option the company wants to institute, current members with 10 years and over would get a five percent match from the company, while workers with less than 10 years of service would get three percent.”  

He also noted that even current workers, for example, with eight years of service would not get the five percent match after two years, but would continue to receive only the three percent match.

Daraio said while the company is seeking a three-year contract with no wage increase in the first year, a one percent raises in year two and a one percent bonus in the third year, the union has proposed a five-year contract with a four percent increase each year.

“Our members haven’t had been offered serious wage increases in the Times current proposal. Guild members took a temporary 5% pay cut in 2009 at The Times request to help the company during financially hard times.”

In addition to placing more of the burden on the employees to fund their retirements, the company wants to underfund the health plan. “The company hasn’t increased contributions to the plan for years,” Daraio said.

He noted that the industry-standard for health care contributions by employers is 12 percent, but the company contributes only slightly more than six percent. The union is asking the company to increase the rate to 12 percent over the life of a five-year contract.

Despite the request for concessions and givebacks from the union members, “the company paid out a $24 million severance package in January to a failed CEO, Janet Robinson,” noted Daraio.

Although the union does not want its members’ pensions frozen, it is trying to negotiate a deal with the company that would still allow it to contribute at current rates. 

“We are willing to work with the company to find ways that helps it reduce its liability and the plan’s volatility by possibly making changes in investment strategy or pension formula, but that expertise should be supplied by pension experts and investment professionals” Daraio said. 

Standing with Guild members outside The Times Center were six members of the Labor Outreach Committee with Occupy Wall Street. A member of the outreach committee said she was participating in the “dignified silent protest” with the Newspaper Guild because it’s “99 Percent Pickets” day, the beginning of the buildup for a massive march and rally on May 1 coordinated by OWS and the city’s multiple unions. 

    

marc@laborpress.org  
        

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New York Times Staffers Protest Contract Negotiations Outside Shareholders Meeting

The Huffington Post  |  By Katherine Fung

Angry New York Times staffers took to the company's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in a flagrant display of discontent with the paper's handling of contract negotiations.

Nearly seventy New York Times staffers formed "a silent gauntlet" outside the meeting, according to the Newspaper Guild of New York. The protest took the war between staffers and management to new levels. 

Employees lined up in the lobby of the company's Manhattan headquarters, handing out leaflets criticizing the contract negotiations. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., other members of the Sulzberger family and company executives had to walk past the staffers on their way to the meeting. 

Outside of the building, more employees handed out other materials and protested with a large poster that read “Without Journalists and Staff, The Times is Just White Space.” 

The Newspaper Guild wrote on Wednesday, "Local leaders say members are getting angrier by the day about the lack of progress on a fair contract and the company's continuing demands for a 10 to 15 percent cut in compensation – demands made while handing a $24 million severance package to a departing CEO."

The protest is the latest development in the increasingly contentious war over contract negotiations at the Times. Last week, staffers put out a new video speaking out against the company's call to freeze their pension plans. One staffer, Donald G. MacNeil, went on record saying that the amount he stood to lose from the change "is worth risking a strike over."

Note: Images of the Guild's protest outside the Times annual stockholders meeting added by Broadcast Union News.

New York Times labor reporter,Steven Greenhouse, shared his views on the Times-Guild contract talks with colleagues in a memo that the Guild members handed to stockholders as they entered the annual meeting.

Greenhouse holds no union position and is not a member of the bargaining committee or any other Guild committee. We thought his report was a clear, thoughtful, down-the-middle account of where things stand and what's at stake in these very important talks. So, with Steven's permission, we're making it available to all Times Guild members. - The Newspaper Guild of New York)

Greenhouse Wrote:  

 * "As someone who has covered labor negotiations for years, I was baffled why it took nearly a year for management to move beyond its initial draconian offer."

* "I fear that the anger in the newsroom will only continue to grow so long as the Times negotiating team sticks with contract offers that would cut our after-inflation compensation."

* "I believe the Times should work with the Guild to seriously explore some type of profit-sharing formula that would help hold down the Times' fixed costs while at the same time assuring that Times employees receive a fair share of any financial rebound that the Times
enjoys."

* "I have great respect for Arthur and the entire Sulzberger family for their whole-hearted dedication to maintaining the Times as the world's greatest newspaper. But I fear that the Arthur has been ill served by [Times labor chief] Terry Hayes and other negotiators who,
through their draconian contract offers, have shown considerable disrespect toward the newsroom."

Read the full text at: 

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/04/17/nyt-labor-reporters-take-on-guild-times-talks/

For less than 1 severance deal, Guild seeks Times pact for 1,100 - Newspaper Guild of New York

www.nyguild.org

 NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE

After Times management representatives indicated in the last negotiating session that there would be no contract without a freeze of the current pension plan, Guild negotiators today responded with a comprehensive financial package that lays out precisely what it would take to reach a fair labor agreement.

The Guild’s proposal would cost The Times far less annually than the $24.4 million severance package it gave former CEO Janet Robinson in December. In other words, for much less than it cost to pay out one departing executive, 1,100 Guild members would receive a year of fair wage increases and maintain their health and retirement benefits.

The proposal represents an increase of only $8 million to $10 million from what the company is already spending. And that doesn’t include substantial cost-saving steps to which the Guild has already agreed, like cutting time-and-a-half pay for the first five hours of weekly overtime to straight time pay, a 33 percent reduction. 

Here are the highlights of the Guild bargaining committee’s proposed financial package over the course of a five-year contract (every percentage point equals approximately $1 million): 

• 4 percent annual raises, including retroactive pay to 2011.
• A continuation of the current estimated spending of 10 percent of payroll for retirement benefits.
• A phased-in increase of 4 to 6 percentage points added to The Times’s longstanding 6.06 percent contribution to the Guild-Times health care fund, increases that would bring the company’s health care costs closer to the industry standard.

The Guild package also maintains its proposals on a profit sharing plan, additional personal days, family illness days and the faster accrual of vacation days.

The Guild has, from the start, maintained that all it seeks is a fair contract for Times employees. This proposal reflects that objective.

Staffers Rip NYT on YouTube

By KEITH J. KELLY

Photo by Luiz C. Ribeiro

In another blistering shot at New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger, the Newspaper Guild has released a slick video in which newsroom veterans blast the paper’s plan to freeze the pension plan and dole out minuscule pay hikes.

New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger

The nearly six-minute video comes as representatives of the Times and the Guild are slated to meet today in a bid to try and make some progress in the talks.

The unionized reporters and editors at the Times have been without a contract for more than a year.

The Times, after initially demanding a three-year wage freeze, is now offering a one-year freeze and 1 percent pay hikes in years two and three.

The Times has been looking to freeze the current defined benefit plan and move to a 401(k) plan.

Veteran science reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr.

“Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, as far as I’m concerned, is worth risking a strike over,” said McNeil.

A Times spokeswoman refused comment on the video.

NYT Journalists on Pensions, other issues

This memo was sent to New York Times staffers:

Subject: your colleagues on Guild pension video, now up on YouTube

A few weeks ago, the Guild asked a number of the paper’s journalists to sit down and talk on video about the negotiations, the issues important to them, how they feel about working at the Times, and so on.

The first video is finally ready. It is about several issues, but particularly about pensions: why they are so valuable, and how much the Times is trying to take from us by demanding a pension freeze.

The original target audience is inside our own building –members who may have doubts about fighting to save the pension.

But it’s powerful enough – I think – to be shown to any audience.

Please have a look – it includes David Dunlap, Jim Dwyer, Clyde Haberman, John Schwartz, Nadia Taha, Joyce Wadler, George Vecsey, Willy Rashbaum, Claiborne Ray, Erik Piepenburg, Andrea Kannapell, Karen Grzelewski, Jennifer Mascia, Kevin Sack and myself. Others also spoke and I gather the plan is to use them in future videos

Occupy Wall Street Occupied CEO of Praesidian Capital , Mark Samson's Office in Support of Laundry Workers Center Today!

CALLING ALL OCCUPIERS! 

 Join us for 99 Pickets leading up to MAYDAY 2012.

Tell CEOs Like Praesidian Capital's Mark Samson:

Do the Right Thing, Respect Workers Rights.

Today  representatives of Occupy Wall Street, along with union members from a number of AFL-CIO affiliates at 12:30 PM on the corner of 29th St. and Park Avenue, then filed into Mark Samson's office, the owner of the  Hot and Crusty chain, who has refused to respect the dignity of LWC members organizing in the workplace. 

Workers have demanded 

the reinstatement of Gretel Areco, a female co-worker who was sexually harassed and forced from her job.

Samson has refused to reinstate her out of fear of her continued organizing efforts and the power of the solidarity of workers at Hot and Crusty . 

Samson, who heads private equity firm Praesidian Capital, has also refused to recognize the workers newly formed labor organization, the Hot and Crusty Workers Association, and has terminated negotiations until they stop their public campaign. 

These brave workers have won historic gains in only a few short months, and need our support in showing Samson they are not alone! 

Workers from Laundry Workers Center dropped a letter demanding union recognition at Hot and Crusty. It was an action led by workers and for seven minutes the workers took their workplace. Great job to everyone! This type of actions led by real workers will move our movement forward. 

Today, OWS supporters and allies of LWC took back the offices of Praesidian Capital to demand the rights of workers be respected--or WE'LL BE BACK! 

FOLLOW UP:

Phone Banking Blast to Mark G Samson: 

                         212-520-2600 or 212-753-2614

“Recognize the right of the workers to form a union or association and negotiate with them now.”

 Goal of this Phone Banking: 500 phone calls by tomorrow afternoon.

When you call Mark Samson please go to our webpage (Facebook) and write I did it so we can follow up, thanks! 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laundry-Workers-Center/256385274415625?ref=ts&__adt=2&__att=iframe

Laundry Workers Center

 

‎Workplace Justice Campaign: supporting workers who have been mistreating in their jobs. We provide labor organizing trainings, knowing your rights and OSHA trainings. We also provide legal counseling on labor and immigration issues.

A Call  for 99 Picket Lines on and leading up to May 1st.

The 1% crashed our economy, foreclosing on millions of homes,destroying jobs, and wrecking our city budget. Enough is Enough. Another City is Possible, but we need to build it.

As we approach  May 1, we will be setting up 99 Picket Lines to expose, disrupt, and shut down the 1% who rule our city.The 99 pickets will be an effective way for people to plug into the morning activities on  May Day. A few other pickets will happen in the coming weeks to build for the May 1st, but the focus of this project is May 1st.  

This is an opportunity to fight back against austerity, union busting, the attacks on immigrant rights and the entire system of the 1% rule with a tactic and framework that is in solidarity with the mayday call to action.  

The recent General Strikes in Spain and Greece show us that when we all fight back together, against austerity we are stronger. The picket line is a tactic with a rich history.  It can be diverse and does not have to be symbolic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picketing_(protest).
 

How will we get to 99 picket lines?

Good question- We are off to a great start.  Right now, Unions, Worker Centers, community groups, and affinity groups are selecting and bottom lining targets.  We already have  over 20  locations.  We have an outreach plan to encourage many more organizations to participate.

In order to get to 99, but we need more OWS working groups and affinity groups to step up and pick a target.

Ready? 

Pick  a target you want to picket, ideally at 8 am on May 1, in midtown. Can you get at least 20 people to join you in picketing? Great! (We can help by publicizing your target, if you want. 

There will also be some upcoming trainings on picketing and mobile tactics) If you do not have 20 people, no problem.come to action spokes council to plug into existing pickets. Either way, You are also strongly encouraged to participate in the affinity group spokes councils and existing mayday planning.  

This tactic and project is in solidarity with the all of the exciting plans for May 1st. This action will be distinct but also compliment the amazing mass march from Union Square at 4pm. 

 If you would like to register a picket line and or have any questions or need support email99picketlines@gmail.com.

Let's make Mayday in NYC a day to remember!

Standard & Poor's; is Their Standard to Make Us Poor?

Standard & Poor's Management says final decision has not been made to outsource

The number of potential companies has been reduced to two; actions may speak louder than words

The New York Newspaper Guild met with management recently in a Partnership Committee meeting with Standard & Poor’s management to discuss the potential outsourcing of approximately 46 Guild represented jobs within Finance and Accounting as part of a McGraw-Hill outsourcing plan that could include sending thousands of McGraw-Hill jobs overseas..

Vice President of Finance Michael Twamley and Director of Human Resources Mike McGlynn did go on record to say a decision has not yet been made, but they also noted the list of prospective outsourcing companies had been narrowed to two, making it sound as if it’s not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen.

McGlynn said, "A lot of this is new to us.” We found this statement especially confusing since we were just told the company has been doing this since as far back as 2006!

In fact, Twamley told us McGraw-Hill has more employees working in India than it does in the United States.

Twamley was quick to point out the benefits of outsourcing and described his recent trip to India and actually said, "It's so well organized, there's thousands of people on a giant open floor and they are bussed in from their homes to work and back again, almost like a ‘people factory.’” He also went on to say, "A lot of these people are really very nice, you would actually like them!"

Really?

We guess being "nice" entitles these people to our jobs?

This thoughtless attitude further illustrates a lack of compassion and is a stark reminder that in the company's eyes, profit is MUCH more important then people. If the company were in trouble financially, maybe we could understand, but the company just had the second best year in the its history.

Corporate greed? 

Our goal at these meetings is to attempt to dissuade management from going ahead with the outsourcing or potentially offer possible alternatives to it. Management told us that the total salaries of those who would lose jobs if the plan goes through amounts to approximately $3.5 million and the “fringe expense” on top of that amounts to approximately $1.3 million, making a total of roughly $4.8 million. 

Management representatives didn’t have a cost for the outsourcing, however, which they said they would provide at a later date.

The union set up a meeting for all Guild members at S&P Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the Riverview Room at Standard & Poor's headquarters to discuss the situation. 

 Guild represented employees protested the outsourcing last week at the 55 Water Street Standard & Poor's offices.

Newspaper Guild CWA 31003 represented Standard & Poor's employees

DC 37, AFSCME Local 1455 members, with Local President, Michael Demarco, joined Guild members at the S&P protest.”