CNI Staffers,
Fear can be a very powerful deterrent to not do something, but fear will never give you an accurate picture to make a decision – one that you have a LEGAL right to make.
Some of our colleagues have taken it upon themselves to tell you that you shouldn’t join the union. Their arguments are all based on fear, not fact. It’s also illegal for a supervisor to EVER ask you if you are for or against the union. Katie Klein and Sue Nord have been having those conversations. Sorry guys… nothing personal, but the law will be followed.
I know many of you have already been asked. These conversations are being documented and will be used in a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board. And to those of you who are doing it, it needs to stop. If you have, please e-mail me at denieslockwood@sbcglobal.net
At the meeting Friday morning, I heard… don’t make me lose my job, don’t make them cut my salary and don’t make them cut my benefits. I heard… don’t rock the boat. I heard… you are in the minority and we know better. I also heard a TON of inaccuracies.
Please, please, please don’t make your decision based on the information you heard and saw at these two meetings.
The truth is, it is illegal to threaten or coerce employees with losing their jobs, wages and benefits. If you don’t believe me, PLEASE visit this website. http://www.nlrb.gov/workplace_rights/nlra_violations.aspx
Also… we wondered the same thing about CNI losing money and one of the guild members asked a financial analyst, who owns stock in the journal said this…
“As far as I've seen, Journal does not break out the financial performance of the Community newspapers. With inter-company charges, it is pretty easy to make a subsidiary look unprofitable. The charges might be pretty heavy for Community newspapers within the company.
A better way to look at it is "how much is Community newspapers contributing to the bottom line of the company". They may as a unit be absorbing more than their fair share of corporate overhead and therefore still very important to the on-going profit of the
company.”
With the heavy advertising content, it seems that they should be profitable. It makes one wonder if the accounting is being done fairly within the company.”
Also… this business about JS losing money…
• Journal Communications owns75 community newspapers and shoppers in eight states and the revenue/expenses for these publications are lumped together in the annual report under a general line item of “community newspapers and shoppers.”
• In 2006, the community newspapers and shoppers had operating earnings of $7.1 million. That was up from $2.2 million in 2005.
• Operating earnings of the daily newspaper were $30.7 million in 2006, down from $41.7 million in 2005.
• Advertising revenue for all the websites -- JSOnline, MKEOnline, MilwaukeeMarketplace, Milwaukeemoms and the 25 MyCommunityNOW sites, increased 34.3% in 2006 over 2005.
• In the entire company there are 11 union bargaining units representing about 800, or about 15%, of the total number of Journal Communications employees. A majority of the fulltime employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement work at the daily newspaper. (The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild is the largest by far of the unions at the Journal Sentinel.)
• Dividends paid on shares of Journal stock were 65 cents per share in 2005 and 2006 when the stock price ranged from a low of $10.05 to a high of $15.96. The board of directors declared a first quarter 2007 dividend of 75 cents per share.
• The2006 annual report touts the “unrivaled neighborhood coverage in the greater Milwaukee area” provided by Community Newspapers and a new shared mail product, called Marketplace, launched by the Journal Sentinel.
• The company feels that having the Community Newspapers distributed free with the daily newspaper “should double their distribution in the communities they target.”
• In 2006, Steve Smith, chairman and CEO of Journal Communications, earned total compensation of $1.4 million. Betsy Brenner, executive vice-president and COO of the publishing group, earned a total of $640,387.
After the meeting, Cindy Wargula, HR and the person the union negotiates with for their contract, said the company did not say we would ‘lose’ our benefits and wages if we unionized because we would start with a blank sheet of paper. She would know, right, since she’s the labor specialist that NEGOTIATES with 11 unions, per the Journal Communications 2006 annual report. Betsy Brenner said 7, I said 8… guess we were both wrong… it’s more.
I told Cindy I felt threatened when the comments were made about losing wages and benefits. Am I the only one that felt threatened? I’d really like to hear if you felt that way.
She apologized and tried to argue semantics with me that they never said, “lose,” but they did say “clean sheet of paper” and that they would have to agree to pay the wages and benefits, but we as a collective bargaining unit also have to agree…. Anyone up for a decrease in wages and benefits? I told her we’d have to agree to disagree, but the damage was done to you, not me. I know the law. I spent two month reviewing the law before we ever started this. My hope is that you ALL know what the law is and use it during this very trying time.
Also, this business about to close or not close… Betsy Brenner said they aren’t going to close us down if we unionize, that they would close us down if we didn’t make money…. We’ll folks… didn’t they prove that to us with that balance sheet that said our payroll went from $380,000 to $790,000? Huh… was that accurate? And why are they telling us this now, when we are talking about unions? And did a union cause that deficit? NO….
My point is… that balance sheet does NOT accurately reflect our contribution to the company. And it never will because quite frankly, when Betsy Brenner said… Content doesn’t generate revenue… that truly made no sense to me whatsoever. Do people by papers, blog, listen to the radio, turn on the TV or go on the Internet for ads?
The bottom line… management would like you to use fear to make a decision on whether you should or shouldn’t join the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild.
The CNI union organizers think you are smarter than that.
