Feb.
18, 2009
Guild wins “spouse fee” case;
arbitrator orders refunds
Sun management violated the Guild
contract when it imposed a $75-a-month
“spouse fee” on top of health premiums,
Arbitrator Ira F. Jaffe ruled this month.
Tribune charged the fee if spouses of
employees were included in Tribune
health coverage and if the spouse had
other coverage available from his or her
job.
The Guild argued – and the arbitrator
agreed – that the fee violated contract
provisions limiting increases in
employee share of premium. The Sun
had maintained that the “fees” were not
premiums, but were similar to co-
payments or deductibles, which it has
the right to change.
Jaffe ordered The Sun to stop collecting
any fees in excess of the four-
percentage-point limit on premium
increases, and to refund the excess
charges to Guild-represented employees
who have been paying them. Employees
who paid the fees stand to receive
refunds of several hundred dollars each.
Also, Jaffe directed The Sun to conduct
a special open enrollment period for
employees who dropped coverage
because of the fee or who were hired
since the fee was imposed and might
have chosen a different plan.
This is the second time recently that
Tribune has attempted to impose health
charges beyond those allowed by
contract, and the second time the Guild
has won an arbitration ordering
management to stop the improper
charges and refund money. In the earlier
case, an arbitrator ruled a year ago that
management was overcharging for
dental and vision coverage, resulting in
refunds and in premium reductions of up
to $18.22 a month for some 200 Guild
members.
In pursuit of a plan that works
for all
A new compensation plan for most
commission sales representatives went
into effect Feb. 2 --- that, on average,
cuts sales reps' earnings by 40 percent.
Under the new plan, the commission
sales reps --- those folks whose work
keeps revenue flowing into The Sun ---
will be paid 1 percent to 5 percent of the
ad dollars they produce (the percent
depends on how well their book of
business did last year). On top of that, a
rep is eligible to receive $250 more a
month in each of four goal categories
plus another $250 if they make goal in
all four of those categories per month. If
a rep were to make every goal every
month, he or she would be adding
$15,000 to annual compensation.
The sales reps quickly did the math and
realized they were looking at a 40
percent pay cut compared with the old
plan. Guild leaders along with the reps
met with Labor Director Ann Barnes and
Sales Vice President Linda Hastings to
voice concerns of the employees.
Hastings agreed to meet with a
committee of sales representatives who
could make suggestions about the plan,
as well as review whether it is working
for the reps as they go forward.
Four Stars For Your Attitude
Adjustment
Since Sam Zell purchased Tribune in a
deal most adults thought was wacky
from the start, your colleagues in
Baltimore and across the country have
been bought out and laid off by the
thousands, your work changes virtually
every week, and your eyes have glazed
over with corporate doublespeak.
The great company you work for is now
in bankruptcy protection, trying to shake
off the hangover from a (over)
preposterous deal made possible only by
easy credit. Salaries have been frozen
for non-union personnel. B, the free
daily, has not saved us. The problems
are indeed dire for the newspaper
industry as a whole. But, as is the
Tribune management way, they like to
make things even harder by doing
whatever they can to irritate its workers
as much as possible.
The latest: We're talking about the
proposed performance evaluation plan
for 2009. The one that introduces the
totally subjective category of "attitude" -
- so that your manager will have to
consider how chipper you are, day in
and day out, while you fret about
whether you'll have a job the next day.
Sam Zell, Randy Michaels, Lee Abrams
have tried so hard to change the stuffy
corporate culture of Tribune's recent
past. But come on. You know you can't
change something as intrinsic as
employee attitude by telling people
they'll be graded on it in their
performance reviews. It's a little -- oh,
what's the word we're thinking of?
Totalitarian. Yes. Totalitarian.
Chairman Sam asked us to question and
challenge authority, to think critically
about what it is we do everyday. But,
one manager's critical-thinking
employee is another manager's problem
child with a bad attitude. In healthy
newsrooms and other work
environments, there are debates,
arguments, and yes, even heated fights.
Scoring for attitude will undoubtedly
cast a chill on employees' earnest efforts
to speak their minds, to speak what they
believe to be the truth. Cast that chill in
a news organization and you suffocate
its soul.
Another new wrinkle in the proposed
performance evaluation offers additional
proof that a paternalistic Tribune is more
willing to treat its employees like
children, rather than partners. Under the
new plan, a top "exceptional" rating is
worth "four stars" in each of the four
sections you'll be evaluated in.
Um, stars??? Really? Will they be gold
and sticky so we can stick them on our
notebooks, too? What's the point? So
Tribune is now turning to motivational
tricks that got us excited in the fourth
grade? When will our leaders show true
leadership that actually inspires a
positive attitude, without trying to
mandate it through our performance
evaluations and this childish star
system?
Bottom line: This new section on
scoring an employee's attitude is poorly
worded, overly broad and subjective,
and susceptible to misuse by
management. It's unprofessional and
simplistic -- not the kind of language
you'd expect from a company that has
thousands of employees engaged in a
serious journalistic enterprise. And the
stars just add more insult on top of
insult.
We'll be talking to Sun
management about this proposed
performance evaluation on Thursday.
Let us know what you think by
contacting one of your union reps.
Angie Kuhl
Bill Salganik
Gus Sentementes