Guild proposes to protect two-job workers The Negotiating Committee made two new proposals, discussed the ongoing health-insurance saga and heard more saber rattling from management at contract talks held on Thursday April 5, 2001. In an effort to protect employees who are asked to do jobs for which they were not hired and to protect workers who are currently doing the jobs of both a salesperson and a graphic artist, the Negotiating Committee, which had previously approved the proposals, put them on the table at last Thursday's session at the Kingston Ramada. The proposals, which come under Article VI (general wage provisions) of the contract, read as follows: • No employee shall be required to perform duties that constitute, in effect, a double job, such as, by way of example and not limitation, reporter-photographer or salesperson-graphic artist. An employee agreeing to perform in such a double-job capacity shall not be subject to discipline for performance problems relating to any job other than their primary position. The Publisher shall notify the Guild, at the time of hire, of an employee's single job title. • The position of graphic artist/salesperson shall be paid at the rate of the graphic artist. All overtime performed in the graphic artist's role shall be paid at time and one half. All guarantees and incentives in place for salespeople shall remain in full force and effect for an employee working as a graphic artist/salesperson. Management, represented by Freeman Publisher Ira Fusfeld, took the proposals for evaluation before issuing a formal response, but did question the need for them, saying that reporters or ad reps who are asked to take pictures are not reprimanded if the pictures don't turn out. Fusfeld claimed many reporters and salespeople like taking their own pictures. "It facilitates the sale process," Fusfeld said. Guild Local President Claude Dixon has previously said that if reporters and ad reps were not pressed into service as photographers, the current part-time photographer, whom the Guild congratulates on the recent birth of her daughter, would need to be made full-time. The sides also exchanged information on the quest to find a replacement for NCAS, the insurance carrier handling the old Goodson plan, which is pulling out at the end of the year. The issue is a pivotal one for the talks, as the rate that a replacement carrier, if one can be coaxed into taking over for NCAS, has a direct influence on the health-care costs for MVP members as well, as what MVP members are charged is determined by what Goodson plan members are charged. Fusfeld reported that management has found a potential carrier, but the company hasn't given its final word yet, and that if it ends up costing more than NCAS, the company may seek at the table to pass along the cost to workers. A Guild ad-hoc committee is also looking for new insurance carrier, hopefully at less cost - and with better service - than NCAS. In what has become a tradition of these sessions since the first one in the spring of 1999, Fusfeld, who from the start has worked to lower the Guild's expectations of what the JRC will put on the table, warned of "the specter" of a possible recession hampering what the company will agree to. No date for a future session was immediately set. As always, the Negotiating Committee seeks your feedback. Contact any member - President Claude Dixon, Vice President Dan Barton, Vice President Patricia Doxsey, Treasurer Jonathan Ment, Blaise Schweitzer and Carole DiCicco - to put in your two cents.