It’s been busy on the bargaining front this summer, and not just with our own contracts.

While I’ve negotiated new contracts at the Skagit Valley Herald and the State Department of Printing, I’ve also been attending negotiations between The Seattle Times and Teamsters locals 763 and 174. More about that later.

Here are highlights of the recent agreements:

Skagit: Our bargaining team in Mount Vernon achieved a major milestone this year. For the first time, the contract which covers the newsroom will have a minimum wage scale. The contract lacked one before because the employer had steadfastly resisted the ideas of setting minimums. As a result, starting employees had to negotiate their beginning pay rates in the dark. The results weren’t always fair.

Because of the new scale, two sorely underpaid employees received increases of more than $1 per hour. Everyone else received a raise of 3 percent this year, while increases in 2008 and 2009 will be 2.625 percent.

In addition to the guaranteed increases, employees will have the opportunity to earn merit pay in 2008 and 2009. The members wanted to give the new merit program a try, but they weren’t willing to go along with the publisher’s desire for a longer contract.

The union bargaining team included Copy Editor Bronlea Hawkins, Reporter Franny White and Reporter James Geluso. When Geluso left midstream to accept a new job in California, Hawkins stepped up to replace him as unit chair.

Department of Printing: Negotiations here were very different this year.

Our Pre-Press team—Chapel Chair John Smith, Paul Gisi and me—bargained jointly with Teamsters Local 767M, which represents the DOP’s press, bindery and copy center employees. The joint teams were bargaining two Teamster and one CWA contract all at once.

That had its challenges, but the benefits were huge in terms of increased solidarity. In terms of money, the employees will receive raises of 3 percent this year, 3 percent next year and a minimum of 2 percent in each of the following two years. However, if other state employees receive more than 2 percent in 2009 and 2010, our members will get what they get.

Times: Our two contracts at the Times don’t expire until next summer. But this year, all the unions at the newspaper decided to increase our solidarity—and hone our strategy—by attending each other’s negotiations.

Both I and Darryl Sclater, who’s been working in our office while on leave from the Times, have attended negotiating sessions for the Teamsters 763 contracts (both the single-copy unit and the mailer unit) and the Teamsters 174 contract (the big truck drivers). Later this summer, we’ll attend negotiations for GCC-Teamsters Local 767m (the press employees).

All the unions except Teamsters 174 accepted a two-year wage freeze. This year, Teamsters 763 did receive increases. The details are up on our web blog at www.pnwguild.org.

It’s a significant commitment of time to attend other unions’ negotiations, and I believe it’s worth it. We’re becoming more familiar with all our agreements, and we’re talking about how to tackle issues in concert.

Future file: Other Local 37082 contracts up for negotiation this year include Kitsap Sun Composing and News; the Daily Journal of Commerce; the Daily News in Longview and Trade Printery in Seattle.

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