1998 P-I creates a Webmaster position and Guild insists it be in the bargaining unit. P-I files a unit clarification with the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing is never held because of settlement.

February 1998 Guild, P-I sign “New Media Agreement,” to settle the Webmaster issue. The agreement is not included in the contract and does not have an expiration date. Content on P-I Web site is limited to calendars and other community info; no news appears.

1999 Renegotiation of the JOA frees the P-I to post news content on the Web site. Content produced by Guild members appears, while a newly created, unaffiliated department of New Media “producers” handles the technical side of seattlepi.com.

2006 P-I begins “Web first” focus. Staffers begin blogging, and the P-I offers training in the form of in-house classes on blogging, video, etc.

March 2006 Guild sends P-I official notification to terminate the New Media Agreement. P-I makes no written or verbal response.

May 17, 2006 Guild and P-I begin negotiations for a successor agreement.

July 2006 Guild and P-I conclude negotiations and achieve a successor agreement. Another New Media Agreement was not proposed nor discussed by either party during the course of negotiations.

February 2007 Managing Editor David McCumber issues a memo recapping the year of “Web first” operation, but says more is needed. “In order to be truly successful, we need to engage the Web First strategy throughout the newsroom…if you haven’t filed something to seattlepi.com recently, you need to think about why that hasn’t happened, and fix it.”

March 2007 Editor Julie Simon issues e-mail to staff saying that Hearst wants all its newspapers to grow web traffic by two to three times. In order to help New Media with increased workload, “some of the everyday production of the Web site will be moved into different newsroom operations rather than produced by New Media.”

April 26, 2007 New Media Manager Michelle Nicolosi issues “Breaking News Guidelines” to the entire staff, saying, “We need to view the Web as our primary publishing platform.”

May 24, 2007 Initial announcement of Online Reporter hire, with new duties beginning July 23, 2007.

May 31, 2007 Guild Administrative Officer Liz Brown contacts John Currie, P-I business manager. Since there is no New Media Agreement, Brown writes, the Guild considers the Online Reporter position to be a Guild-represented job. Currie, who is retiring, passes on responding and kicks it to Associate Editor Ken Bunting.

June 7, 2007 P-I representative Matt Lynch responds to Brown, saying the Online Reporter position is not a Guild-covered position.

July 2, 2007 Guild files a grievance over jurisdiction of the Online Reporter duties.

Aug. 29, 2007 Guild and P-I hold a grievance meeting over the Online Reporter grievance. The P-I maintains that the duties of an online reporter are different from those of a Guild-represented reporter. The Guild says they are the same, and the work belongs within the union’s jurisdiction under the contract jurisdiction clause.

Aug. 30, 2007 The Guild files a demand for arbitration over the Online Reporter grievance.

Sept. 6, 2007 The American Arbitration Association, which processes P-I arbitrations, issues a list of arbitrators. The Guild tells the P-I it wants to select an arbitrator, then schedule a meeting, requested by the P-I, to continue discussing the grievance.

Sept. 13, 2007 The P-I sends a letter to AAA telling it to stop processing the Guild’s demand for arbitration. In the letter, the P-I says it refuses to submit the grievance to arbitration.

Sept. 25, 2007 The Guild files a motion in U.S. District Court to compel the P-I to submit the Online Reporter grievance to arbitration under the terms of the Guild contract.

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