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October 24, 2001 AGREEMENT
IS NEAR ON
DRESS POLICY
It appears that the New York Newspaper Guild and Standard & Poor’s
have reached an agreement on a dress policy. It was at
the Guild’s suggestion that the talks began shortly after we signed the
Memorandum of Agreement, nailing down our current contract. Up until
then the McGraw-Hill hierarchy would, from time to time, unilaterally send
out notices about Appropriate Dress policies and Business Casual Fridays and
Extension of Flexible Dress policies. Then, we had some managers attempting
to decide what was appropriate dress for their departments. All
of which, of course, should have been negotiated with the Guild. The
employer has an obligation in a union environment to negotiate such matters
with the employees’ bargaining agent. The
not-so-late, great Bob Temme, who recently escaped 55 Water Street, insisted
the dress policy had been negotiated with the Guild – he said there was
all kinds of correspondence back and forth about it – but he certainly
didn’t have any kind of signed document saying the union agreed to
anything resembling a dress policy. So we
thought it was high time we got a standard policy in writing, that
couldn’t be changed without further agreement by the Guild. Particularly
while the thinking at McGraw Hill was business casual attire as
opposed to mandatory jackets and ties for the guys and business suits for
the gals. Temme and
his successor, John Gillen, agreed. So we sat down to talk. And talk. And talk. What we’ve
agreed to (although it hasn’t yet been signed, sealed and delivered), is
pretty much what has been happening. When you get the policy, we anticipate it
will tell you that you “are expected to dress appropriately for a
professional work environment, whether you choose traditional business or
business casual attire.” “Traditional
business attire should be worn for client meetings, media appearances and
related public events, unless the meeting or event specifically calls for
business casual attire. It is unacceptable to attend these events in
inappropriate clothing or to be unavailable for such events due to lack of
appropriate attire. When customer receptions or corporation-sponsored events
are announced, the appropriate dress should be clearly indicated on the
invitation.” We’ve
agreed that appropriate dress will include neatly pressed slacks, collared
shirts, khaki-style pants, casual skirts or dresses, sport jackets, casual
shirts, dress shirts, golf shirts, casual footwear and dress shoes. Inappropriate
attire includes jeans, torn and worn clothing, athletic wear including sweat
pants and shirts, carpenter pants and overalls, shirts with inappropriate
messages or graphics, shorts, halter or tanks tops, Spandex (or other
form-fitting clothing), work-boots, beach-type shoes or sneakers and baseball
caps (other than Newspaper Guild hats). We probably
spent the most time quibbling about the mailroom where employees have to wear
those uniform shirts they so dearly hate. Try as we did, however, we
couldn’t shake management away from those shirts. We did, however, strip the
lettering, “Mail Services” off the shirts. (Our members got tired as being
referred to as mailmen on the subways.) And some of our members
didn’t like the fact that their names were written on the shirts; others did
like it. We were able to convince management to make the name optional. And, once
again, any changes in the policy will have to be negotiated with the Guild. Contract Books Coming Soon
Although, as we said earlier in this report, the
contract was nailed down several months ago, we still don’t have books to
pass out. That’s because they were reproduced in printing so small, it was
barely visible to the human eye. Management has agreed to have them reprinted
in a type size that can be read. We’re hoping to have them soon. # # # # # opeiu:153 10/24/01
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