May 17, 2005
On May 12, we had our second bargaining session for a successor agreement with S&P. The Guild committee included Local Representative Steve Zavatski and Unit Representatives Ed Fannon, Randye Gilliam, Peter Burke, and Joycelyn Braithwaite. Management was represented by outside attorney Steve Macri, and John Gillen, and Meghan Doody from Human Resources. It was not a surprise when management said it is not quite ready with its written proposals, which we were told would focus on changes in the language of its ethics and trading policies. Other than that, Macri said, “the Guild shouldn’t expect anything major from their side. We do need to discuss the use of emergency personal days,” he added. After a Guild caucus, the parties discussed two union proposals: vacations and the use of temporary employees.
During the last round of negotiations four years ago, when we agreed to changes in how vacation would be accrued and applied, we didn’t foresee that there would be problems. During the past three years, there was very little hiring done between November and February, mainly because of a hiring freeze. But, this year, S&P hired six or seven new employees who started work on or about January 1. These new employees (in effect) will work an entire year and receive only one week of vacation to be used in the same year they were hired. The Guild Committee has proposed a formula that will fairly compensate employees who start their jobs early in the year. Macri raised many questions about the union’s formula and said management was not ready to reject or approve it at that time.
The Guild then presented its proposal for having “temporary jobs” be made permanent if there is a continuing need for the function to be done. In our outline of the proposal, the Guild stated that any job/function that has been filled by a temp or temps for a period of six months should become a permanent job. Current contract language limits how long casual temporaries can perform bargaining unit work, but our new proposal addresses the permanent nature of what the company often times considers to be a “temporary job.” Management is considering the proposal.
Coincidently, the Guild recently found an employee who has been an agency temp working at S&P for more than four years. (This is not an anomaly; such things have happened here many times before.) The temp’s manager has been promising this individual a permanent position with the company for years. But, last week, the boss told the worker that her position may soon be eliminated. The Guild is looking into the circumstances surrounding this employee’s work history with S&P.
Toward the end of our session, Macri brought up what he said was abuse of the emergency personal day benefit. These are days that can be used for the care of a sick child or parent, for bereavement (extension) or for other urgent personal matters. Though S&P made it clear that it was not making a proposal at this time, management said it believes that some of our members have been abusing the personal-days benefit. The lawyer said that it should be used only in a true “911 emergency”—pipe busting, house on fire, etc.
The Guild team said it would take the company’s concerns under advisement.
The next meeting is May 19, at the Guild. We will continue you to keep our members updated on the talks.
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05/17/05