November 10, 2005

NEGOTIATIONS MOVED

TO FAST TRACK

           

At the past few bargaining sessions with Standard & Poor’s management, New York Guild President Barry Lipton has been the Guild’s lead negotiator.  Lipton’s goal is to speed the process by tying up loose ends and bringing negotiations to a successful conclusion, we hope, by year’s end.  Scheduling conflicts between the Guild and S&P’s attorney have interfered with our ability to meet more frequently. However, we have planned three all-day meetings on December 5, 6, and 7, plus a tentative meeting set the afternoon of November 21.

 

At our twelfth meeting, on November 7, the Guild and S&P came to an agreement on language concerning the use of temporary employees.  S&P outside attorney Steve Macri admitted that the situation with temps has “run amok” and that the company is seeking to control it in order to “be fair.” According to our agreement, the future use of temporary workers will be limited to the following circumstances:

 

·      to cover a Guild member’s authorized leave of absence (including pregnancy related disability)

·      to substitute for regular Guild employees during vacation periods (up to 90 days)

·      to staff a special project (up to 90 days)

·      to staff a position that is vacant, has been posted by S&P, and for which S&P is actively recruiting (up to 90 days)

 

In order to rein in and more closely monitor the use of temps, S&P has promised to give to the Guild a list of the current population of temporaries and to supply us each week with a listing of all temporaries working for the company. We hope that this will put an end to the long-term retention of temps at the expense of hiring full-time Guild employees with benefits and with contractual job security.

 

To notify Guild members of open positions within the company, S&P agreed to provide the union with an up-to-date vacancy report, which we will disseminate to all members via weekly e-mail. This notification should help level the playing field for members who wish to apply for other Guild positions within S&P. Temporary workers can also be considered for the positions in which they’ve already been placed, although our agreement specifies that Guild members will have seniority.  

 

In other areas of negotiations, the company and the union have agreed to an enhanced vacation entitlement for new staffers during their first year of employment. It goes into effect January 1, 2006, and will not affect any current members.

 

The Guild and S&P discussed the company’s desire to merge its two 401(k) plans the Savings Incentive Plan (SIP) the Employee Retirement Account Plan (ERAP) -- and to change the administrator of these plans. (The company has mailed to all employees information regarding these proposed changes.) S&P assured the Guild that these changes would cause “no loss whatsoever” in benefits and/or entitlements to our members and that their sole purpose is “administrative.” Before agreeing to these changes, however, the Guild is waiting for additional information from the company.

 

All in all, the negotiations moved us closer to our goal of finalizing a contract favorable to our members. The following issues are still pending resolution:

 

·      the company’s demand for a Ratings Trading Policy,

·      the company’s concern regarding the use of the word “trustee” in Art. XVI, Sec. 6 of the Contract,

·      the company’s demand for enhancements in its employee evaluation process (the PMP) and for longer probation periods for new employees,

·      the company’s proposal to merge “orphaned” jobs into other security groups (For contractual purposes, the company has three job security groups. This will not change. However, H.R.’s John Gillen states that certain “orphaned” jobs are not contained within any of the three security groups and need to be slotted appropriately). We are waiting for management to give us a list of those jobs and the staffers filling them,

·      the Guild’s demand to extend the open enrollment period for health benefits pending the outcome of negotiations over them

·      the Guild’s demand to add options to our 401(k) retirement plan,

·      The Guild’s demand to review and discuss proposed medical benefit changes before the company enacts them. We are currently waiting for a counterproposal from management.

·      the Guild’s proposal to guarantee against the loss of our members’ fourth and fifth weeks of vacation, should a request for time off ever be denied (Though this has never occurred, the contract holds some ambiguous and misleading language on the subject, and that needs to be addressed.)

·      branch contracts (currently, the Guild has members outside of New York who are covered under a different,  but similar contract. The company has agreed to a “me-too” clause regarding economics so that these members will be made whole salary-wise. But we are still discussing what other benefits they are entitled to.

·      economic issues affecting wages and job security/severance (These topics are necessarily discussed last.)

 

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11/10/05