May 30, 2006

 

S&P PUTS A LIMIT ON TALKS

After two consecutive days of bargaining earlier this month had failed to remove major stumbling blocks to arriving at a new contract, Guild negotiators anticipated one more day of long, hard bargaining before going back to the membership with a tentative agreement or to explain why one hadn’t been reached.

 

Wednesday was the day set to do that tough negotiating, but union officials were surprised to learn, in an e-mail this morning, that the company was allotting only a window of five hours, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., for those talks to take place.

 

“I’m extremely disappointed that the company hasn’t seen fit to try and devote more than five hours to work through these difficult problems that are so important to our members and their employees,” N.Y. Guild President Barry Lipton said this morning. “I hope this means that S&P negotiators are prepared to come to the table ready to talk and make the kind of movement that will be necessary to arrive quickly at a fair settlement.”

 

Barry, leading the talks for the Guild, said the union remains committed to reporting to the membership on the progress, or lack thereof, at a meeting following Wednesday’s session.

 

Wages, and S&P’s proposed Personal Securities Trading System, which has dominated debate since the final months of 2005, are the two major areas of contention.

 

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5/30/06