June 20, 2006

 

LONG ORDEAL YIELDS

 “VERY GOOD” CONTRACT,

19.6% IN PAY INCREASES

OVER FIVE YEARS

 

After four days of meetings to finalize the language of the pact, Guild and Standard & Poor’s negotiators finally completed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) today that provides for compounded pay increases totaling 19.6% over five years.

 

The tentative agreement, reached late Wednesday night, June 14, and put into final written form today, calls for a 3.75% pay hike fully retroactive to April 1, 2005, another 3.75% increase fully retroactive to April 1, 2006, and a third 3.75% increase on the same date in 2007. There will be a 3.5% raise in 2008 and in 2009.

 

Ratification meetings will be held Friday. In order to accommodate the full membership, there will be two sessions. The first, for people with last names beginning A-O, will be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., and the second, for people whose last names begin P-Z, will be from 3-4 p.m. In both cases, the meetings will be held in the Riverview Conference Room on the 37th Floor.

 

There will be a separate meeting at the President Street facility in Brooklyn Friday at 11:00 a.m.

 

Copies of the entire agreement, including a copy of changes negotiated by the Guild that modify the company’s Trading Policy, are attached.

 

The tentative agreement has been unanimously recommended by the Guild Negotiating Committee.

 

“It was an exceptionally difficult negotiation, unlike most negotiations in the past at S&P,” N.Y. Guild President Barry Lipton commented. “The hard work and patience of the Committee, headed by Unit Chairperson Ed Fannon, and the willingness of the unit to stand behind the Committee, gave us the opportunity to come back with a very good contract.”

 

The company’s controversial Personal Securities Trading System, dominating debate since December, 2005, had been a logjam in negotiations. Particularly troubling was the company’s insistence on a 60-day “hold” on stocks before employees covered by the policy could sell them for a profit after purchase.

 

The company eventually reduced that demand to 45 days and an agreement was reached when, in the 11th hour, S&P negotiators said they would live with a 35-day “hold.” A number of other changes to the Personal Securities Trading System originally proposed by S&P were also changed in negotiations by the Guild.

 

The Trading Policy is limited to employees previously covered by the Credit Market Services Code of Ethics. At the Guild’s insistence, if the company seeks to expand it, S&P has agreed to negotiate any changes with the union.

 

In the area of job security, the tentative agreement includes new protections from subcontracting and an enhanced separation package should subcontracting take place.

 

As a result of the tentative agreement, Guild-represented employees would participate in the Performance Management Program (PMP). “However, we were able to convert S&P’s language to a form that is not all that different from the evaluation system we are working under,” Fannon said. “In doing so, we were able to fend off the most intrusive aspects of the system that McGraw-Hill put into place for non-Guild employees.”

 

The agreement also provides for:

 

·                    The inclusion of the S&P 400 and S&P 600 as additional investment options available to participants in the Savings Incentive Plan and Employment Retirement Account Plan.

 

·                    A commitment to annual discussions with the Guild regarding potential changes to the health-care plan.

 

·                    Premium increases for those employees “grandfathered” under the old S&P Indemnity Plan were minimized under the agreement until January 1, 2010. 

 

·                    An agreement clarifying the rights of Guild-represented employees in branch offices.

 

·                    A more generous vacation entitlement for new-hires, retroactive to January 1, 2006.

 

·                    More formalized restraints to control and limit the use of casual and temporary employees.

 

In addition to Lipton, who led the talks for the union, and Fannon, the Guild’s Negotiating Committee is comprised of Local Secretary-Treasurer Bill O’Meara, Local Representative Bob Townsend, Randye Gilliam, Andreea Popa, Joycelyn Brathwaite, Carol Wood, and Peter Burke. Sitting in on the final stages of negotiations were Local Representatives Anthony Napoli and John Phillips.

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6/20/06