June 12, 2006

3% GUILD SALARY INCREASE TRIGGERS JUNE 12

Under the terms of the 2004-2008 Newspaper Guild contract with Scholastic, all employees covered by the Guild contract and who are on staff on June 12 will receive a 3 percent raise, based on their salaries as of June 11, 2006. But please remember, the June 16 check covers the previous two weeks of service, not the week of June 12. So the Guild raise will not appear in your pay until the June 30 check.

The contract also requires another 3 percent salary increase in June 2007. When compounded over the life of the four-year pact, raises total 12.55 percent.

DON’T CONFUSE “MERIT” WITH GUILD INCREASE

 

In September 2003, management sent out a memo stating that Guild members were not eligible for merit raises because they had received the Guild increase earlier in the year. New York Guild president Barry Lipton and Scholastic Unit Chair Peter Jones met with management and had this exclusion rescinded. The contract between the Guild and Scholastic now states: “The company will not exclude Guild-represented employees, as a class, from the receipt of merit pay.”

Mandatory reports to the Guild will ensure that the company does not exclude employees from merit increases simply because they are Guild members.

NOTE: The contract allows management to grant Guild-level wage increases to some editors and art directors before such increases are granted to other Guild-covered employees. These employees are not entitled to a second raise on June 12 if they have already received at least a 3 percent increase in salary.

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06/12/06