Our Final Press Release: Crisis Averted
For Immediate Release: Village Voice Union Resolves Contract Dispute, Much to Our Surprise (too snarky? probably this whole thing is too snarky... I'm still pretty mad)
Hello for one final time, other reporters:
The unionized workforce of the Village Voice, represented by UAW Local 2110, has resolved our contract dispute with management and voted to ratify a new contract. The members voted in the new contract on Thursday, July 3. That means we won’t be forced to go on strike. (We would have sent this press release out then, but we all know you weren’t checking your email on Thursday afternoon.)
How’d that happen?
On July 2, we were prepared to strike. On July 3, after a flood of press that was extremely sympathetic to us, management had a change of heart and offered us a contract that we can live with.
In a press release through their PR company, Hiltzik Strategies, management said the two sides had reached “an amicable and mutually beneficial agreement, which addresses the company’s business needs while strongly reinforcing our appreciation and commitment to our staff and their priorities.”
The main concessions management has agreed to are:
- An immediate raise of $25/ a week, with additional raises in 2015 and 2016.
- Dropping their proposal to slash maternity leave to the minimum legal standard.
- Paying childcare expenses for all employees with at least a year of service, regardless of whether they’re part or full-time.
- Paying us reprint fees when our work appears in other papers in the Voice Media Group chain.
- Preserving a free healthcare option, albeit one with higher co-pays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs than the one we currently have. To buy into our current level of insurance coverage, we’ll only pay 10% of the premium, or 20% for a top-shelf plan. Management previously proposed we pay between 48% and 52% of our premiums, meaning around $200 a month for basic healthcare. The new higher-level plans will begin at $45 a month for an individual, a much more livable proposal.
Management has also agreed to participate in a Labor/Management Advisory Committee, a group of workers and management representatives who will meet on an ongoing basis to discuss labor issues in our workplace.
However, there were some things we couldn’t get them to budge on. The most disappointing is that they still refuse to pay a stipend to our Diversity and Affirmative Action coordinator, the staff member who helps ensure we have an inclusive workplace by assisting in the hiring process. A staff member will still do that work for free, because it’s really, really important.
Oh also, because we know you’re going to ask: there will be no improvement to our damn coffee. We’ll drop it. For now.
And now, a few words about our feelings:
In many ways, this has been a bruising time. But in another sense, this has been a beautiful and unifying experience for our staff. The sales and editorial teams pulled together as a group to find our common values and our common strength.
It’s also been educational for the editorial staff. We were alarmed to learn about the work environment our sales and marketing team has to endure. They face long, stressful hours and extremely high turnover in sales staff members.
We want our sales friends to have a happier, better, more fair workplace. We’re hopeful that the Labor Advisory Committee will be a way to achieve that. We hope management on the sales side will take to heart what they’ve heard during these negotiations and work to make the changes their staff deserves.
In conclusion:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Thanks first of all to our dedicated union reps, Eden Schulz and Maida Rosenstein of UAW Local 2110, who threw themselves into defending our rights.
Thank you to our negotiations team, who endured many hours of meetings with management and diligently reported back to the membership.
Thank you to our strike committee, who organized our strike benefit and did a little office decorating.
Thank you to 99 Pickets, the truly awesome social justice organization who joined us during our walkout on June 30 and brought their Rude Mechanical Orchestra with them.
And finally, most importantly, our deep and sincere thanks to all of you: the media world, the union world and the city of New York. You’ve bombarded us with love and support and words of encouragement. It’s been incredible. We truly believe management wouldn’t have given us a fair contract without your help and your attention. We’d like to hug each of you individually, and we would, if this wasn’t New York, where people don’t appreciate that kind of thing.
To close, we’d like to share something that Stephanie Zacharek, our film critic and one of our shop stewards, said not long ago in an email. Stephanie is the true poet of our staff, and she crystallized this experience beautifully.
“Thank god for the union,” she wrote. “And when we finally get the whole thing ironed out — which we will, even if it’s painful — we’ll look back on this weird, harrowing experience and see all the really good things about it. It only reinforces my belief that the Voice, no matter how troubled it is, has this almost magical ability to attract great people. That’s why we’ll keep fighting.”
Thank you, New York. We love you.