Guild, Time Warner Unit Settle Magazine Workers’ Contract

News from The Newspaper Guild of New York

Contact:  Bill O'Meara: 212-730-1546

NEW YORK - The Newspaper Guild of New York, the union representing 400 editorial employees at Time and several other magazines owned by Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), said Friday that it reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with the media giant, ending an intensive round of negotiations that began last December.

Full details of the settlement are being withheld pending a ratification vote of members, who include writers, photographers and editors at Time, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Money, People and Sports Illustrated magazines.

But the settlement with Time Warner's magazine unit, Time Inc., does include guaranteed wage increases in each of the three years of the agreement and several other significant improvements from the "last, best and final offer" it gave Guild negotiators moments before the previous contract expired on midnight, March 22.

"The company had been insisting on a 'merit-only' wage system that would have effectively ended fair and equitable pay raises for all of the employees whose work has contributed to the success of its magazines," New York Guild President Bill O'Meara said. "It was a long time in coming, but Time Inc. finally agreed on across-the-board guaranteed increases in each year of the contract."

The new contract would run through Jan. 31, 2010. As part of the settlement, the Guild and Time Inc. also resolved a dispute before the National Labor Relations Board in which the union had filed an unfair labor practice charge accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith. The Guild will ask the NLRB to withdraw the charge.

After receiving the company's "last, best and final offer" on March 22, the union put the proposal to a vote of its members with a recommendation from its rank-and-file negotiating committee that it be rejected. Guild members responded with a unanimous 133-0 vote to turn down the offer.

O'Meara commented: "I firmly believe that the overwhelming rejection by the membership is one of the major reasons Time Inc. officials sat up, took notice and moved off their 'last, best and final offer.' If our members hadn't shown they were behind us in such dramatic fashion, I don't believe the company would have returned to the table with such an eye toward reaching an acceptable agreement."

The New York Guild, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America , represents 3,300 employees at several media companies besides Time Inc., including The New York Times, Standard and Poors, Reuters, WPIX-TV and Consumers Union.