Lexington Guild Reaches Tentative Pact after Year-Long Battle

After battling a long list of concession demands for more than a year, Lexington (Ky.) Newspaper Guild leaders are urging approval of a tentative five-year agreement at the Lexington Herald-Leader that was worked out with the help of mediation last week.  The local represents 90 newsroom workers who are set to vote on the pact next Tuesday.

The sticking points in recent weeks involved company demands that could have cut health insurance for part-time workers and overhauled personal and sick leave policies for everyone. Under the tentative pact, nothing will change in those areas for at least two years. After that, shifts in part-timers' insurance must be preceded by 90 days' notice and the company would have to bargain over any new leave provision.

The Guild also beat back other severe takeback demands. "The company had wanted to limit overtime, cut wages without bargaining with the Guild, gain the right to replace future employees with freelancers and temps and the right to layoff workers displaced by technology or new processes. It eventually dropped all those proposals," the bargaining team said.

In addition to staving off concessions the local maintained important benefits and won new ones, including what's believed to be the highest Guild night differential in the country -- $10 by the end of 2011 – and having the company pay 50 percent of COBRA health insurance benefits for 60 days in the event of layoffs. Other improvements include seniority benefits for workers who come from other McClatchy-owned papers, longer lay-off notices and higher pay for news assistants who write stories.

TNG-CWA sponsored radio ads and billboards explaining the issues and the local launched a community petition drive to build support for the workers, whose last contract expired at the end of 2006. TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said the local built a support network that was key to its ultimate success at the bargaining table.

"The Lexington Guild achieved this victory with the help of the central Kentucky community, especially the support of their sisters and brothers from CWA Local 3372 who pitched in with people, resources and solidarity," said Foley, who began her newspaper career as a copy editor at the Herald-Leader.