On Thursday, The News and the Guild relaunched its Labor-Management Committee after a year’s hiatus. The committee was established with great promise in 2009 but experienced limited success.
It’s our goal to reinvigorate the committee, which was envisioned as a collaborative effort to improve communication between management and the Guild and work on joint projects that will help safeguard The News’ ability to remain stable and profitable in the future.
“The LMC is meant to be a collaborative committee where both management and Guild members can comfortably come together to exchange ideas and work together on projects we believe in,” said Guild Vice President Sandy Tan, who co-chairs the committee with Human Resources Vice President Dan Farberman.
A total of 17 people attended the last LMC meeting, including nine managers representing every Guild department. Also present was Michael Maloon, The News’ new digital media manager.
The goals of the LMC are three-fold:
1. To provide the Guild with the latest report on the company’s actual revenues and expenses and information regarding future projections.
2. To develop and implement employee-training opportunities.
3. To provide a collaborative forum where both the Guild and management can suggest, consider and work on innovative ideas and proposals to help improve the company’s operations and revenues.
The Guild introduced nine different proposals, recommended by various Guild members, for discussion Thursday. Several proposals were met with interest, including a proposal that lets reporters more actively promote their work on TV and radio, and a proposal to launch a series of open, in-house sessions that can give Guild members a better idea of what’s being done in other departments to help grow The News.
“I’d encourage anyone with a good idea to let me know,” Tan said. “Without ideas, it’s hard to move forward, and we really want this to be an action-oriented committee.”
The LMC also received a summary of The News’s financial health for the first several months of this year from Chief Financial Officer Bryan Donohue. That information will be shared in greater detail at the Guild’s next meeting.
Buffalo Newspaper Guild CWA Local 31026 