Meeting called to order by President Henry Davis at 12:09 p.m. in The News’ auditorium.
President Davis puts the nominations of Guild officers, executive committee members on the floor:
The following nominations are heard from the floor:
President: Henry Davis; nominated by Kim Leiser
Vice President/Mobilization: Philip Fairbanks; nominated by Sandy Tan
Vice President/Contract Enforcement: Mark Sommer; nominated by Phil Fairbanks
Treasurer: Kim Leiser; nominated by Mark Sommer
Secretary: Keith McShea; nominated by Aaron Besecker
Executive Committee Nominations:
Renee Mikler, Beverly Gninecki, Alexa Finn (alternate), MaryBeth Pauline, Dick Fay, Bob Snyder, Brian Long (alternate), Felice McMillion, Denise Gee, Aaron Besecker, Mike Persarchick, David Robinson, Mike Harrington, Trey Bankhead, Susan Kelly , all by Phil Fairbanks.
Hearing no other nominations from the floor, all nominations are official.
President Davis informs the membership that there is an error in the NewsFlex package for Guild members. There is a hospital deductible in our base plan, that should not be there. The company has agreed to correct the error and for 2014 there is no hospital deductible for the base Guild plan or Plan 3 in the Newsflex package.
Committee Reports:
Grievances
Mark Sommer/VP: There are issues regarding a change in the hours of operation in the Classified Advertising Department. Changes will not take place until after Jan. 1, 2014, and the Guild is currently working through issues associated with this change of hours including the potential of a part-time employee not being able to work in the department.
Another issue in classified is regarding a returning employee in the department who the company is being overly critical and harsh to. The Union has been meeting with the Company to have management back off while she readjusts to new programs and rates.
In Inside Circulation, there is a potential grievance regarding work that was unilaterally removed from the Guild.
A grievance caucus will be scheduled in the next few weeks to discuss all the issues.
Tammy Turnbull gave a report on the Guild Holiday Party , which will take place on Friday, Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Century Grill on Pearl Street. Guild members are free this year; it costs $10 for retirees and $15 for guests. Jeff Simon’s Desk will be performing again. Tickets are available in every Guild department until Monday, Dec. 2, 2013.
Treasurer Kim Leiser gave the Finance Report and Budget review for 2013-14. Among the highlights are we ending the year with about $13,000 more than we thought we would for the year.
$177,000 is budgeted for next year including $75,000 for lost time and mobilization. The defense fund is at $638,000, up $9,300 since the end of the last budget year.
There is $668,000 in our treasury including the defense fund.
The meeting was then handed off to Timothy Cochrane from the Hennessey Group. Tim was our consultant on healthcare and in lieu of payment he asked to present a variety of insurance options that his company offers to Guild members.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.
Buffalo Newspaper Guild CWA Local 31026 