April 4, 2007
Coffee Break Tuesday
Friends,
Congratulations.
At just about every news bureau and Dow Jones location across the country, your colleagues turned out in droves Tuesday April 3rd to hear about the status of contract negotiations and to talk about the actions you and your coworkers are taking to drive home demands for a better contract.
Stewards and location Directors reported that turnout in several cities was the strongest they had ever seen for a union gathering. Ever.
The people who make Dow Jones work joined together to send a clear message about the need for fair health benefits, a fair wage increase and some real steps to protect us and the company from rampant, destructive outsourcing.
Union reps answered questions about the actions we are taking now to demonstrate how strongly we feel: ending a variety of voluntary activities including appearances on CNBC, WSJ video, webcasts, podcasts and radio broadcasts for WSJ and its affiliates, as well as reporters shooting video and taking photos to accompany web stories — unless we are paid for the work. We also reiterated that we will file for premium pay whenever we work on a day off— and, for those eligible, file for over-time every time.
The biggest question we got: What more can we do?
The newly discovered enthusiasm and dedication was inspiring.
More than anything, we sent a strong message to the company. We are unified and we are determined to win a quality contract. If the company gives us no choice, we are prepared to stand up for ourselves and work together to achieve that.
Steve Yount
President
Tom Lauricella
Vice-President
Jim Browning
Bargaining Committee Chair