September 16, 2007
President's Report
The following is the President's Report IAPE President Steve Yount submitted to the IAPE Board of Directors on Saturday September 15, 2007.
IAPE Board Of Directors
September 15, 2007
President's Report
Obviously, most of our attention since the last time we got together in May of 2007, has been spent on contract bargaining and mobilization— all while trying to head off a News Corp take over of Dow Jones: an effort, in case you missed the news, that fell just short of the mark as some last minute News Corp money turned the tide.
We'll spend the bulk of this meeting talking about the bargaining and the company's offer of September 4th, but even before we begin that discussion— and regardless of how it comes out— we all owe a debt of gratitude to the bargaining committee. Jim Browning, Mark Melaccio, Vanessa Furhmans, Tim Martell, Bruce Nelson and Lowell Peterson contributed countless hours to defending the interest of their colleagues. We all owe them our thanks.
The same is true for those involved in mobilization. From Alex Frangos, spearheading mobilization in New York and coordinating activities in news bureaus across the country, to the premium pay efforts led by Tom Burton and his Chicago-based team to Pat Crowley, Phil Chan, Jena Clark, Mark Trebing and Tess Stynes in South Brunswick to Rita Graves and the new willingness by some long-suffering employees in Irving, Texas to stand-up for their rights to win some real improvements in working conditions.
These people — and scores of others all across the country — invested their time and made a difference. I will forever appreciate their effort and commitment.
Our efforts at union-building need to continue.. or more specifically, our efforts at IAPE-building need to continue. This union exists solely to defend and advance the interests of the membership. There is no other justification for IAPE — or any union.
Life as part of News Corp is going to be different than life as part of a stand-alone Dow Jones & Company. IAPE is going to be the only independent vehicle employees will have to defend their rights under the contract and continue the struggle to make this a better place to work.
"Making this a better place to work" has been an increasingly more difficult job with each subsequent year over the past decade and I expect it won't become any easier in the years ahead. The effort will require an uncommon committment. But that doesn't change the fact that we have to make that effort.
I don't believe there's anyone who is pleased with the Company's final offer. Almost everyone agrees that this package — regardless of the fact it's better than anyone else is getting in the newspaper industry — is less than we were fighting for — and far less than what the members deserve. But this is what is on the table. This is what our efforts at mobilization, organizing and action have produced. The lesson we must learn is that if we want more — we're going to have to do more. All of us.
Once this contract battle is over — whenever that day comes — those who remain active in IAPE will need to turn our attention to organizing the remaining unrepresented locations of the old Dow Jones and begin mobilizing for the contract talks of 2010.
We need to renew our MarketWatch efforts and begin reaching out to our colleagues in Chicopee. We need to fully integrate Harborside and MarketWatch and make a concerted effort to defend their contract rights. We must continue the efforts to convince reporters who work on their day off to file for premium pay-every time. We must press the case for reporter overtime. We need strengthen our network of stewards, address the disparity in the Dow Jones treatment of women and reach out to the Asians, Indians and African-Americans who are not involved in this union.
None of this is going to be easy — and we're not going to get all that we go after— but it's a battle that must be fought. And it's our job to do it.
Steve Yount
President
IAPE CWA 1096
September 15, 2007