WSJ Photo Editors Win!

NLRB Says Photo Eds Have The Right To Hold Union Election

Nearly nine months after the conclusion of a hearing into the question of their union eligibility, Photo Editors and Lead Photo Editors at The Wall Street Journal learned today that the National Labor Relations Board has directed an election to be held so they may be represented by IAPE TNG-CWA Local 1096.

The mail-ballot representation election must be concluded by Sept. 8, 2023, almost one year to the day after Photo Editors first filed an NLRB petition to be represented by IAPE.

In his decision, NLRB Regional Director John D. Doyle Jr. wrote that the election will apply to “All full-time and regular part-time photo editors and lead photo editors, including features photo editors, lead features photo editors, and news photo editors.”

The Regional Director rejected arguments by the company that Photo Editors and Lead Photo Editors are supervisory employees.

Today’s ruling is an ENORMOUS victory and would not have been accomplished without the solidarity of our Photo Editor and Lead Photo Editor colleagues, the leadership of IAPE Organizer Marissa Dadiw, and the guidance and presentation of the union’s case at the Labor Board by counsel for the union, Adam Bellotti from the Washington firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser.

When we fight, we win!

Bargaining Update: Responses to Various Proposals

IAPE and Dow Jones representatives met again yesterday. No new proposals were exchanged. IAPE provided Dow Jones with responses to the company’s Proposals #2 and #3. Some topics of discussion yesterday included:

• Eligibility for Increases

• Notice of Meetings (for Disciplinary/Investigatory meetings involving IAPE employees)

• Change in probation period from 9 to 6 months

• Retraining allowance

• Retirement Severance

• Amendment to Article XX - Nondiscrimination

IAPE withdrew the following proposals:

• Revision of Rehire section to increase rehire rights from one month to six months.

• Payment upon discharge for cause

• Increase severance payment when the company is sold or employee is transferred to a new company from half to full

IAPE and Dow Jones have agreed to the following tentative agreement:

• Process for applying for an available position (Art. VI(J))

Dow Jones has yet to provide their wage or benefits proposal. IAPE reiterated the importance of a wage proposal to our members and pointed to the approaching end of the contractual 60-day extension, which expires at the end of August. 

Bargaining has been canceled for Thursday (7/27) due to the company and IAPE’s regular monthly joint committee meeting and will resume next Tuesday (8/1). 

Bargaining Town Hall Reminder
IAPE will host two virtual town hall sessions on Monday, August 7th at 2pm ET and 6pm ET. We will provide updates on bargaining, discuss how members can get involved and answer any questions you may have about bargaining.

You can sign up to attend on the Events page on our website. 

Bargaining Update: Job Security Discussion

IAPE and Dow Jones representatives met yesterday for a negotiation session centered around select issues regarding job security. 

Management presented IAPEwith their Proposal #3, and maintained their existing proposals from other sessions were still on the table.

The company withdrew their original proposal of using merit, instead of seniority, as the first criteria for layoffs. As an alternate option, they proposed extending the window for which recent hires would be considered to have equal seniority from the first 2 years of employment to 5 years. This would result in all employees within their first 5 years of employment having the same seniority, which would allow the company to pick anyone within that pool of employees for layoffs first. They would then use merit as the secondary decision-maker to decide which employees within the pool of 5 years would be laid off. The company also made claims that this would help diversity efforts as they believe more diverse employees are typically the least senior and would benefit from the larger pool of employees. 

The current contract also states that any employee(s) having 2 years or more of service shall be deemed to have the same seniority status as any other Employee(s) whose hire date is within 1 year. The company’s proposal is to increase the 1-year band to a 5-year band, again using merit as the second criteria. 

Four of the company’s original proposals remain unchanged: volunteer process, process for applying for an available position, layoffs involving outsourcing and department head list.

In response to IAPE’s proposals regarding job security, the company is not interested in lowering the length of the probationary period from 9 months to 6 months. However, the company is  willing to accept IAPE’s proposal that a notice to employees regarding the probationary period be included in all offer letters. 

The company also agreed to increase retraining allowances by $1000 for each benefit level. IAPE is still waiting on documentation from the company illustrating the use of the retraining programs. 

The company rejected the following IAPE proposals:

• Require payment upon discharge for cause

• Expand rehire rights from 1 month to 6 months

• Modification of contract definitions or application of location or department

• Bumping rights

• Providing access to company systems after layoff to retrieve personal files

• Modification of existing language regarding sale of business unit severance

• Employee option for a retirement payment

• Modification of contract in regards to temporary employees

In our previous bargaining session, the company expressed their lack of interest in IAPE’s proposals to expand the terms under Article XX- Nondiscrimination. Yesterday they provided the union a counterproposal to add the existing anti-harassment language from the company’s global anti-harassment policy to the collective bargaining agreement with IAPE. 

As always, if you have any questions or are interested in getting more involved with our Contract Action Team, email us at union@iape1096.org.

Bargaining Town Hall Reminder!
IAPE will be holding town hall meetings on Monday, August 7 from 2:00-3:00pm EDT and from 6:00-7:00pm EDT. Please see our Events page to sign up to attend.

Election Nominations
Not only is this year a bargaining year, but it is also an election year. 

The nomination window is currently open. Details about the election process and nomination form can be found on our website here.

So far, the following nominations have been verified and accepted:

• Austen Hufford for Treasurer

• Laura Casey for Location Director-Northeast

• Ted Mann for Location Director- Southeast

• Jess Bravin for Location Director- Southeast

• Stephanie Armour for Classification Director-News 

These nominees have been posted to the IAPE website. Additional nominees will be posted upon verification and acceptance of their nomination.

Bargaining Update: A Short Session and Plans for Next Week

IAPE and Dow Jones representatives met Thursday for a brief negotiation session. Management responded to the union’s “Additional Issues” document from July 5, but no new proposals were exchanged.

Addressing IAPE health and safety proposals to require minimum air quality standards at all locations, Dow Jones offered explanations demonstrating the company is meeting many of the union’s demands in its largest U.S. offices: New York, Princeton, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington.

“We occupy class-A premium buildings, which practice industry standards as far as health and safety,” they said.

In response to IAPE’s proposal for non-gendered bathrooms, Dow Jones informed the union that a “bathroom refresh” is underway in New York and it identified potential bathroom solutions in Princeton and Washington. San Francisco already has gender-neutral facilities.

Despite indicating that agreeing to IAPE proposals would not cause a hardship for the company, Dow Jones representatives said they saw no reason to include such protections within the four corners of the contract.

“This is something that we have been and will continue to do,” they said. A similar answer was delivered in response to the union’s safety transfer proposal. The company also objected to including new DEI requirements in the contract.

The Dow Jones team did say it plans to respond to IAPE’s proposal to add anti-harassment language to the collective agreement. Management expects to propose contract language similar to terms which already exist in the company’s anti-harassment policy.

On artificial intelligence, Dow Jones confirmed that News management has created a task force to review the effects of AI, and identified three IAPE-represented journalists participating in the committee.

IAPE and Dow Jones agreed to discuss the union’s job classification and pay tier proposals in a separate sub-committee.

The company and the union also agreed to spend the next bargaining session, scheduled for Tuesday, July 18, discussing issues related to job security. The company’s opening proposal from June 13 called for merit to be the “first criterion” when selecting employees for layoff. The union has several proposals intended to strengthen job security.

Next Month: IAPE Town Hall Meetings
The contract between IAPE and Dow Jones has automatically extended past its June 30 expiration date and remains in effect until through August 30. To discuss this and other contract matters, the IAPE Bargaining Committee has scheduled two virtual Town Hall meetings on Monday Aug. 7.

Meeting times are 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. EDT. To attend, please register to receive your Zoom login at https://engage.iape1096.org/iape-upcoming-events.html.

Contract Trivia: Incentive Plan Changes
Congratulations to Princeton member Mel Ross, the latest winner of our 2023 trivia contest and a $50 prize. Mel’s entry was selected from several correct responses to our June 30 question about our layoffs, and job title grouped together for purposes of determining seniority protection. Mel knew that the three titles listed in the contract and considered to be the same classification at times of layoff are Reporter, Special Writer and Senior Special Writer (see Article VI - Job Security, Section F).

Mel and other faithful trivia contest participants likely noticed IAPE did not email a new trivia question last week. Officers and staff have been a little busy planning for negotiations and other union committee meetings. We have also started to review changes to incentive plans for our members working in Sales departments. Under the current contract, the company must provide employees and the union with advance notice of changes to sales plans before those changes may take effect—which brings us to this week’s question:

How many days’ notice must be given to the Union before management may finalize changes to any incentive plan?

Email your response to union@iape1096.org. If you are not certain of the answer, scroll through our contract posted on the IAPE website to find the relevant section. Members in good standing* will have until Thursday at midnight  to find the answer within the current collective agreement between IAPE and Dow Jones, and email that answer back to us. Next Friday, one winner will be selected at random from all the correct responses, and that winning member will receive a $50 prize from IAPE.

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*The IAPE contract trivia question is a weekly contest for members of the IAPE/DJ bargaining unit in the United States and Canada, working under the terms of the collective agreement between Dow Jones & Company Inc. and the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (IAPE) TNG/CWA Local 1096, AFL-CIO,CLC, in effect from July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023. IAPE officers, IAPE directors, IAPE staff, fee-paying non-members and non-members in right-to-work states (or new employees not yet paying dues to IAPE) are not eligible for prizes. Contest period lasts through 11:59 PM Eastern Time each Thursday. On Friday, one winner will be selected from the previous week’s correct answers by a random drawing. Winners are limited to one prize every thirty days.

Bargaining Update: What’s Important?

IAPE and Dow Jones representatives met Wednesday morning for a brief, post-holiday session of contract negotiations. IAPE presented its second set of proposals, a document addressing “additional issues” referenced in the union’s June 13 presentation.

The union’s proposals seemed to frustrate management. While they pledged to review yesterday’s IAPE document and provide fulsome responses, Dow Jones representatives complained the additional proposals added on to an already large docket of bargaining proposals. They signaled that IAPE should “start thinking of what is important” in negotiating a new agreement.

The latest IAPE proposal calls for strict monitoring of air quality at Dow Jones office locations, enhancements to the existing Nondiscrimination section of the collective agreement, and changes to introductory pay tiers for several job titles.

Management recognized the significance of topics such as DEI, anti-harassment, and the health and safety of employees, but also suggested that the sentiment of these union proposals was already addressed “on a corporate level”. We would love to trust management, but we have been down this road before. Despite previous IAPE calls for a more diverse workforce, we continue to see disparities when Dow Jones pay practices are analyzed.

We make no apologies for presenting proposals intended to provide certainty, clarity and a requirement to negotiate changes to terms and conditions of employment. This is true whether we are discussing DEI, health and safety, or contractual protections against changes to health insurance and other employee benefits.

Negotiated contract guarantees matter.  Being able to point to hard-won provisions in a collective agreement to know exactly what we are—or are not—entitled to is exactly what is important to this union.

IAPE and Dow Jones will return to the bargaining table next Thursday, July 13. In the meantime, we would love to know what you think of these contract proposals. Send all feedback to union@iape1096.org.

It’s Election Time Again

In case you missed the news on Friday, the IAPE Elections Committee is inviting nominations for the 2023 IAPE election of officers and members of the union Board of Directors. Under the rules established for this election, nominations will remain open until Sept. 1.

Elections for contested positions will be conducted by mail ballot in November. The term of office for the next IAPE Board will begin on Dec. 1 and will last through Nov. 30, 2026.

Positions on the IAPE Board, defined in the union’s Bylaws, ensure representation for all IAPE-represented employees according to their geographic region and their job classification. IAPE Location Directors represent members from seven regions: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Northwest and Canada.

The IAPE Board also includes three Classification Director positions—one each for News, Technology and Sales/Administrative areas of the IAPE bargaining unit.

At the top of the ticket are four officer roles: President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.

Any member in good standing may run for election for any position for which they are eligible. All members are eligible for officer positions, but in order to run for, or nominate another member for, one of our location or classification positions, a member must be employed in a region or title associated with the directorship.

For example, a Northeast Director must be employed in the area between Boston and New York. A Midwest Director must work in or around Detroit or Chicago. Northwest Directors work in the region between San Francisco and Seattle.

Members who have questions about eligibility for a particular position can contact the IAPE Elections Committee. This year’s committee is chaired by Louise Radnofsky, with fellow members Stephen Nakrosis and Jan Wolfe, and IAPE staff support from Kaitlyn Frarey.

Happy Holidays!
Very best wishes to our members living and working in the United States for a safe and happy Independence Day holiday tomorrow. And to our members in Canada, we hope you enjoyed Canada Day on Saturday!

If you are ever required to work on a contract-recognized holiday—or on a day observed by the federal government as a holiday—you are entitled to Holiday Pay. That’s 1.5X pay for your regular hours and 2X pay for any additional hours worked on that day. File for your time in Workday!

In addition to your Holiday Pay, you are entitled to a day off in lieu of the holiday, or an extra day’s pay. For any holidays in 2023 after today—July 3—the choice between a day or a day’s pay is yours!

For assistance filing for your pay, please contact the IAPE office.

Contract Trivia: Layoffs (Again)

Congratulations to New York member Natalia Barr, the latest winner of our 2023 trivia contest and a $50 prize. Natalia’s entry was selected from several correct responses to last week’s question about our contract’s Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) provision. Natalia knew that the maximum “extra” COLA increase allowable when inflation exceeds negotiated pay raises is 0.75%, with all numbers rounded to two decimal places (see Article IV - Compensatory Increase, Section D).

That’s definitely a contract benefit we want to improve upon this year.

Also a priority for IAPE is improving upon the contract’s job security provisions, especially in light of the ten new layoff notices Dow Jones delivered to the union during the past week. These latest cuts bring the total number of IAPE-represented positions lost through layoff in 2023 to 52.

Current IAPE contract proposals call for changes in how seniority protection is defined. Currently, seniority is determined according to an employee’s hire date, relative to others in an affected job classification, in a department and at a location. A “job classification” generally means a single job title, but not always.

During layoffs at Dow Jones, which three job titles are considered to be the same classification?

Email your response to union@iape1096.org. If you are not certain of the answer, scroll through our contract posted on the IAPE website to find the relevant section. Members in good standing* will have until Thursday at midnight  to find the answer within the current collective agreement between IAPE and Dow Jones, and email that answer back to us. Next Friday, one winner will be selected at random from all the correct responses, and that winning member will receive a $50 prize from IAPE.

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*The IAPE contract trivia question is a weekly contest for members of the IAPE/DJ bargaining unit in the United States and Canada, working under the terms of the collective agreement between Dow Jones & Company Inc. and the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (IAPE) TNG/CWA Local 1096, AFL-CIO,CLC, in effect from July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023. IAPE officers, IAPE directors, IAPE staff, fee-paying non-members and non-members in right-to-work states (or new employees not yet paying dues to IAPE) are not eligible for prizes. Contest period lasts through 11:59 PM Eastern Time each Thursday. On Friday, one winner will be selected from the previous week’s correct answers by a random drawing. Winners are limited to one prize every thirty days.

IAPE Supports Sabrina Siddiqui

The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (IAPE), Local 1096 of The NewsGuild-CWA, strongly condemns the online violence directed toward our member, Sabrina Siddiqui, a respected and accomplished reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Since June 22, when Sabrina questioned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a White House press conference and asked what steps Modi and his government would be willing to take “to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities ... and to uphold free speech” in India, the harassment of Sabrina from online trolls, and even party officials associated with the Modi government, has been relentless.

We are surprised and saddened to feel the need to remind people that these types of attacks against journalists around the world seek to discredit fact-based reporting.

There is no place in society for these gutless and despicable actions. Sabrina has been attacked for doing her job—and for doing it very well. We stand in support of Sabrina, our trusted colleague and friend, and in solidarity with journalists everywhere engaged in holding the powerful to account, even in the face of attempts to intimidate and censor.

Bargaining Update: It’s a Marathon, not a Sprint

Representatives from IAPE and Dow Jones have reached their first tentative agreement of the current round of contract negotiations.

In a response to a proposal from the union, management has agreed “to clarify the contract” and confirm that meetings where employees will be notified of their discharge will be deemed “disciplinary.” Union-represented staff will be entitled to union representation during those meetings.

The item from Dow Jones was included in a two-page proposal document addressing “select issues.” The proposals were provided to the union during a brief negotiation meeting earlier today.

In total, management responded to four of the union’s 79 proposals with today’s document.

Dow Jones did not present a wage increase offer today, but did propose increasing the threshold salary for determining minimum compensatory raises to $1,300 per week, or $67,600 annually.

Also known as the “minimum dollar increase,” a minimum raise is determined by applying the negotiated compensatory raise to a threshold salary. In 2022, the negotiated 4% raise and $1,000 weekly threshold meant the smallest raise an IAPE member could have received was $40 per week.

Dow Jones made small adjustments to original management proposals on excluding interns from the IAPE bargaining unit and regarding the amount of notice provided to an employee and to the union in advance of disciplinary meetings.

IAPE and Dow Jones will break from negotiations until next Wednesday, July 5.

Princeton Shuttle Alternatives

As more IAPE members resume three-day-per-week in-office schedules, we’re paying close attention to how our workplaces have changed since the beginning of the pandemic. For example, at the Dow Jones campus in Princeton, NJ, members are keenly aware of the lack of cafeteria services.

Not quite as well known is a recent decision by Dow Jones to accommodate Princeton employees who  previously relied on the company shuttle to commute to and from the Princeton Jct. rail station.

In response to a question from IAPE about plans to resume shuttle services when in-office schedules increased this month, management informed the union, “employees who need transportation from Princeton Junction to the campus should use a ride sharing service and submit the expense for reimbursement in Concur.”

When asked whether the company planned on announcing this to Princeton staff, management replied, “Given that we estimate the employee population at issue here is fairly small we are looking at options to share this information with those who need to know including posting the information on the Princeton Location page of the Source.”

We encourage members relying on transportation to and from Princeton Jct. to follow this directive and submit receipts for reimbursement. If you have questions about submitting or problems with approval for your expenses please let us know at union@iape1096.org.

Of course, IAPE also has a contract proposal addressing Princeton shuttle services:

“The Company shall maintain shuttle service between the Princeton Junction, NJ train station and its offices in the Princeton, NJ area. In the event shuttle service cannot be offered, Employees commuting to and from the Princeton Junction train station may submit taxi, Uber or Lyft expenses for reimbursement.”

IAPE and Dow Jones resume negotiations on this and all other topics Tuesday morning.

Wednesday: Steward 101
If you are interested in getting involved in all things IAPE, including being a key point of contact for members during contract negotiations, consider joining your union colleagues on Wednesday afternoon for IAPE Steward 101.

This one-hour Zoom class is your chance to find out more about joining the ranks of IAPE stewards. A strong steward and leadership structure is extremely important at all times, but especially during a contract bargaining year. If you’ve ever considered being involved with IAPE, you might be just the person we’re looking for to join our steward group!

To find out more about becoming an IAPE steward, please join us for IAPE Steward 101 next Wednesday, June 28 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Visit the IAPE Events Page to register.