Bargaining Update: This Seems Like a One-Way Street

IAPE representatives received a new proposal from Dow Jones on health care coverage during a short bargaining session yesterday in Princeton. While the details—responses to IAPE counter proposals on cost shifting in plan design for calendar years 2025 and 2026—are marked “confidential,” the message from the company was still the same:

Since health care costs have increased, and because the company health insurance plan is designed to require cost sharing between Dow Jones and its employees, the company continues to take the position that employees should pay more of those costs.

This philosophy seems limited to the subject of health care. As we all know, “Dow Jones has doubled its profitability over the last four years” and is more profitable than it has ever been since being acquired by News Corp in 2007. Yet, Dow Jones continues to propose 3% wage increases per year for 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Shouldn’t employees share in the company’s successes, too?

IAPE and Dow Jones return to the bargaining table tomorrow with a virtual meeting scheduled for 10:00 a.m. EDT. If you are interested in joining tomorrow’s meeting as an observer, see your email for a registration link.

Contract Extended
IAPE and Dow Jones did agree to extend the current collective agreement through Dec. 31, unless a successor agreement is negotiated before that time. All terms and conditions of the current contract between IAPE and Dow Jones will remain in effect through the end of this year.

Tomorrow: #TshirtTuesday

In case you missed Friday’s IAPE suggestion for Halloween attire, we think the best costume you can wear tomorrow is your favorite IAPE t-shirt. Reach into those closets, find your best IAPE tee and wear it Tuesday in support of the IAPE bargaining committee.

We’ll be back at the contract table pushing Dow Jones management to meet our demands: fair wage increases, affordable health care coverage and meaningful contract protections!

Bargaining Update: Pay Floor for Reporters

Also, see below for IAPE’s Halloween costume suggestion

The classification subcommittee of IAPE and Dow Jones bargaining teams met yesterday and reached agreement on a handful of items related to introductory pay tiers and scales, including a new minimum pay scale for IAPE-represented employees classified as Reporters.

Upon conclusion of these contract negotiations, the new minimum salary for full-time Reporters will be $72,800, a $9,500 increase over the current minimum. The escalating scale minimum for Reporters with five years of service will also increase from $83,304 to $95,585.

While the new Reporter pay floor is an encouraging tentative agreement, IAPE/DJ introductory pay scales typically do not impact large numbers of employees. Almost 85% of the current roster of union-represented reporters at Dow Jones publications are already paid in excess of the new $95K top minimum rate.

Mindful of this issue with minimum scales, the union had also proposed adjusting pay tiers for 44 IAPE-represented titles. Dow Jones agreed to 33 of those proposals and added two additional titles to the list. Similar to the new Reporter scales, these new pay tier assignments will be implemented upon the conclusion of negotiations and ratification of a new contract.

The majority of current classified titles all have A, B, C and D scale steps. Dow Jones had previously rejected an IAPE proposal to add E and F steps for all positions. Yesterday, the union countered with a proposal to add E and F scales for titles in Customer Service, Finance and Data Strategy.

Union data show that employees in those positions are most likely to be paid according to scale, and that it is uncommon for IAPE-represented staff from those departments to receive merit increases. Introductory pay scale raises typically result in larger percentage increases than other forms of pay hikes negotiated by the union.

Negotiations will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 31. Members who are interested in joining the IAPE bargaining committee and attending Tuesday’s meeting virtually should email union@iape1096.org.

Halloween = T-shirt Tuesday
Yes, the next bargaining session between IAPE and Dow Jones will fall on Halloween. The IAPE Bargaining Committee considered several costume ideas for Tuesday’s meeting, and settled on the option shown in the photo below.

Please join us by donning your own IAPE costume on Tuesday!

Bargaining Update: Healthcare and Open Enrollment

IAPE and Dow Jones bargaining committees met Tuesday and reviewed a new “select issues” document from the union. IAPE provided counter proposals on salary thresholds to determine minimum dollar pay raises and eligibility to sell vacation time back to the company, and offered to withdraw a proposal to add Indigenous Peoples Day as a contract holiday if management confirms that the day after Thanksgiving will be added to the collective agreement as a permanent holiday for U.S. employees.

IAPE also presented proposals to restrict health care plan changes in 2025 and 2026, rejecting many of the company’s proposals to shift additional costs onto employees for those years. Because management and the union have agreed to keep health care plans confidential, the IAPE document linked above does not contain plan design proposal details for 2025 and 2026.

The union also restated its proposals to limit premium increases for U.S. employees and reject premium hikes for members working in Canada. IAPE updates have previously described how Dow Jones proposals to increase health insurance premiums could significantly boost costs for employees with dependents by the end of the next contract.

Contract talks will shift to discussions of job classifications and tier changes when IAPE and Dow Jones representatives meet again tomorrow. Full contract negotiations will resume next Tuesday, Oct. 31.

Open Enrollment: Be Your Own Pilot
Dow Jones employees working in the U.S received a message today from CPO Dianne DeSevo announcing open enrollment for 2024 benefits. Last year, IAPE warned members about the pitfalls of using “Pilot” as a “decision support tool” to assist in choosing appropriate health care coverage.

IAPE also informed Dow Jones of concerns that, no matter what information was entered into Pilot, members reported never receiving POS II as an insurance option.

IAPE has not received any assurance that the company’s online tool will be any more accurate this year, so we are offering the same caution: don’t rely on Pilot to point you in the right direction. Make your own informed health insurance choice for 2024.

Bargaining Tomorrow - #TshirtTuesday

The IAPE bargaining committee will return to the contract table tomorrow to resume negotiations for a new collective agreement. During a contract meeting on Oct. 19, Dow Jones management presented its tenth proposal and adjusted its wage package by offering a small, 0.25% lump sum payment effective January 2024.

Union members are encouraged to wear their favorite IAPE t-shirts tomorrow—whether you are working in a Dow Jones office, on assignment or working from home—in support of the bargaining team. We’d love to see photos of any displays of IAPE support! Send your pics to union@iape1096.org.

Choose our Logo!
Back in June, we invited members to design a new logo for IAPE, and we received several excellent contest entries. Now we’re faced with a new problem: we can’t decide on a winner!

IAPE members, we need your help. Please choose our contest winner!

IAPE officers and staff have pared the entries down to these four options. Please make your choice (or tell us we need to go back to the drawing board) by voting here. And thanks for your assistance!

IAPE Directors Approve Budget
The IAPE Board of Directors has adopted a budget for the union’s new fiscal year, effective Oct. 1. The Board approved expenditures in line with the Fiscal 2023 budget, with projections for a surplus of $34,545.52 through September of next year.

Bargaining Update: 0.25%? Seriously?

More than two dozen IAPE members joined the union bargaining committee for a contract negotiation session yesterday and heard Dow Jones representatives present their tenth proposal for a new collective agreement.

The highlight: a 0.25% lump sum payment for IAPE-represented employees effective January 1, 2024.

Seriously.

Despite employees suffering through multiple years of record inflation, while also contributing to company performance resulting in the “highest profitability” for Dow Jones since its acquisition by News Corp, management has opted to keep its wage proposal unchanged at 3% per year.

The addition of the lump sum payment, management said, is intended to partially offset increases in health insurance premiums it has proposed increasing in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Dow Jones has pledged to keep premiums flat for employee-only coverage throughout the next contract. For employees with dependents, Dow Jones proposes increasing premiums by amounts equaling between 0.25% of salary and 0.5% of salary each year of the next contract.

By the end of the next contract, under company proposals, employees with dependents could be paying as much as 28.83% more for Aetna POS II coverage, 28.03% more for Aetna CDHP coverage, 25.56% more for Aetna Basic Choice coverage, and 32.94% more for Kaiser Permanente coverage.

Even in Canada, Dow Jones has proposed increasing 2024 premiums for employees by 5% or 7%, depending on coverage levels.

In complete fairness, there were some small, encouraging movements in yesterday’s company proposal. Management has increased its proposed threshold to set minimum increase levels—the weekly salary at which minimum-dollar pay raises are calculated—and vacation sell-back eligibility at $1,400 per week.

Dow Jones also appears willing to back away from its demand to eliminate COLA protections in the contract, but only if the union withdraws proposals to improve upon those protections.

However, those proposals were overshadowed by the company’s wage offer and other unsatisfactory proposals—including another rejection of an IAPE proposal to pay comp time for overtime-exempt employees who work extraordinary amounts of time during the regular workweek.

The IAPE bargaining team will review the company’s latest document and prepare an appropriate response. Bargaining resumes on Tuesday.

Open Bargaining October!
IAPE negotiators were thrilled to have so many members join and observe yesterday’s meeting! If you would like to attend future bargaining sessions, please email union@iape1096.org.

Bargaining Update: Let’s See Some Movement

The IAPE Bargaining Committee presented its tenth proposal for a new collective agreement during a contract negotiation session with Dow Jones on Tuesday morning. In its new proposal, the union made a small move on wages—dropping a demand for 2023 raises from 12% to 10%—but held the line on other important issues including health care cost increases.

The message from the IAPE team was simple: at the conclusion of contract negotiations, it should not be more expensive for employees to work for Dow Jones. IAPE bargainers again informed Dow Jones that the company’s wage proposal—3% for each year of a three-year contract—is unacceptable, especially while management is also proposing the ability to increase health insurance premiums for employees with dependents by as much as 28% by the end of the next contract.

The IAPE team also spent time reminding management of other proposals of importance to union members, but which have not yet been seriously addressed by the company. Included among those is a proposal for overtime-exempt employees—like Reporters—to earn comp time when extraordinary amounts of extra work is performed during the regular workweek.

Currently, the CBA only guarantees comp time, which can be exchanged for cash 30 days after it has been earned, for OT-exempt staff when work is assigned and performed on scheduled days off. Dow Jones has informed the union that managers “have discretion” to grant comp time for extra work during the workweek, if employees ask for it.

The union also explained it was withdrawing some proposals to, once again, attempt to narrow the issues between the parties. Gone from the bargaining table are union proposals to adjust wages for employees in Canada to reflect currency exchange rates, “retirement severance” for employees who resign after 20 years of service, granting all employees the ability to carry vacation time into a new calendar year and vesting of company contributions to retirement plans upon conclusion of employee probation periods.

IAPE also withdrew proposals to modify the current Nondiscrimination contract clause, including a requirement for Dow Jones to provide the union with an annual diversity audit, and some miscellaneous proposals.

The company opted not to respond to any IAPE proposals. Negotiations resume Thursday.

Bargaining Update: Meeting Postponed

Today’s IAPE and Dow Jones contract negotiation session has been postponed at the request of the union. The IAPE Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on Monday afternoon and expects to review the next union proposal package before meeting with management again on Tuesday.

Between now and Monday, IAPE staff, directors and stewards will continue to seek contract feedback from members. If you have questions or comments you would like to send to the IAPE Bargaining Committee, please email us: union@iape1096.org.

And remember to participate in IAPE’s avatar and meeting background campaign! See https://www.iape1096.org/iapeavatar for some new designs you can use to show your support for a fair contract during your next virtual meeting.

Bargaining Update: Company Responds on AI

IAPE received a brief proposal from Dow Jones during today’s contract negotiation session, responding to the union’s position on the impact of artificial intelligence. Management’s AI proposal contains three components:

• Introduction of AI will be subject to the same advance notice and training requirements as other new technology

• Voices of bargaining unit employees will not be used to create voicebanks that would allow an article to be read in any bargaining unit employee’s voice without the employee's specific consent

• Employees who lose their jobs as a result of automation or any new technology  will receive four additional weeks of severance pay

While the voicebank portion of today’s company proposal addresses concerns expressed by IAPE members on podcast and audio teams, the rest of the company’s offer falls short of last week’s IAPE proposal.

Dow Jones representatives said the company believes the union’s proposal—to prevent AI from being used to perform work that is editorial in nature—is too restrictive.

IAPE and Dow Jones discussed job security, health care coverage and other contract topics, but did not trade any additional proposals today. Management expressed frustration that IAPE has continued to propose annual wage increases of 12%, 8% and 8%. Union negotiators noted that the current company proposal of 3% pay raises per year for 2023, 2024 and 2025 falls well short of IAPE member expectations.

Negotiations resume on Thursday.

Blocked Email? Check Proofpoint
If you’re wondering why you’ve received this update at your personal email address, but not in your Dow Jones inbox, check your Proofpoint app to make sure email from IAPE is not being blocked by company email filters.

Dow Jones suggests following this process for releasing blocked email:

1. Review your Daily Email Digest each day, ensuring any needed emails that have been flagged as Bulk are released from quarantine (Click "Release") and that the users are added to your Safe Senders (Click "Allow Sender") list in Proofpoint.

2. Periodically review your Proofpoint Quarantine in real time by clicking the Proofpoint Quarantine tile in OKTA. You can release emails and allow (or block) senders here as well.

Access the Proofpoint User Guide and FAQ for more details.

Strike School
On Saturday, Sept. 30, IAPE’s parent unions The NewsGuild (TNG) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) hosted a hybrid-style Strike School, which included panels and workshops with union locals who have been on strike or are preparing to strike. IAPE staff and members joined over 200 attendees from across the United States and Canada discussing topics including escalating collective actions, the process for strike approval, and strike funds. 

One of the guiding principles of Strike School is “Learn, Do, Teach" which encourages participants to take the training back to their locals and members. As IAPE continues this round of negotiations with Dow Jones, representatives are working on adapting the materials from Strike School for IAPE to build collective power. 

See your email for a short questionnaire about your interest in attending IAPE Strike School.

Remaking Newsrooms at the Expense of Employees

Company says Hong Kong editors are “redundant”

By now you have likely seen the New York Times’ interview with Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker, in which she talks about her efforts to remake Dow Jones’ newsrooms for a changing media era.

“We need to make our journalism more accessible without in any way diluting the standards or integrity of the reporting,” Ms. Tucker said in an interview a day after she addressed the newsroom. “And I think it’s possible to do both.”

These would be heartening words to the newsroom if the changes weren’t already underway.

A Journal spokesman also acknowledged—to the Times—some changes that Dow Jones hasn’t yet announced directly to its own employees: the layoff of seven editors in Hong Kong, colleagues who are not represented by IAPE, who received letters stating their positions had "become redundant." What effect these position eliminations will have on the process of producing The Wall Street Journal—and the increased workload it may mean for those who remain—is something management has withheld from the people who make the paper.

No mass layoffs are planned, Tucker told the Times, but people are being cut. She explained it this way: “Everyone’s having to do layoffs.”

Really?

Dow Jones’ past several years of financial results show no need to cut staff:

Dow Jones’ revenue has grown every year since 2019. So has earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. So has EBITDA margin. So has circulation revenue. Same for revenue from the professional information business, climbing steadily, year over year. The rate of growth in earnings itself remains robust: more than 14% for 2023, following on rates of more than 30% and 40%, respectively, in the previous two years.

Everyone has to do layoffs?

That premise is consistent with the slow drip of job cuts across the company, not just in the newsroom, but also in other departments that are critical to Dow Jones’ continued success.

The fatalistic tone is familiar from the bargaining table, too.

In August, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson boasted to investors that Dow Jones had achieved “its highest profitability for both the quarter and the full year since we acquired the company.”

But in talks on a new contract with IAPE, the company has offered just 3% annual pay raises for three years and a massive shift of cost for health insurance onto employees. It has done so while refusing to negotiate meaningfully on protections from generative artificial intelligence—something the company’s executives described as a “cost-saving measure.”

What IAPE is asking at the bargaining table is simple: Can a company adapt to a changing industry while equitably sharing its growing profits with the people who create that value? Can a media company make investors happy while cutting a fair deal with its workers at the same time?

Our answer is simple, too. To borrow a line from Emma Tucker: We think it’s possible to do both.