Spring is in the air, and so is baseball.

With Washington enjoying the rarity of having two home teams atop their divisions, the Washington-Baltimore Guild is treating members to an extra special offer.

This year tickets are being sold for the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals, Friday, June 22  at 7:05pm.

The Guild has tickets available for $6 per ticket. Tickets for the “AFL-CIO Night – Oriole Park at Camden Yards 20th Anniversary season” game are limited and will be reserved on a first come—first serve basis by email only.

If you’re interested, please contact Nancy Banks, the Guild’s office manager, at Nbanks@wbng.org.

The New York Times’ David Kocieniewski, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer for explanatory reporting, is applauded by colleagues and his daughters. On his jacket is a red “Guild” sticker.

By the Newspaper Guild

From Seattle to New York, Guild members at newspapers across the country were among the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winners announced Monday afternoon.

Guild winners are listed below. Be sure to check the Pulitzer site to see all the winners and the finalists, who also include many Guild members.

Public Service Pulitzer to the Guild-represented Philadelphia Inquirer “for its exploration of pervasive violence in the city’s schools, using powerful print narratives and videos to illuminate crimes committed by children against children and to stir reforms to improve safety for teachers and students.

Investigative Reporting Pulitzer to Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times “for their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington state moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage the prompted statewide health warnings.

The investigative reporting category was a tie with the Guild-represented Associated Press also winning for its coverage of the New York Police Department’s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities.

Explanatory Reporting Pulitzer to David Kocieniewski of The New York Times “for his lucid series that penetrated a legal thicket to explain how the nation’s wealthiest citizens and corporations often exploited loopholes and avoided taxes.”

International Reporting Pulitzer to Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times “for his vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa, a neglected but increasingly strategic part of the world.”

Criticism Pulitzer to Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe “for his smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office.”

Feature Photography Pulitzer to Craig Walker of The Denver Post “for his compassionate chronicle of an honorably discharged veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress, images that enable viewers to better grasp a national issue.” View his photo essay here.

Freddy Kunkle, Co-Chair, News — Stephen Richardson, Co-Chair, Commercial

Nikita Stewart, Vice Chair, News  — Pat Jacob, Vice Chair, Commercial

Delece Barrow, Vice Chair, News, Digital Amy Quinto, Vice Chair, Commercial, Night

Tim Smith, Grievance Chair

From 12 Noon until 2 pm
And 6 until 7 pm
Guild Office, 1100 15th St, NW, Suite 350

It’s time for Guild Members to choose our leaders for the next two years. Please attend one of the above meetings to nominate candidates for the following Post Guild Unit positions:

Co-Chair, News
Co-Chair, Commercial
Vice Chair, News
Vice Chair, Commercial
Vice Chair, News, Digital
Vice Chair, Commercial, Digital
Vice Chair, News Night
Vice Chair, Commercial, Night
Secretary
Grievance Chair

This meeting is for Members only. Non-Members are invited to join at the door.

Time has run out on negotiations between the Post and the Guild over the company’s most recent buyout offer, with both sides failing to reach an agreement. Under the terms of the contract between the union and the company, the Post nevertheless has the right to put forth its final offer.

Here’s the offer. Under the Post’s Separation Incentive Program, the company will:

1. Make a severance payment equal to 3.25 weeks of pay for every year of service, up from 2.5 weeks in their initial offer. In the final round of talks, the Guild had offered to reach agreement if the Post offered 3.75 weeks’ pay, a significant departure downward from the 5 weeks we initially sought.
2. Increase the health insurance benefit to a maximum 12 months for all employees who accept the buyout, regardless of how many years they have served. Initially, the Post was offering to pay for coverage up to three months for those with less than 10 years’ service and up to six months for those with more than 10 years’ service
3. Allow part-time reporters to be eligible for the buyout. The Guild had asked that all part-time employees who work an average of 22.5 hours a week be considered eligible for the plan, including multiplatform editors. The Post declined, saying they will need editors and others to handle content and fill gaps that arise as others take the buyout.
4. Despite the Guild’s urging, the Post declined to use surplus pension funds to make its buyout offer more attractive to employees, particularly those who are close to retirement. The Guild, for example, asked the Post to enhance the early-retirement factors on a sliding scale so that someone who was 55 years old, for example, would receive 80 percent of his or her retirement benefit instead of 40 percent.

The Post is expected to begin distributing the buyout offers to Guild-covered employees on Wednesday, February 29. Exempt employees are also scheduled to receive their offers on that day. Each package will contain the specific figure computed for each eligible employee’s severance payment. Once an employee has picked up his or her offer, the clock begins running on a 45-day period to decide whether to accept the package.

Post representatives say managers should already have begun discussing with employees whether it’s in their best interest to accept a buyout, given their performance evaluations. The Post also said that merit pay increases will be paid during this process and could be used to demonstrate the company’s interest in retaining people.

Finally, the Guild is planning to have an informational meeting at its offices next door to discuss the buyouts on Thursday March 1 from 12-2 p.m. and 6-7 p.m. Members of the bargaining committee will be on hand to share what we can about the Post’s plan.

The Post’s buyout offer is better than it was at the start of negotiations. But we still feel that many will find it inadequate when considering whether to surrender jobs that they have long considered to be their calling.

We also believe this buyout offers yet another unsettling glimpse at the Post’s business strategy, which appears to be a belief in cutting costs at every turn while promising readers that they will still receive the level of coverage and professional quality that earned the Post a national reputation for excellence.

Given the design of the buyouts and their scope, we also worry about the Post’s drift toward achieving increases in online traffic through clickbait and other shortsighted strategies that conflict with the reputation that the Post took a century to build. In other words, now that spring training is under way, this buyout offer seems to suggest that the Post believes the best way to build a 21st century ball club is to squeeze out players who can hit, throw, run and catch while building up the ranks of ushers to guide its fans to their seats.

— Freddy Kunkle, Nikita Stewart, Chris Jenkins, Beth Chang, Rick Ehrmann

We’d like to clarify something we said in yesterday’s Bulletin. We noted that the Post has listed, by age and job title, every position that is eligible or ineligible for the buyout. And this is true. But the Post has advised us that this eligibility list is only a function of hiring date, employment status — full-time v. part-time — and whether a person is on leave. That’s because it turns out that those who are on leave are also exempted, which is something that was pointed out to us after we put out the Bulletin.

So, in other words, there is a list that spells out, for those departments and units that are targeted for buyouts, which employees are eligible and which are not and lists them by age and job title. For example, the Post has exempted six employees on the Local Politics Government team and eight in the National Economics and Business team and listed their exact ages and job titles. But the Post has told us this is because those folks are either part-time, recent hires or on leave. The buyout offer is only for full-time staff hired before Jan. 1, 2010 in selected departments who are “actively working,” according to the Post documents.

We apologize for any confusion. We will try to keep you updated as we learn more.

Please remember we would also like to hear from you if you would like to join the bargaining committee. We will do everything in our power to secure the best terms for everyone.

I would also like to remind you all — and especially those of you are covered by the Guild contract but do not pay your dues — that one of the main reasons the Post is offering buyouts and is not just tapping people on the shoulder and telling them to go, is because you have a union and a contract. In the past couple years, I have probably heard all the reasons why people do not do the right thing and sign up–(”Hey, I’m an Ivy League grad, a star, and my editor loves me–what me worry?”, “I can’t afford it,” “I have philosophical differences with organized labor,” “My generation doesn’t do unions,” etc.) — but that’s all just brave talk. If you’re not exempt, you do enjoy protections that you would not have if the Post, like any company, did not have to deal with an organized workforce. This includes news aides, columnists, editorial writers, video journalists and reporters of all kinds — including some who in their work seem highly sympathetic about American labor’s struggles but who are curiously uninterested in their own union–and commercial employees too. We are very grateful for those of you who already understand this. We’re only as strong as all of you.

Cheers,

Freddy

Those eligible to apply will receive an election form and will have 45 days to weigh the Post’s offer. The Guild will make every effort to improve the terms of the buyout over the next 10 business days, as required by the Guild contract.

Certain departments, departmental units, and positions have been exempt from the buyouts, including Foreign, Sports columnists, Style columnists, Outlook, National enterprise and politics teams, and others. Part-timers and recent hires are also exempt.

In those departments and units that are targeted for buyouts, the Post has already identified, by age and job title, which employees are eligible and which are not, according to documents given to the Guild. For example, the Post has exempted six employees on the Local Politics Government team and listed their exact ages and job titles.

The initial proposal is an offer of 2.5 weeks of pay for every year of Post service and some health care coverage. Unlike previous buyout offers, the Post is not offering additional retirement benefits as an incentive to take the buyout. In other words, the Post will not credit people with extra years of service that would increase a person’s pension benefits.

Here are the basic terms of the Post’s Separation Incentive Program (SIP):

- The initial proposal offers 2.5 weeks of pay per year of Post service.

- Three months of Post-paid continued health benefits (COBRA) for those employees with less than 10 years of Post service; six months of such health benefits for those with 10 or more years of service.

Here’s a breakdown of 33 positions targeted by the Post’s offer:

- Up to three employees from News Operations, Research and News IT

- Up to three employees from Style and Features

- Up to three employees from Investigative

- Up to three employees from Universal Desk and News Interactivity

- Up to two employees from Sports

- Up to seven employees from News Presentation and News Video

- Up to nine employees from Local, AKA Metro

- Up to three employees from National’s Economy and Business, and National, Health, Science and Environment teams

The Post has the right to allow more eligible employees to participate, if necessary. Under the company’s initial proposal, The Post also has reserved the right to reject an eligible employee’s offer to accept a buyout for operational or coverage reasons. The following are some departments, units and job titles that are exempt:

- Employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2010

- All part-time Newsroom employees

- National Politics and Government teams

- National Enterprise – all positions

- National Security – all positions

- Foreign – all positions

- Outlook – all positions

- News Presentation – Artists/Art Director (Graphics), Cartographer Artist, Designer, Graphics Editor

- Style – Critics/Columnists

- Sports – Columnists

- Capital Business – all positions

- News Columnists – Columnist

- Weekend – all positions

Darlene Meyer (middle) at Guild event at the Post Pub. Rick Ehrmann is far right

This eulogy was delivered by Guild organizer Rick Ehrmann at a memorial for Guild leader Darlene Meyer on January 27.

We are here today to celebrate the life of Darlene Meyer and to mark her passing. She was found in her home last Friday, January 20. She loved her family, her job at the Post, and her work as the Guild unit leader for the commercial side of the Post and as the Vice President of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.

Darlene came to work as a sales rep at the Post in 1997. She joined the Guild in 1998 and became Chief Steward for Commercial employees in 1999. In 2000, she became Commercial Co-Chair of the Post Guild unit. She also became an officer of the local union, the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, in 2000, rising to Vice President in 2002.

Newspaper Guild National Representative Bruce Nelson, who is recovering from a serious illness, and is unable to be here today, said “She was a tough and tireless advocate for all Post workers, particularly those in commercial departments who might lack the status and stature of more prominent newsroom employees. Believe me, they were never without a voice when Darlene was around! She could silence a room with her indignation over managerial mistreatment. I will miss the power of that passion. I will also miss her quiet laughter, more of a chuckle than a howl – sometimes accompanied with a sharp twinkle in her eye – when we’d encounter those frequent moments of utter absurdity at the bargaining table.”

As Guild Staff Rep for the Post, I had the pleasure…. and pain of working closely with Darlene since 1998. I was never rattled by having to deal with high flying newsroom Guild leaders like Peter Perl, Rick Weiss, Robert Pierre, and Freddy Kunkle, but Darlene sometimes intimidated me. Years ago, she complained that I spent too much time consulting with newsroom leaders, and not enough with commercial. From then on, until mid-December, not a week went by, even when there was little to discuss, that I didn’t meet with Darlene.

Every Guild Newsroom leader also learned, sometimes the hard way, that Darlene, and through her, all commercial workers, could not be trifled with or patronized. Rick Weiss, a terrific Guild News Co-Chair, and a wonderful writer, once made the mistake of publishing a Guild Bulletin, without first submitting a draft to Darlene for her edits. After the ensuing storm, all subsequent Guild Bulletins included Darlene’s edits. I remember Rick telling me, with a big grin, “Darlene’s a good writer, I like her version better than mine.”

Darlene served on every Post Guild Bargaining Committee since 2002. Her signature appears on the 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2011 Post Guild collective bargaining agreements. She played a major role in negotiating the landmark agreement that resulted in the integration of former WPNI employees into the Post Guild bargaining unit.

In between the contract campaigns, Darlene helped countless individual members resolve their issues, ranging from misunderstandings to grievances and buyouts, meeting with supervisors, managers, and Post labor executives Allan Hounshell, Trish Dunn, and Jay Kennedy.

Thank you, Darlene, for all your good work. We will never forget you. You will be sorely missed.

Relatives of Washington Post Guild leader Darlene Meyer, who passed away this month, have made contact with the Newspaper Guild after seeing a story on Darlene that was  posted on  the Post Guild website.

As a result, the family is traveling from Houston to D.C. to attend a memorial service on Friday, Jan. 27, which will be hosted by the Newspaper Guild and the Washington Post.

The service will be Friday from 3pm-5pm in Meeting Room #4 off the lobby of the Washington Post.

Darlene Meyer (middle) at Guild event at the Post Pub

In what was described as a deep and tragic loss for the Newspaper Guild and the entire labor movement, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild vice president Darlene Meyer has died.

“It is with deep regret that I must advise that Darlene Meyer, our friend, colleague, sister,and tireless union activist, has passed away,” said Sheila Lindsay, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild president.She was found in her home on Jan. 20.

Meyer, a Washington Post commercial-side employee, had served as WBNG’s vice president since 2003. She had been on sick leave for several weeks, and her last contact with the Post was on Jan. 9.

Meyer joined the Guild in the summer of 1998, and was an activist almost from Day One. She became chief shop steward for the non-editorial Guild-covered employees in early 1999, and was elected Commercial co-chairperson of the Post unit less than a year later. Also in early 2000, she was tapped to serve as a Post representative to the WBNG Executive Council.

In late 2000, she was elected as WBNG secretary, one of the four top-officer positions in the local. Two years later she ran unopposed for vice president. She was successively elected to four two-year terms in the local’s No. 2 position.

“She was a tough and tireless advocate for all Post workers, particularly those in commercial departments who might lack the status and stature of more prominent newsroom employees, “said Bruce Nelson, TNG-CWA Representative. “Believe me, they were never without a voice when Darlene was around! She could silence a room with her indignation over managerial mistreatment. ”

“I will miss the power of that passion,” Nelson said.”I will also miss her quiet laughter, more of a chuckle than a howl — sometimes accompanied with a sharp twinkle in her eye — when we’d encounter those frequent moments of utter absurdity at the bargaining table.”

“Her death is a deep and tragic loss for WBNG, TNG, CWA, and the labor movement,” WBNG President Lindsay said in an e-mail that efforts were being made to contact Meyer’s relatives, and that further information would be made available as soon as possible.

This article appeared in the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild website.