We are asking all members to show their support for the Guild during contract negotiations by going as a group to Thursday’s employee meetings with publisher Michael Kane. If possible, we would like all members to attend the 4 p.m. meeting. That is when day and night shift members along with building services personnel all will be in the building. Wear your Guild lanyards, your Guild hats, or something red to show your support.
We will begin assembling at 3:55 p.m. at Guild president Tom Spalding’s desk in the business department. For those coming from the zones, the business department is on the second floor of the Star building and to the right past the mailboxes as you exit the employee entrance elevators. At 4 p.m. we will all take the stairs down to the meeting room in the basement, file in and sit together as a group.
The Guild officers and stewards understand that, for whatever reason, we have members who have not felt comfortable showing their support for the Guild by wearing lanyards or displaying signs on their desks in the newsroom. But after seven months of contract negotiations in which the company has refused to negotate and has presented progressively worse proposals at the bargaining table, after two weeks of unpaid furloughs, after three rounds of layoffs in less than a year in which the company disregarded the seniority provisions of our contract, there comes a time when you have to show the company which side you are on. This is one of those times.
The Guild will be compiling questions for the Q&A session that will follow Kane’s presentation. If you have a question you would like asked, send it to the Guild in a response to this e-mail.
Finally, the Guild executive committee has appointed steward Adam Yates to temporarily fill in as the Guild secretary in place of Sylvia Halladay, who was one of the employees laid off July 8 and 9. We are seeking volunteers to fill the remainder of her term, which expires in July 2010. If you are interested, or would like to become involved as a Guild steward, contact Tom Spalding or any officer or steward.
Indianapolis NewsGuild 