An announcement was made this afternoon from Gannett that first-quarter unpaid furloughs will be instituted — and the email from Bob Dickey said that the company will be “communicating separately with union representatives to discuss the treatment of bargaining unit employees.” The Indy News Guild as of 2 p.m. has not been contacted by the company regarding what this “treatment” is going to be.
A few points:
- We aren’t sure if our unit will be asked to take a 5-day unpaid leave as well, which in the past has amounted to a roughly 2% loss of a year’s worth of pay.
- We’ll remind you (and them) that our membership, which is protected by a contract, has to vote on any matters regarding reduction in pay. Membership voted on 1Q and 2Q furloughs in 2009, and also took a 10% pay cut. If you’d like to vote, you need to be a dues paying member. Just send an e-mail to any officer listed in the to: field in this message.
- We will remind the company that our newsroom and building services units have suffered enough financially. We’ll also remind them of the huge bonuses received by Craig Dubow, Bob Dickey et al that the Guild formally protested in letter to the SEC in 2010.
We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.
— Officers and stewards of Indy News Guild 34070
Indianapolis NewsGuild 
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