February 29, 2016 YP ratification ballots will be mailed this week and are due back no later than Thursday March 10, 2016 by close of business.

January 2016

YP Contract Explanation is scheduled for 2-15-16 6:30pm at CWA District 3 Headquarters. YP Tentative Agreement https://cwa3204.squarespace.com/s/2016-CWA-YP-Bargaining-Summary-PDF.pdf

Thank you all for coming out tonight, hope everyone is well. December was quiet at PM and YP…. With nothing major to talk about… so instead of ending my report here… I’ll skip ahead a little to the first week in January, and jump right into my report, starting with Print Media. Unfortunately, I am still good at guessing what moves the company will make… On January 5th, the company announced that it will be surplussing 39 of our 106 bargained for employees to be off payroll by March 5th. The breakdown of this is as follows: 1 Administrative Reports Clerk, 13 Artists, 22 Directory Clerks, 11 Special Clerk NYPS and 2 Sales Team Support Clerks. Yes, this does include me. The company is considering this an economic surplus and just a reduction in head count. This is basically to circumvent the contract and deny the Clerks and Artists the 33% additional severance pay and additional 3 months of medical coverage they would be given do to the work being outsourced. This also denies their benefits through TAA to get tuition assistance through the Department of Labor for jobs being sent overseas. We are filing grievances on this and I will be filing yet another NLRB charge on this. I know the company is GLAD to get rid of ME! Lol This surplus also only leaves one steward in YP and PM which may cause a potential issue with representation of our members as the companies’ position in the past has been that only employees or former employees may be on property conducting union activities. Time will tell. IF I am correct on what the company will do next, I am glad to take my severance and run… I haven’t been wrong yet… even down to the percentage of Artists and Clerks to be surplussed AND when it would happen. What leads me to believe I’m correct on their next move is that Print Media is not denying the surplussed employees their vacation OR PPT (WHICH HAS BEEN A FIGHT IN THE PAST) and have brought in Resume’ writers and employment “coaches” to help us “be successful” somewhere else. (Gary Lawrence’s Trademark phrase).

As far as YP, they are still negotiating their contract and making some progress towards a contract to present to our membership. Again, one of the main issues on the YP side is the Sales Compensation plan. Thanks to the bargaining team the YP did come up with a temporary fix for the current compensation plan which helped a lot of our members with chargebacks.

That’s all I have, I still have a lot of work to be done for our members before I’m off payroll and I will say my goodbyes at the NEXT union meeting!

Thank you!  See you ALL next month!

#WeAreOne #Solidarity #OneUnionOneVoice #OneBleedsWeAllBleed #UnionProud #CWADistrict3 #CWA3204 #CWAUnite #ManyUnionsOneVoice #STANDUP #GETINVOLVED #BETHECHANGE #BEHEARD

Thanks for your time.

 Tony Maronski

CWA Local 3204

Company Vice-President over YP

TMaronski@cwa3204.org•  C# 770-722-2153