United Media Guild unit chair Joe Holleman and other local leaders will be available to meet with Post-Dispatch unit members twice on Oct. 10 to discuss contract bargaining.
The meetings will be held at noon and again after work at Missouri Bar and Grill on Tucker.
UMG leaders met with management of Lee Enterprises and the Post-Dispatch on Oct. 3 to discuss the potential for expedited bargaining to begin later this month. We shared our top negotiating priorities, as did the company.
Based those discussions we believe expedited bargaining is worth a try. This format keeps most of our protections in place and allows us to focus on a handful of issues.
Each side will only send a few negotiators to the table. But the UMG will form a larger bargaining committee to set goals, evaluate offers and generally guide the process. We are seeking volunteers from each work area to join this committee.
If the expedited process doesn’t yield an agreement that the larger membership ratifies, then the UMG will go to traditional long-form bargaining over the entire contract.
The most recent collective bargaining agreement at the Post-Dispatch expired at the end of September, but it remains in effect due to its evergreen clause. That keeps all of the protections in place while we continue to bargain.