What's going on?

Everyone is wondering, "what's going on"

Well, we are still waiting for Washington to hand down their decision and once they do we will have our certification and then we will seek our charter from The International. There is no reason to interpret this decision and the time it is taking as something to be concerned about. The N.L.R.B. will do what they have to do in the time they are required and all we can do is be patient.

We have already seen that our victory has not brought upon the things we were being told. We all received a 2% wage increase just like everyone else. The cut's are here and as we can see, it currently does not affect our shops. As I said before, Buy-outs could be offered to our members if the company was willing to "negotiate" the buy-outs.

Marty and I spoke today and meetings are being planned very soon to answer any and all questions that are circulating right now. We encourage everyone to attend so that information is received firsthand.

We know who our Negotiator will be for contract negotiations and his name is Sonny Shannon. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Florida at The N.A.N.C. and I was impressed by his ability to command the attention of the room. I have been assured he is one of the best at negotiating contracts and our negotiating commitee members will compliment Sonny's stlye and make a great negotiating team.

I have heard of alot of overbearing tactics from L.A. management. They are enforcing the S.O.P.'s and attempting to frusrtate people into becoming insubordinate. Understand this, that's all the can do, and it's the best they can do. All I have to say is do what you are suppose to and do not give them anything to hang you with. We all know why they are doing it and it only goes to prove these types of actions only unite us even more against them and the way they treat us as employees.

What happened to the things we were told about the recent, but long ago survey which we are still waiting for management to respond to. It was far from favorable towards management and maybe thats why they refrain from reponding to all the negative comments that were voiced in that survey. We were told all these management staffed commitees were going to address our concerns expressed in the survey, and instead pressroom management in L.A. are being allowed to continue to treat our fellow presspeople in ways that were mentioned in that mystery survey.

We will persevere in overcoming these attempts to break us and we will do it by standing United. Be patient and as I said be ready to attend one of the upcoming meetings.

Solidarity!