Thursday, September 11, 2008

Don't Sign The Petition!

(Originally Posted) Friday, September 22, 2006

"Employment at will" While it is hoped that your employment with the Company will be mutually rewarding, your employment relationship with the Company is at-will.This means that either you or the company may terminate this relationship at any time, for reason, with or without cause or notice. At-will employment also means that the Company may make decisions regarding other terms and conditions of employment at any time with or without cause or notice including but not limited to demotion, discipline, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, duties and location of work. Any agreement for employment for any specified period of time or for any promises or commitments contrary to the foregoing can only be made by a company officer. Any such agreement that changes your at-will employment status must be explicit, in writing, and signed by both you and the Publisher of the Company to be enforceable.
Source: Los Angeles Times Employee Handbook

This is why you need to sign a card and vote yes!

(end of post)
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I hope you read the language in green closely, it explicitly describes a collective bargaining agreement. We negotiate everything else in blue.

As "At Will" employees, the company has the right to change our wages, benefits and working conditions....AT WILL! We have earned the right to negotiate those areas of our employment and have successfully managed to maintain essentially "status quo" losing nothing, costing us nothing. We have already seen the many benefits of having representation thus far and the results of an actual true voice. Ask our brothers and sisters in L.A. how many times Walker has attempted to make unilateral changes to their shop, and those changes ceased. we have filed Unfair Labor Practices that resulted in a settlement between the company and the N.L.R.B. which had conditions reversed, allowing us to leave when we complete our assigned work and also prevented management from assigning additional clean-up work at the end of the runs. Don't forget the meal tickets, and for those of you who talked shit, you took and used the ones you were given, and continue to accept them. None of you have spent a single penny and won't spend a penny unless a majority of us ratifies a contract. Don't sign the petition!

Let's see what the contract looks like before we screw ourselves out of the opportunity of negotiating one. We have never been in a position like this before and we must seize this opportunity to claim some control over our wages, benefits and working conditions.
Don't sign the petition!


The Teamsters are the strongest union in the nation and we can rest assured that they will continue to stand steadfast by our side to see to it that we get a fair collective bargaining agreement. All of us need to do the same.
Don't sign the petition!

As I stated in the previous post, we made great progress in the negotiations reaching agreements in very important areas of our contract. This is very promising going forward and certainly is not the time for them to interfere with the progress and impede the process.
Don't sign the petition!

The question to ask the individuals circulating a de-certification petition for signatures is, Why? What are their reasons for wanting to de-certify our election? I have heard they can't even give an intelligent reason for their actions and they're not going to tell you the truth behind their motives anyway. I acknowledge that they have a right to do this, but are their intentions for the good of everyone in the pressroom, or for their own selfish reasons? It should be totally obvious to everyone (because of who they are) that these individuals don't care about any one in the pressroom and are willing to jeopardize all the hard work that has been done in negotiations for their own benefit.
Don't sign the petition!

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