July 28, 2015

Problems Plague First Day Of Voting

2015 Contract Extension Ratification Underway

Despite a shaky first day of email and internet hiccups, voting is underway in the 2015 IAPE/DJ contract ratification.

Online polls, administered by TrueBallot Election Services and Solutions, opened Monday morning. Email "invitations to vote" were delivered to all who were IAPE members in good standing as of Monday, July 13, 2015.

However, even after assurances by Dow Jones that email from trueballot.com addresses would not be intercepted by the Company email filter, many e-ballots were redirected to spam or quarantine folders, or simply not received at all.

Adding to the first-day woes, the TrueBallot website had a glitch of its own for some time, requiring voters to log in, cancel, and log in a second time in order to see their election choice: whether to approve the 2015 IAPE/DJ contract extension or not.

Early reports from the second day of voting suggest that the process is running better, but still is not perfect. A second delivery of email notices was sent to eligible members early Tuesday morning, with most IAPE members reporting ballots received in Inboxes and no difficulty casting their votes.

A small number of members still report ballots delivered to Dow Jones spam and quarantine folders; a few still have not yet received a ballot. The IAPE Election Committee is investigating all voting concerns and hopes to resolve all problems well before the voting deadline.

Members will have until Friday, July 31, 2015 at noon EDT to vote on the tentative agreement between the Union and the Company, formally reached earlier this month.

A majority of the IAPE Board of Directors voted to recommend acceptance of the one-year extension.

Should the agreement be ratified by IAPE members, salaries will be increased 2%, retroactive to July 1, 2015. For employees paid according to introductory tiers and scales, all scales will increase 1%. The absolute minimum salary increase for all full-time IAPE-represented employees will be $20 per week (gross).

Pay increases will likely will be reflected in September paychecks.

All other terms of the current contract remain in place until June 30, 2016, including contract language that places a cap on annual health care premium increases, but gives management "the discretion and flexibility to change and modify its benefit plan design and coverages" without "substantially reduc(ing) the totality of the benefits package."

Results of the 2015 ratification vote will be announced by the Election Committee as soon as possible after the Friday deadline.