Session 20: Two Months, Too Long

IAPE presented Dow Jones representatives with our wage proposal on July 18, exactly two months ago to the day, yet we have still not received a response or counter from the company. And we have received no indication as to when we will receive one. 

We’ve tried to tell the company that getting a fair deal on our priority items is our main goal, and that it is difficult to negotiate any further without any clarity on a key component of our contract. 

IAPE’s bargaining committee has made significant progress throughout negotiations in securing meaningful advances to our current collective bargaining agreement. Our discussions on health care have been fruitful, and we had another productive discussion on benefits with company representatives at yesterday’s session. 

But we can’t move forward or offer any more compromises on the items still outstanding until we see the company’s wage proposal. 

We have tried to explain to the company that we need our raises, and the bargaining committee needs your help to make sure they understand. Our new IAPE t-shirts are being distributed this week in all the major offices and bureaus in anticipation of our first “T-shirt Tuesday” next week on September 24. We’re asking all our members to wear IAPE shirts in the offices on Tuesday or place them on the back of your chairs for visibility. Stay tuned for meet-up times for group photos in each location. We’ll continue t-shirt Tuesdays until we’ve secured the quality contract we deserve. And in the meantime, keep wearing buttons, displaying stickers and keep those desktop backgrounds visible with our campaign wallpaper. 

We are counting the days that we’ve gone without a response to wages and we will keep you updated on ways for you to help amplify that count.