Looking Good At 80
Happy Birthday, IAPE!
IAPE turns 80 today! We'll be marking our 80th anniversary with various events over the course of the year, starting with "Know Your Contract" sessions in New York (and yes, there will be cake).
For now, take a stroll along memory lane as we look back at the history of our Union, and how we grew into the organization we are today.
MILESTONES IN IAPE HISTORY
Today's IAPE is very different from the Union that was founded 80 years ago by a small group of employees in New York.
Here's a look at the long road that has led us to where we are today.
May 24, 1937 Dow Jones News Department Employees Association of New York is formed by 55 workers. Higher-paid members paid dues of $1 a month; lower-paid members paid 50 cents a month.
June 24, 1937 As employees from non-News operations joined, the Union's name was changed to Dow Jones Employees Association of New York.
April 16, 1946 The Union is incorporated in New York.
February 19, 1951 The Union becomes the Dow Jones Employees Association Inc. as workers outside of New York join the Union.
January 22, 1953 A new name, the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees Inc., is adopted with new members from companies acquired by Dow Jones.
1950s-1970s An extraordinary period of growth. Many large locations — such as South Brunswick and Chicago — are organized. IAPE also represents workers in Canada. By the end of the 1970s, IAPE represented almost 2,000 workers. At this time, IAPE also tried to organize workers at the Chicopee, MA, production plant. Dow Jones's top management mounted a strong anti-Union campaign and urged workers there to reject IAPE because "you'll get everything they get, and you won't have to pay dues." IAPE lost that certification vote.
IAPE also successfully organized workers at a local Newspaper in Upstate New York that was owned by The Ottaway subsidiary of Dow Jones. IAPE did not have a staff or the resources to support the new group, and those members subsequently left IAPE.
Summer 1987 Members vote on whether to join the GCIU, an AFL-CIO international Union. This marked the first time IAPE members had to decide whether or not to continue as an independent Union. Although a majority of IAPE members approved, the affiliation proposed failed because the bylaws required a two-third majority.
1990 Our Union's office is relocated from New York City to Princeton Junction, N.J. The new office is five
miles from IAPE's largest single site, the Dow Jones campus in South Brunswick.
1991 Employees in London and Tokyo vote to join IAPE. Dow Jones wins arbitration to deny coverage to these members, arguing that the contract doesn't apply to the local conditions.
1993 A percentage based dues system is adopted. Members gave their approval amid a financial crisis that threatened our Union's existence — locked in tough contract talks, our financial reserves had dwindled to $30,000, about three months' operating costs.
1995 Union hires its first full-time staff person.
1996 IAPE represents members at SmartMoney, a joint venture between DJ and Hearst. For the first time, IAPE represents workers outside Dow Jones.
1996 IAPE Board approves hiring second staffer.
Late 1990s Members working in Information Technology become the largest single group within Union. For most of our history, the News group (reporters, copy editors) had been the largest group.
January 1, 1997 IAPE joins the Communications Workers of America and becomes CWA Local 1096. During tough negotiations in 1996, Dow Jones "laid off" a Union negotiator. IAPE members saw this as a blatant attempt to intimidate the Union. By a 3-to-1 margin, IAPE members voted to join the CWA. The move came after years of unsuccessful efforts to join the rest of the U.S. labor movement.
1998 The Newspaper Guild formally joins CWA.
IAPE organizes two Dow Jones printing plants — in Englewood, Colo., and Bowling Green, Ohio. IAPE narrowly loses vote at Sharon, Ohio, plant. In a first, IAPE represents production workers. Although several DJ printing plants are currently represented by another Union, Dow Jones still has several non-Union plants across the country.
Dow Jones sells Dow Jones Markets (formerly Telerate) to Bridge. Union wins a huge victory on severance pay to hundreds of members who lost their jobs and were forced to go to Bridge.
1999 IAPE members win contracts at the Englewood, Colo., and Bowling Green, Ohio, production plants. IAPE members now work under three contracts.
December 15, 1999 IAPE and Dow Jones reach agreement on a new three-year main bargaining unit contract retroactive to May 1, 1999. The company agrees to a paid leave of absence for one employee designated by the Union to serve as an elected Union official on a full-time basis, or less than full-time with the consent of the employee's manager. Dow Jones and IAPE negotiate a new defined contribution pension plan and a 401 (k) savings plan (RRSP plan for employees in Canada) to replace the previous profit sharing retirement plan.
January 1, 2000 IAPE becomes part of The Newspaper Guild, itself a sector of CWA.
2000 IAPE represents 300 members in Factiva, a joint venture between Dow Jones and Reuters. IAPE negotiates a "mirror" of the Dow Jones contract to cover this new Factiva bargaining unit.
A "high-water mark" for IAPE membership: the Union represents 2,600 workers at three companies — Dow Jones, Factiva and SmartMoney. IAPE members work under four contracts. Almost 1,000 members are located in South Brunswick; approximately 600 in the New York office; the remainder in dozens of sites throughout Canada and the U.S.
September 11, 2001 Dow Jones's New York office space at the World Financial Center is destroyed during the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Employees are reassigned to other New York locations and to South Brunswick — some temporarily, some permanently. IAPE and Dow Jones negotiate special relocation benefits for many who permanently relocate to South Brunswick.
December 5, 2002 Three IAPE members, supported by Planned Parenthood and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reach a settlement with Dow Jones & Company to provide contraceptive coverage in all medical plans for all its employees, plus retroactive reimbursement for contraceptive coverage bought by current and former employees back to January 1, 2001. IAPE had been working to resolve this issue since June of 2001.
January 16, 2004 Following a "Vote No" campaign generated by members in New York and supported by a newly elected slate of IAPE officers and directors, IAPE members vote for the first time to reject a contract settlement — one which would have required IAPE-represented employees to begin paying premiums for healthcare coverage. In October, members will ultimately ratify a contract — containing medical premiums, but also bonuses to offset costs in the first year.
November 15, 2004 Dow Jones & Company acquires MarketWatch. IAPE files a grievance over the Company's failure to recognize MarketWatch staff as incoming Dow Jones employees eligible for Union representation. IAPE and Dow Jones reach a settlement allowing IAPE to organize as many locations as possible without management opposition. MarketWatch employees in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington choose IAPE representation.
May 12, 2005 IAPE members reject a proposal to increase membership dues and join the CWA strike fund. Members continue paying 0.55% of gross pay, up to a maximum of $25.00 per month.
November 18, 2005 IAPE members adopt a new Union dues structure, calling for dues and fees to be assessed at a rate of 0.7% of base pay (and commissions, if applicable) up to a maximum of $20.77 per bi-weekly pay period. The dues maximum will be increased each year by the average percentage salary increase of each IAPE-administered contract.
January 3, 2006 Richard Zannino replaces Peter Kann as CEO of Dow Jones & Company. Kann remains Chairman of the Board until 2007.
April 28, 2006 Dow Jones begins the first of several rounds of outsourcing. Hundreds of IAPE-represented jobs and many more non-Union positions around the globe will ultimately be eliminated.
April 14, 2007 IAPE organizes Dow Jones employees at Harborside — Jersey City, NJ — the largest remaining non-Union Dow Jones location in America. As a result, IAPE adds more than 200 members to its ranks.
May 1, 2007 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. launch a $5 billion bid to acquire Dow Jones, majority owned by the Bancroft family. IAPE, working with our advisors, Ownership Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts and with the resources of our affiliate union organizations, The Newspaper Guild and the Communications Workers of America, begins reaching out to substantial investors in hopes of finding a partner in our effort to maintain the editorial independence of Dow Jones & Company and preserve the unquestioned journalistic integrity of all of its publications and products.
June 1, 2007 The IAPE office moves to its current location in Plainsboro, NJ — just two miles from the Dow Jones campus in South Brunswick.
July 31, 2007 News Corp. acquires Dow Jones & Company. Les Hinton is named CEO of the Dow Jones unit.
October 12, 2007 IAPE members in the main Dow Jones bargaining unit ratify a three-year contract. IAPE negotiates an accelerated vacation schedule, resulting in an additional week of paid vacation time for many members — and, when the new policy is extended company-wide, to non-Union staff as well.
December 5, 2007 Employees in the production bargaining unit at the Englewood, CO printing plant vote to decertify and leave the Union. One year later, Dow Jones closes the plant and lays off all employees.
November 10, 2008 Dow Jones "reacquires" the Reuters portion of Factiva. IAPE and Dow Jones agree to merge the Factiva bargaining unit into the Dow Jones unit.
February 11, 2010 News Corp. sells control of Dow Jones Indexes to Chicago's CME. A small group of IAPE-represented employees are split off into a separate bargaining unit.
March 1, 2010 Dow Jones purchases the Hearst Corporation's stake in SmartMoney.
July 31, 2010 Separate staff at Dow Jones Indexes now employed by CME vote against IAPE representation. Many of those positions are eventually eliminated through CME restructuring and layoffs. IAPE retains the apostrophe in our name, even though we once again only represent employees at a single publisher.
2011 Following years of technology outsourcing and multi-department layoffs, New York becomes the largest IAPE-represented location once again with more than 500 Union-covered employees working at the News Corporation building in Midtown. IAPE-represented staff levels in South Brunswick hover around the 475-500 mark.
June 28, 2013 News Corp. splits into two companies, with print media units — including Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal — remaining with News Corp (minus the period) and other entities placed in a company to be known as 21st Century Fox.
January 22, 2014 Lex Fenwick is ousted as CEO of Dow Jones, less than two years after being installed in the position. Fenwick presided over a tumultuous period at Dow Jones which saw the departure of over a dozen senior executives and the elimination of popular brands like Smart Money Magazine, all while focusing on beefing up Dow Jones customer service ranks and introducing DJX to a less-than-receptive client base. Fenwick is replaced by William Lewis, first on an interim basis and then permanently on May 8, 2014.
March 8, 2016 IAPE releases an analysis of pay equity and claims pay gaps exist among gender and ethnic lines at Dow Jones. Will Lewis responds and pledges to "do a thorough review of our current hiring, development and compensation programs to ensure diversity and equality are prioritised."
November 28, 2016 IAPE members ratify a new three-year contract at our main bargaining unit at Dow Jones. The new deal contains an early opt-out clause which allows either the Union or the Company to terminate the remainder of the deal after each contract year.
January 12, 2017 Members at the Bowling Green, OH printing plant ratify a one-year extension of their collective agreement.
Today After years of consolidation and restructuring under News Corp ownership of Dow Jones, IAPE represents approximately 1,300 DJ staff working at 21 locations across the United States and Canada.