Dow Jones and union agree to three-year contract

The union representing business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com and Dow Jones & Co. have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement covering some 1,300 employees across the United States and in Canada.

The deal, agreed to by representatives of the union and the company, has been reviewed by the elected board of directors of Local 1096, and will be presented to IAPE members for a ratification vote later this month.

The new agreement succeeds the prior agreement which expired on June 30 and provides a first-year minimum salary increases of 2 percent for all union-represented employees retroactive to July 1, and similar minimum 2 percent increases effective July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018, with higher increases possible based on a cost-of-living trigger or if the Company’s pay increase “guidance” for non-union employees is higher than 2 percent in either year.

Both the union and the company have the option to terminate the agreement at the end of the first or second year by giving notice on or before March 15 of 2017 or 2018.  If neither party exercises the right to terminate, the agreement will expire July 30, 2019.

The agreement includes an extension of the company’s 2016 health insurance plan and a freeze of health insurance premium rates for all members of the bargaining unit for 2017.  Premium increases and plan changes are scheduled for 2018 and 2019 under the terms of the new agreement, which will match the company’s non-union plan.

Other contract changes tentatively agreed to include: an increase in the company’s reimbursement to employees for physical fitness expenses of $100 per year to a maximum of $600 per year; increases to shift differential and standby pay; a 1 percent per year increase in all minimum scales for classified jobs; an increase of the salary threshold for eligibility to “sell back” a week of vacation to $1,250/wk (from $1,000); and the granting of five paid sick days to “non-regular” part-time employees.