Dow Jones union says it may need to file grievance

The following email went out to members of the union representing Dow Jones employees who work at The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch.com and Barron’s:

All,

We have a contract, and — as Mark Musgrave conceded in his email from management — the Vote No campaign had its intended effect: Management and our fellow members know hundreds of us are willing to push back to get better pay and better benefits.

Now job No. 1 is to defend the contract we have — and prepare to fight the concessions management will try to extract the next time, whether that’s in 2017 or down the road.

The union is prepared to fight: IAPE may already need to file a grievance under the new contract, over management’s attempt to renege on increasing physical-fitness reimbursement for the current year.

We are in the process of recruiting stewards and activists to help coordinate efforts across all our offices. If you know engaged, committed IAPE members anywhere in the U.S. or Canada who are willing to help out on a sustained basis, email us here.

We are particularly in need of activists and stewards in New York City and South Brunswick. (They can also talk to Melissa Korn or Lauren Weber.) The duties aren’t onerous; mostly, it’s a matter of being a contact point when mobilizing and planning actions, and for members who have questions or ideas.

Finally, we have personal email addresses for nearly half of all IAPE members, including you. We could use your help getting more — if you’d like to pitch in, reply to this note. We may also be running up against the limits of how many people we can email at one time, and will probably ask you to join a Google group in the coming days.

Thanks,

The DC/Southeast crew

IAPE 1096 Southeast region