Dow Jones union to extend contract for a year

The union that represents business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch.com sent out the following announcement to its members:

IAPE members – thanks to all who responded to our survey request last week.

To refresh your memory, we asked whether you would prefer to extend our current contract for another year – keeping all terms, including the Company’s flexibility to modify healthcare – or negotiate toward a brand new agreement with Dow Jones.

The results are in, and your answer is clear: extend the contract. That’s the message we received in 497 responses, while 148 told us to negotiate and 17 were undecided.

The IAPE Bargaining Committee has already informed Dow Jones management representatives of our decision to extend the collective agreement by one year, effective July 1, 2015. Management is working on a draft Memorandum of Agreement to be presented to the Union committee later this week or early next.

Your IAPE reps will review that document and present it to your elected Board of Directors for approval. Once done, the IAPE Election Committee will schedule a ratification vote, likely to take place in mid- to late-July. Only members in good standing may vote in the upcoming ratification.

Our agreement with the Company calls for a 2% compensatory increase and a 1% adjustment in introductory pay scales (for those newer employees progressing through those scale levels). All other terms and conditions of the IAPE contract remain unchanged through June 30, 2016.

Raises will likely be processed in August or September, but will be paid retroactive to July 1. Employees who were hired or transferred into IAPE-represented positions after May 1, 2015 are not eligible for a 2015 contract pay increase.

Exact dates will be passed along to the IAPE membership as soon as they become available. Until then, thanks again for participating in our survey.

Now, let’s start getting ready for 2016.