WSJ’s union: Layoffs were much less than 40

The following note was sent to members of the Newspaper Guild, which represents journalists and other employees of The Wall Street Journal:

All,

Many of you have contacted the IAPE office and asked about recent media reports describing layoffs at The Wall Street Journal.

Quite frankly, if 40 people at The Journal lost their jobs last week, we don’t know who they are. The Company is required to provide the Union with notices of any layoffs affecting IAPE-represented employees. We did receive notification of four new layoffs last Friday – three from Sales, one from News – to go along with Technology department cuts from earlier in the year.

Our layoff list is posted on the Union website at http://iape1096.org/info/layoffStatus.php. If those media reports are accurate, we can only speculate that they represent the elimination of management and other non-Union positions, or open jobs that had been posted as vacancies.

And now for our Holiday Pay reminder . . . Under the terms of the collective agreement between IAPE and Dow Jones & Company, all employees, regardless of overtime eligibility, are entitled to Holiday Pay whenever they are required to work on any of the holidays recognized by the IAPE/DJ collective bargaining agreement.

The eight U.S. holidays recognized by the contract are New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In Canada the CBA recognizes New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing Day, St. Jean Baptiste Day (in Quebec) and Civic Day (in Ontario). Friday, July 4, 2014 is Independence Day.

Any IAPE-represented employee in the United States who is assigned to work tomorrow is entitled to Holiday Pay: time and one-half for any regularly scheduled hours, and double-time for any hours in excess of your regular day (plus another day off, or an additional day’s pay — at the discretion of the Company). Similarly, Tuesday, July 1, 2014 was Canada Day. IAPE-represented employees in Canada who were required to work on Tuesday are entitled to the same Holiday Pay benefits described above.

Tips on filing for Holiday Pay may be found on our website — but please remember, whenever you make a Holiday Pay claim, HReSource will only accept pay requests from the previous eight weeks. If you worked on a holiday from earlier this year and you just realized that you forgot to file for your time, you will be required to deliver a paper time slip to the Payroll Department.

If you have any questions about these or any provisions of the IAPE contract, please reach out to your local IAPE Director, or contact IAPE president Bob Kozma, treasurer and grievance committee chairman Rob Johnson, or executive director Tim Martell.