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News and Free Press workers and supporters picketed in March to protest lack of progress with contracts. (Deadline Detroit photo)
Journalists at The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press on Sunday overwhelmingly ratified contracts that call for a $700 signing bonus and a 4-percent pay hike over three years.
"Bargaining was long and difficult, but our negotiating teams believe we have rafted the best deal we could for our members in a difficult environment for newspapers," Detroit Newspaper Guild President John Gallagher, a Freep reporter, says in a statement.
The Guild, which negotiated contracts for both papers, represents reporters, photographers, copy editors, page designers, editorial assistants and other newsroom workers.
The contract calls for a 1.5-percent wage increase retroactive to Feb. 24 and subsequently a 1.5-percent pay hike on the first anniversary of the contracts and a 1 percent increase on the second anniversary of the agreements.
On health care, the workers' percentage share of premiums remains as it was in 2014, with no increase in co-pays and deductibles.
One less-appealing aspect of the contracts is an agreement with the Free Press workers and Gannett, the company that owns the paper. the Guild agrees that the Free Press can transfer copy desk and page design functions to a centralized location operated by Gannett "for the purpose of consolidating or centralizing functions."
Under the contract, the Freep can't make such a change until later in 2017. Affected employees would receive contractual severance pay. Additionally, those employees would receive health insurance during severance, plus a bridge to pension for employees who are 60 and older.
Guild members have said the raises in this contract were designed to help them earn back some of the money lost during contractual pay cuts in the past.
