Borders Negotiations
December 18, 2002
Session 1

*These are the notes from the 12/18/02 session; it is not intended to be a verbatim transcription*

For the Union:
Simone Menier (Borders)
Jason Evans (Borders)
Holly Krig (Borders)
Bill Pearson, President UFCW 789
Bernie Hesse, Organizer UFCW 789
Jennifer Christensen, Representative UFCW 789

For the Company:
Maria Zachman
Mark Shiffmann, Attorney at Law
James Lathrop, Director HR

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services:
Mitch Franklin

--9:40 a.m.--

Bill
It would be helpful, because we only have one day, It would be helpful to know who is the mediator so we can set dates.

Mark
This is the nicest FMCS office I�ve been in. As far as, as I said to you, we certainly have no problem involving mediation, I don�t know that we to add early in the process of the negotiation, to involve the delay of the mediators schedule. It is hard enough to try and get dates without involving the mediators schedules. We are open to that process.

Bill
I have been doing this for years- We were in Long Prairie yesterday, we didn�t have a mediator there. If we are meeting here, I won�t give up dates because there isn�t a mediator. The advantage of taking dates is we can book a room.

Mitch
When you book rooms, those rooms are subject to cancel if the mediator needs it. Also you have to go at 5 pm if you are meeting without a mediator. Part of our new security.

Bill
As I said, I was in Long Prairie yesterday, it was a 14 hour day, but we got it done. Our, the only, value of being here is that these are going to be a very unusual set of negotiations. We are approaching it a little differently. I have spent a fair amount of time reading the pages of negotiations from 5 years ago. I�ve had the emails made available. The history is from an education standpoint; how I do business is across the table looking face to face. I am not interested in getting a contract I have to force on people. It is not about what I think they should have, it is about what they think they should have.

My style, there was a point in my history where I was a produce clerk, one of the guys from the International came in and I opened my mouth and the guy from the Int�l took me out into the hall and reamed me. I never forgot that. I let all of my committees speak. I expect my committees to be courteous � come to the table civil�we expect to get a contract.

We are posting everything we do (in negotiations) on bordersunion.com. This will be the most transparent negotiations ever. We are being realistic in our proposals. Our proposed contract is 16 pages long � our grocery one is 70. For many years we have tried to keep negotiations a secret. For the last two contracts we built a web site, email committees, in store communications committees. After negotiations we would send out/post on the internet members would print and post in the store.

Membership involvement is critical to the success of any union. We have moved to an open communication style with the membership. I know it can be uncomfortable I want to make sure it is on the table so there is no surprises to anyone.

Mark
You indicate that the negotiations are going to be unusual. We�ve had negotiations in auditoriums � You indicated that the only difference is that they are going to be open. We have had four negotiations. 3 were ratified. One ended up not being. I don�t think at any point in those processes was there even a harsh word exchanged.

Even under the contract, in the 3 places we did achieve a contract it was the union that chose not to negotiate. In one place they walked away in the middle. Then I was contacted and they said don�t come to town� I don�t see that this is going to be different. While Borders hasn�t experienced the open communication in negotiations, I have. The one thing I would request is that the communication be accurate. We have reviewed the web site. There was one letter that was posted and one that was received. The difference was the spelling of the name was different. If you are going to do this as is your right, you do it as accurately as you can. I don�t see that this is going to be any different that normal .

This is your committee?

Bill
Maybe one more from the office

Mark
This is the meeting place (FMCS). How likely is it that we get a last minute cancellation?

Mitch
Not likely, we try to take in consideration people flying in.

Mark
If there is an agreement I would assume that on your end it has to be ratified.

Bill
Yes.

Mark
We will come to the table with authority to offer agreements at the table.

Language first and then economics

Bill
We have a full contract.

Mark
Do you agree that this makes more sense �language first.

Bill
What ever makes you more comfortable. I got your letter

Mark
Regular language.
Economic language.
Then economics.
This makes the economics more easy.

We would have you forward your contract to us and we would give you a counter proposal based on your original. What I don�t like doing is you working on one set of papers and me off another.

Jennifer:
Re: electronic communication � form format?

Mark:
I will put you in touch with the person who takes care of that

Bill
Mark had alluded to the letter. And she sent it out to Greg Josefowicz with the name sent incorrectly. I insulted him in the letter by spelling the name wrong, didn�t want to do it on the web too.

We will have this information on the web. What we are saying isn�t a secret. We will put you on the web. The minutes of the meeting will be posed as to what is being said across the table. There is video streaming�

Mark
Your not going to video stream?

Bill
Only If you agree to it.

Mark
I have too many bad sides.

Bill
We are going to be producing video�

I have read the information on negotiations, I am not implying that it was anyone�s fault. I have never not gotten a contract.

Mark
I think it has happened to me once

Bill
And I�ll tell you another thing- I always got another contract. I can tell you when we hooked up with the people from Borders � We have a website youareworthmore.org - Our goal is to represent people in that store

Mitch
No notes taken in caucus- In joint session I don�t care what you do, but when I am talking to just the union or just the company, notes are subject to the confidentiality of the mediator. Those sessions are confidential in nature. I have served my purpose, I am going to remove myself from the negotiations process.
If you need me I will be available.

Bill
Did we schedule just the morning? Or do we have all day?

Mark
By the early afternoon

Bill
I only say that because if you are going to assign a mediator. We would like to know before we leave so we can get dates.

---Break�

10:44 a.m.

Bill
Again I know that this is a little unique. I won�t go into it. Again I will forward it to you electronically. For purposes of today though I will pass these out to you (Bill passes out bound proposed contract). And while there is a signature page, I don�t expect you to sign it. And just so you know we will pass it out to all the workers.

Mark
I think for future negotiations I will bring back to you 8.5 x 11

Is there anything in here that you think we won�t (understand)? If there are any items you want to highlight

Bill
I have stolen language from many contracts.. We have 70 contracts (to draw from).
(Bill touches on highlights and articles of contract proposal)

Article 1 � standard union security language
Article 2 � Managements rights came off of the web site..don�t know where it originally come from
Article 3- Worker�s rights - These proposals come very much from the workers

Mark
Let me ask: by �Union Representative� do you mean the professional union representative?

Bill
Initially Yes. (will be training) (continue to touch on highlights of Article 3)

Article 4 � Standard boiler plate language
35 hour workweek with option of 40 .

I am sure we will have much discussion. Understand this is all subject to negotiations but we wanted it to fit into what you are doing.

Mark
On contingency employees is it 5% of the work force or 5% of the hours.

Holly
As we discussed it, it seemed clear that it was 5% of the work force

Bill
In the contingent work force we are trying to be sure that the FT and PT employees get the hours.

Holly
We wanted to be sure that they (contingent) don�t outnumber the regular employees (FT PT).

Article 6 � layoff/recall/job bidding

Mark
You put in the layoff language contingent before probationary. In the borders culture is that the contingent is typically the borders employee who has stepped back.

Bill
I think that if you hired a probationary employee was hired because there was a hole. We wanted to be sure that the �real� employees got to work.

Mark
Again, contingent employees are contingent because they want to be. They choose. They don�t want a regular schedule.

Bill
Article 7 � Holidays

Mark
4 of the holidays you have listed are always fall on Mondays.

Bill
What we were trying to say is, if there is fairness it is good; if they work more there is an incentive.

Article 8 - PTO
We proposed this, you are probably familiar with this.

Article 9
Leaves of absence
This is tandard Language

Article 10 � Grievance and arbitration
(bill goes though steps as listed)

Mark
you have Bureau of Mediation Services written. This is FMCS

Article 11 � Health Care Plan

Bill
We are proposing the UFCW Retail Health Care Plan. I don�t have what your current costs are�

Mark
I will send them to you. Send me your SPD

Am I to read that this is $280 per month?

Bill
It is up to $307 (new rate).

(Bill briefly summarizes retail health care plan)

Bill
Part time going to $27.73/week.

(Bill summarizes plan)

Article 12 � Benefit Protection

Bill
I started to propose our 401 plan, but then I saw your plan. We wrote this in trying to maintain what you have rather than plug (the employees) into ours.

I want to point out, and this comes from the employees, parking is at a premium at your store, the employees have proposed a bus pass reimbursement of 50%.

Article 13 � Legal Issues
This is standard language

Article 14 � we propose a two year agreement

Wages:
We have adopted the Minneapolis Living wage base rate for 2001 as our starting rate. When we see where people are at we will plug in the other scale rates

This proposal is pretty basic. I always want to get contracts that are easy to understand. We could have brought the Minneapolis retail language.

Mark
Jim any questions?

Jim
No.

Bill:
One of the things that I have seen (on the web) stated continuously by Borders workers is that they would like to have more in put into the running of the stores This is going to sound like a criticism... But the bigger any entity gets the structure controls and this is coming from the UFCW which is a top down organization .. The Borders workers are trying to do what we as a local are trying to do as an organization.

Mark:
Do you want to talk about some dates?

Bill - Yes

January 9,10 � 16, 17 To begin at 9:30 a.m.