Day 3 - Second edition
More around midnight

The Journal's trial on 46 charges of violating federal labor law entered its third day today, with Schick completing the first phase of his testimony in the morning and facing cross-examination in the afternoon.

The charges stem from a 2½-year dispute between the Journal and the Providence Newspaper Guild, whose last contract expired on Dec. 31, 1999.

The focus of today's testimony was the Guild's information requests.

Schick testified that the company in 2000 stopped providing the weekly payroll memorandums that it used to provide to the Guild. Instead, it now provides a monthly report that does not have all the information the Guild needs to enforce its contract, he said.

The Guild's contract, which is still in effect, requires that the company provide certain information on a weekly basis. Until 2000, the company had chosen to fulfill that obligation by providing the payroll memos. The information, Schick explained, is needed so that the Guild can monitor the use of temporary employees, employee workloads, eligibility for vacations and benefits, leaves of absence, and other workplace and wage issues.

Schick testified that he believed the payroll memos that the company previously provided were generated in the normal course of business. In contrast, he said, it appears that the company is producing the monthly reports specifically for the Guild.

On cross-examination, Perras asked Schick whether the Guild, in negotiations, had sought to expand the contract article concerning information requests, by specifying that the payroll summaries be provided.

"No," Schick replied. "We were already receiving them. … It's not our practice to negotiate over things that are not being contested."

Perras asked whether the payroll memos were ever used for a grievance. Schick replied: "It is rare that we have a grievance that does not in some way relate to the payroll information we have on the payroll memos.''

Noting that the Guild's request for the payroll memos was "never narrowed to any particular grievance," Perras asked whether the Guild thought its request might be burdensome.

"No,'' Schick replied, "since the company had been providing them for 35 years and had no problem.''

Later, Perras again asked Schick whether the requests for information formerly contained in the payroll memos was burdensome. Schick replied that the company was creating more work for itself by drawing up monthly summaries "rather than running the payroll memo through the copy machine like it had been doing for years.''

More details on today's testimony will be posted later tonight.

The complaints against the Journal have been brought by the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor laws. The hearing, in Pawtucket City Hall, is scheduled to run until the end of next week. So far, testimony before Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol has proceeded at a brisk pace, and the hearing appears likely to finish on time.

Daily reports on the trial will be posted here on www.journalontrial.org. The Web site also has directions and a map to Pawtucket City Hall, 137 Roosevelt Ave. The trial starts at 11 a.m. on Monday and at 9 a.m. on the other days. Here's how to get there:

From Providence and points south: Take Rte. 95 north to School Street exit. Turn left at bottom of ramp onto School Street. Pass Apex on the left and go through one light (one-way right) to next light, bearing left. Go to light at Slater Mill and Visitors Center, making a right onto Roosevelt Avenue. City Hall will be on your right, with parking on left. Trial is on third floor.

From Boston and points north: Take Rte. 95 south into Rhode Island. Take exit 29, Downtown Pawtucket. At end of ramp, merge onto Broadway. Go about two-tenths of a mile and turn right onto Exchange Street. Turn left on Roosevelt Avenue. City Hall will be on your left, with parking on the right. Trial is on the third floor.

Felice J. Freyer is the Providence Journal's award-winning medical writer. She joined the paper in 1982 and was assigned to the medical beat in 1989. A member of the Guild's Executive Committee since 1994, she has taken a leave from the newspaper to cover the trial.

There is much more information about the dispute at the Guild's main website, www.riguild.org. E-mail the Guild at png@riguild.org. The union's mailing address is: The Providence Newspaper Guild, 270 Westminster St., Providence, RI 02903. Telephone: (401) 421-9466. FAX: (401) 421-9495.