Opinion ID: 602338
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Information Clause

Text: 12 The Guild proposed adding what is now section 1 of the information clause in 1970. In response, the Company made a counterproposal that included certain safeguards, such as a requirement that the Guild keep confidential any information provided. However, the Guild dropped its proposal in the spring of 1971, in exchange for concessions by the Company on holiday benefits and exemptions from the bargaining unit. The information clause was not again negotiated until 1975. 13 On March 25 of that year, the Company proposed to add an information clause that was broader in scope than the clause's present language. The Guild countered, on October 22, 1975, with a counterproposal making technical revisions to the Company's proposal. Under the 1975 proposals, the Company would have been obligated to provide, in addition to the information set forth in section 1 of the information clause, the following information on a monthly basis: 14 a. All merit increases granted by name of employe [sic], individual amount, resulting new salary, and effective date. 15 b. Step-up increases paid by name of employe [sic], individual amount, resulting new salary, and effective date. 16 c. Changes in classification, any salary changes by reason thereof and effective date. 17 d. Resignations, retirements, deaths and any other revisions in the data listed in Section 1 and effective dates. 18 Joint Appendix at 533. The contract, as finally signed on November 17, 1978, did not include the above language; the information clause did, however, contain present section 1 and the confidentiality requirement the Company had proposed in the 1970 negotiations. 19 In 1980, the Guild proposed that the information clause be broadened to include the additional information disclosure requirements discussed in the 1975 negotiations but deleted from the 1978 agreement. Later that year, the Company asked, inter alia, that section 1 of the information clause be restricted in scope to four items--name, experience rating, anniversary date, and salary change (if any)--for current employees. The agreement in operation from November 17, 1981 to November 16, 1983 adopted the Company's proposed revisions to the information clause, but not the Guild's. 20 The next agreement, which was in effect from December 19, 1984 through November 16, 1986, incorporated the Guild's 1983 proposal to amend section 1 to require the Company to provide the date of hire for current employees. Finally, in the negotiations preceding the most recent agreement, the Guild proposed to include a requirement that the Company provide the specified information on new employees or transferees into the Guild's bargaining unit within thirty days of their addition to the bargaining unit. That proposal was adopted in the most recent collective bargaining agreement and resulted in the present information clause.