THE SAN FRANCISCO Chronicle a "Hearst Corporation Newspaper". Implements back to work fitness test! Can you imagine working for a Corporation for 42 years and being told after being off work for more than 90 days on S.D.I. "State Disability Insurance" that you can't return to work until your attending physician signs a lengthy return to work job description form. Then scheduled by the company doctor to take a back to work pass or fail physical fitness test that isn't in your Collective Bargaining Agreement and has never been a procedure used on any previous disability leaves. My attending physician has sent in a letter stating I could return to work with no job restrictions. This isn't good enough. My doctor will not sign a form that he has never had to fill out before and isn't comfortable with signing. I'm not going to subject myself to a fitness test that I may not pass! I'm a pressman running a press not a pilot flying an airplane. Lets face it this is a way of keeping some individuals from going on disability. Could this be a way of trying to get around age discrimination? Can you imagine Corporate America being allowed to make employees take back to work pass or fail physicals before being allowed to return to work. The last time I remember being forced to take a physical was back in 1965 when I got drafted! My Union and myself will be going before an Arbitrator on April 21, 2006. I would imagine if we some how loose this Arbitration it could have a ripple effect on the workers in this country!! In the meantime the Hearst Corporation has been sandbagging the Arbitration procedure and I have been on unemployment since October 17, 2005.

--Bruce Carlton
San Francisco Web Pressmen and Prepress Workers' Union 4N
bbsix@comcast.net