The Newspaper Guild is planning a meeting for this Thursday to discuss the Company’s proposed layoffs.

The session will be held at the large auditorium in the first floor of the Albany Labor Temple, 890 Third St., Albany. Yes, we know the Desmond is more convenient, but the space at the Labor Temple is free to us and the Guild too needs to be cost conscious.

The exact start time will be determined Monday morning, but we expect it to be either 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m.

We do not yet have any details of the Company’s plans, but we can answer questions and get your input on what you want your union to do. We can also explain the process as outlined in the contract.

It’s important to note that there have not been layoffs previously at the Times Union, so this process is new to us as well. We still believe it is in everyone’s best interest for the Company to offer buyouts first.

Please take time to come to this very important meeting.

Publisher George Hearst said Thursday the Times Union will soon announce a layoff of workers.

He declined to publicly discuss numbers or say when an announcement would be made, but said it was imminent. “A notification will be going out to employees in the early days ahead,” Hearst said at a contract negotiating session with the Guild.

Under the contract, the Company must give workers at least 45 days’ notice of layoffs so the union can talk to the Company about any steps if possible to alleviate the hardship. If shorter notice is given, the employees must be given 45 days’ pay. You can read the contractual language on layoffs here.

“We are aware of the economic troubles our nation is facing,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We know the newspaper  industry is seeing more job cuts announced every day. While we do not favor layoffs, especially when our workers are already stretched thin, we will do our best to help our members through these difficult times.”

Employees who are designated for layoff have “bumping rights” to return to a previously held position. If a person is let go, they also must be placed on a rehiring list. Rehires are done on the basis of seniority in a job classification.

The Company has proposed changing the layoff language in a way that would render seniority rights useless. Currently, the language says layoffs are to occur in the reverse order of hiring. The Company wants to alter that language to make seniority “one of” the factors considered in a layoff. Hearst said at the table, however, that the Company does not want to consider seniority. It wants to pick and choose employees based on managers’ opinion of their “quality.”

Bargaining Committee member John DeMania noted that such opinions are arbitrary. “This month you are a superstar,” he said. “The next month, you’re in the doghouse.”

Guild bargainers noted any agreement would have to be approved by a membership vote, and it would be difficult to get members to approve language that makes everyone vulnerable to layoffs in the midst of a troubled economy.

“These issues are not negotiated in a vacuum,” O’Brien said. He noted the union had given the Company a serious proposal that removed many items its members considered important, and it offered major concessions as well.

But foremost on everyone’s minds was the impending layoffs. “As soon as we have information, we will share it with you,” O’Brien said. “We also intend to call a membership meeting to allow people to ask any questions they may have.”

In bargaining Thursday, the Guild sharply reduced its list of proposals and offered concessions including a voluntary furlough program and a way for the Company to outsource work in areas of sharp decline.

The Guild said it would encourage its members to take at least a week of unpaid time off as a cost-saving measure. The Guild also offered a detailed proposal on outsourcing that would give the union a chance to match a contractor’s offer.

The union also removed a host of proposals its members considered important. They included raising differentials for the first time in more than 20 years, getting the Company to pay toward the personal cell phones many use for their jobs, and enabling workers to get five weeks’ vacation sooner than 25 years.

“In light of the current economy, we sharply reduced our list to those issues that are vitally important,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We also offered unprecedented concessions.”

You can read details of the Guild’s proposal here.

The two parties did reach four tentative agreements on minor issues: 1) Employees will be able to contribute the maximum allowed to their 401(k) plans; 2) allowing non-Christian employees to swap Christmas for another religious holiday; 3) a notation that unused makeup and personal days are paid when an employee is terminated; and 4) the creation of a new title of “rack technician” for the employee who collects money from and repairs the newspaper’s rack boxes. The employee is now classified as a driver, but that does not accurately reflect his work.

It feels like death by 1,000 paper cuts.

Now the Company’s San Antonio Express-News is cutting 75 jobs in its newsroom. It feels like we’re standing on shore, watching a tidal wave heading right at us. And I am sorry, but all this talk about preserving quality with cuts this deep isn’t going to cut it. Employees don’t believe it. Readers don’t believe it. Newspapers depend on their credibility, and they shred it when they act as if everything will be fine with staffing diminished this deeply.

Every day brings more bad news from newspapers around the country, and the Hearst Corp. is no exception. The company has now announced it could fold the San Francisco Chronicle after already saying it would fold the Seattle Post-Intelligencer if a buyer can’t be found. (No one expects that to happen.)

Another Hearst paper, the Houston Chronicle, has said it would  cut “more than 10 percent” of staff. And every day the revenue picture worsens.

We do not expect the Times Union to be exempt from these forces. We return to the bargaining table at 10 a.m. Thursday and are preparing a package that will include some concessions. No one would want to be bargaining a contract in this economy, but then again our Newspaper Guild local was born in the darkest days of the depression 75 years ago next month.

Some might argue unions are not needed any more, especially as companies fight to stave off fiscal disaster. We believe our long and proud history shows that unions like ours are needed now more than ever to represent our employees as they face some of the darkest days most of us have ever seen.