If the Guild pension plan is to be merged with the Company’s plan as proposed, it is an action that can only be taken by one group: the membership.

Section 14.C. of the contract, on page 32, states: “The Fund will be maintained in accordance with applicable law as a jointly administered trust fund…” This language remains in effect, and the Company made no proposal to alter it in our negotiations.

The only way that a merger can be approved is if it is negotiated with the union and a change to that language is ratified by the membership. You get to decide.

That was the legal advice provided by our counsel, Barbara Camens, after the meeting Wednesday. We are still awaiting a written proposal from the Company.

Ms. Camens made clear that the pension trustees would be in violation of the contract and the law if they voted to move the plan without a vote of the membership. Unfortunately, some of our trustees were poised to do just that. As a result, we made the heart-renching decision to remove two of them.

One of the two was told repeatedly that a vote of the membership should be done, and this person instead insisted this was an action that could be unilaterally taken by the trustees. That is not true and goes against the advice of our counsel, our contract language and the best interests of our membership.

Some have expressed the belief that this step was taken in order to prevent the merger from happening. This is not true. We are still awaiting the Company’s written proposal, we will review it with our attorneys and we will respond appropriately.

In the end, neither the Executive Board nor the trustees will make this decision. Only the membership has the authority to do it. It’s in your hands.

Guild pension trustees reached a conceptual agreement Wednesday with the Company to merge the union pension plan with a company one.

The decision was not an easy one to make. With the fund likely to face shortfalls of $1 million or more a year starting in 2011, the trustees had a choice between facing making cuts to the benefits or hoping that the move to the more solidly financed company plan would help retain benefits into the future.

The decision won’t be final into an agreement is reached on the exact language. The Guild has scheduled an informational meeting at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11, at the Colonie Town Library to discuss the decision with members.

The Company was willing to guarantee pension benefits only for the next two years, through Dec. 31, 2011.

“This was a difficult decision for the trustees to reach. We did it after much debate and consultation with Guild Local President Tim O’Brien and International officers and staff,” trustee Ken Crowe said. “Our goal has always been to preserve our pension benefits going forward.”

Under federal law, pension benefits earned to date, and under the agreement over the next two years, are protected and cannot be reduced.

“I want to thank the trustees for all their efforts,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “It is not easy to have to decide what  to do to best secure your colleagues’ pensions for as long as you can.”

Besides Crowe, the other trustees are Mark Corelli, Christine Wright and John Runfola. They were joined Wednesday by O’Brien, Chief Steward Ray Pitlyk and Melissa Nelson, collective bargaining director for the Guild International and a past Albany president and pension trustee.