TU Plus Raises Equals Fair Deal for TU Families

As many people now know, the Times Union has begun charging for access to its premium, locally-created stories and other content under a program called TU Plus.

At as little as $1 a week for digital-only access, TU Plus is a great value, and the Guild fully embraces this effort to support the quality journalism produced at the Times Union each and every day.

But the Guild also wants the community to remember, at a time when the Times Union is asking its readers for greater financial support, that the workers who make the Times Union what it is have gone for seven years _ and counting _ under a wage freeze.

The freeze stems from the company’s insistence that the Guild surrender seniority and outsourcing rights in exchange for a very modest one-shot payment, but no raise in annual salary. The Guild has declined to submit to this.

With wages frozen, the average TU family has seen their standard of living drop by about 20 percent during this time as the cost of living continues to increase.

So if the owners of the Times Union really believe in TU Plus, they need to apply it not only to their readers, also to the people who are working harder than ever at the newspaper to create the stories, shoot the photographs, create graphics and advertising copy, sell the ads, and deliver the product.

Please call Publisher George Hearst at 454.5555 and urge him to apply TU Plus to the people who work here.