Members of the Albany Newspaper Guild rallied Saturday outside the Times Union’s car show to say 8 years is too long to go without a raise.

The employees held signs saying “I can’t afford a new car. I work here” and “NO MONEY gets TU workers DOWN.”

Leading up to the event, the Guild filmed a hilarious but powerful “car commercial” about the lack of raises that racked up thousands of views. You can find it here on our web page or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Feel free not only to like it but share it!

The employees were not objecting to the car show. In fact, people who stopped to talk to the workers were given a flyer that said: “Welcome to the Car Show! It’s for a good cause, the Hope Fund, but we’re here for a good cause too and we hope you can help.”

What are the key issues? The Times Union wants the ability to outsource work without negotiation and it wants to be able to lay off the most long-serving employees without lessening an early retirement penalty or guaranteeing enhanced severance will last. In exchange, the TU proposes to give employees no raise, just a one-time $1,000 bonus. The Guild has made 10 separate offers to settle the contract since 2009 while the Company is still pushing the same proposal overwhelmingly rejected by workers.

An anniversary not worthy of celebration just passed for workers at the Times Union. On Aug. 1, a company-imposed wage freeze hit its eighth year.

During this time, the Guild has made ten different offers to settle the contract. All have been rejected by the company, which in the last two rejections declined to even come to the negotiating table.

But despite this, the Guild remains committed to continue trying. We will make an eleventh offer, and if that is rejected, then a twelfth offer, a thirteenth offer, and so on… We will not stop until we have reached a fair deal for the hard-working TU employees and their families.

If you support the Guild’s efforts, please share this message on social media (on Twitter use the hashtag #tufamilies) and call 454.5555 to urge Publisher George Heart to come back to the negotiating table and reach a fair settlement with his employees.

The Newspaper Guild/CWA of Albany is deeply saddened to learn of the death of our former Times Union colleague Tom La Point.

Read the story on Tom’s career here.

Tom worked for several decades as a photographer for the Times Union. Upon his retirement, he moved to North Carolina where he died

He was active in the Guild and served as its president.

“Tom was a character and if he didn’t like an editor, he could give the person a really hard time,” said current President Tim O’Brien. “But if you were on his good side, he’d do anything for you. How you treated Tom was exactly how you got treated back. Once you figured that out, you’d get along great.”

O’Brien recalled one of his earliest photo requests in the late 1980s, when he asked for a photographer to take a photo of a couple standing outside their home in Troy. The photo was never taken.

When Tom was asked why, he told the editor — who had done something to tick him off — that he went to the house and the couple wasn’t standing outside at the appointed hour so he left.

“At the time, I was flabbergasted. Later, I realized the key to Tom was you had to treat him right or he’d find a way to give it right back to you,” O’Brien said. “When Tom realized I was a proud Guild supporter, he’d have done anything for me. He loved the Guild, believed it to be vitally necessary, and considered you a comrade in arms once he knew you agreed. He had a wicked sense of humor, a gravelly voice and he delighted in tormenting those he considered unfair to employees, but in the end he was extremely loyal.”

One of the most succinct definitions of morale came from Albert Sydney Johnson, a Kentucky native who was a Confederate general during the Civil War.

Morale, he wrote, is “faith in the man at the top.”

This month, it brought the Albany Newspaper Guild no pleasure to reveal that morale among the hard-working families at the Times Union, in a word, stinks.

And also to say there is only one place to lay responsibility. At the top.

The Hearst Corp. has imposed a wage freeze that will reach its 8th year in August. That has come at a time when staff in various departments continues to shrink, and those workers who remain are being asked to do more and more as goals continue to climb. Due to their efforts, the work continues to get done.

But as the work load grows heavier and heavier, people who work at the Times Union continue to see their standard of living erode, year after year as bills rise, but the paycheck never changes.

Meanwhile, the company continues to demand exactly what it started demanding in 2008: Workers must hand over complete rights to outsourcing of any job and also destroy a seniority system where a 20-year employee would be shown the door before someone hired the day before yesterday.

Even then, the wages will not move. The company offers a one-shot payment, most of which will get swallowed up by taxes and the inevitable increase in health insurance costs.

Multiple attempts to negotiate a reasonable compromise have ended with the same answer: NO.

People who work here are not stupid. They know that agreeing to such one-sided terms will mean that some people will lose their jobs right away and others will lose their jobs in the days that follow. How many people is anyone’s guess.

Morale can only further suffer the longer this goes on…

Each year, the Times Union asks workers around the Capital Region to rate their workplaces. And each year, the places that score highest proudly tout their scores as the best employers the region has to offer.

The test is really a test of employee morale. And sadly, the Times Union is failing its own test, and failing it badly.

As Albany Guild President Tim O’Brien reported here this month, the Guild asked workers to answer the same questions that the Times Union asked other workers elsewhere. And the results were not pretty.

Three workers in four said they no longer feel appreciated. That was a mirror image of workers at the top workplaces.

More than half of workers said they no longer had confidence in their future at the Times Union. And nine workers out of ten said they felt left in the dark as to how important decisions get made.

And as Johnson noted, morale is really about confidence in leadership. Eight out of ten TU workers said they no longer had that confidence. Eight out of ten…

To quote another American military icon, former President Dwight David Eisenhower: “The best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.”

It is inspiring to see the top workplaces in the Capital Region and know that workers there have confidence where they are being led. But the Times Union has work to do before it can make its own best-of list.

And this raises the question as to the role of the Times Union — or any paper for that matter — in its community. That role is not just about writing corporate checks to get a name on, say, the Times Union Center, or another prominent building.

I say one of the most important roles for a newspaper is to be voice for the community and its standards. And when people in that community are in a position where those standards are not being met, to speak up for fairness and justice. To not let those situations fester in the dark…

For those in the community who think the time has come for the company to try a new approach, please call 454.5555. Your support is needed. Thank you.

How would the Times Union rate if its own employees completed the Top Workplaces survey?

Now we can find out. Fill out our Times Union Workplace Survey now or join us in the cafeteria on Thursday to fill out the survey and fill up with a free cupcake.

In its annual Top Workplaces issue Sunday, the Times Union said employees “being valued” is one of the main characteristics of a good place to work.

The newspaper isn’t eligible for its own award, but we wondered what employees would say. How would Times Union workers rate the TU on statements like “I feel genuinely appreciated at this company” and “I have confidence in the leadership of this company”? So we took the questions published in the section and created our own survey.

And to make it convenient for you, the Guild will also have some smartphones available from 12:30–1:30 pm Thursday in the cafeteria for you to complete it. Come on down and we’ll give you a free cupcake.

If that time doesn’t work, you can do the survey on your own computer, tablet or smartphone. Or you can contact Guild President Tim O’Brien via text at 466-8700 or email at tim@albanyguild.org to arrange a time for you to fill it out.

We’ll share the results.