The Hearst noel is not a cheery one, as the Times Union turns out to be more Scrooge than Fezziwig.

It’s been more than 7 years since most Times Union employees received raises. (It’s not just Guild members. Middle managers have been stiffed too.)

The union has repeatedly offered concessions to try to reach an agreement, to no avail. The Company insists any contract include giving up any say at all in who gets laid off or what jobs get oursourced. (This could mean some longtime employees losing as much as half of their pension.) In return, the Company isn’t even offering a raise, just a flat, one-time $1,000 bonus.

The Guild hasn’t given up. We are drafting a new proposal, but we think the Company needs to hear from the public as well as our members. So the union sent the Christmas card above to hundreds of local leaders.

It’s part of our ongoing mobilizing campaign to convince the Company it shouldn’t just write about top workplaces. It should be one.

Thank you and enjoy your holidays!

After consulting carefully with our members, the Guild chose Thursday to keep a composite rate for health care in 2015.

That means the cost will go up from $49.02 a week for every employee to $55.67. We’ll be covered by the same Blue Shield plan with the deductible remaining $750.

If we had switched to single, married and family rates, the cost would have phased in over three years. In the first year, the cost would have been $45.22 for singles, $53.09 for two, and $60.67 for families.

The Company provided estimates for the subsequent two years, but those are based on health insurance rates not increasing. In the second year, singles would have paid $34.80, doubles would have paid $50.79 and families $66.16. In the third year — again, not counting any increases in annual cost — the price would have been $24.69 for singles, $48.54 for couples and $71.49 for families.

“We recognize and respect that singles continue to help subsidize others,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We also know that health insurance means those of us who are lucky to be well are subsidizing our colleagues who are not so fortunate.”

In the end, members and the Executive Board thought that any such change should be part of a contract with raises, which we will continue to mobilize to achieve.

The Company had sought the change because it could potentially face a penalty under Obamacare next year. The new health care law says that the premium cannot be more than 9.5% of the lowest paid employee’s wage. One worker would’ve fallen below that standard.

It turns out that the one employee is not even on the Company’s insurance, and a $2.27 an hour raise would lift the worker above the level in question.

The Guild is considering whether to stick with the composite rate where all employees pay the same amount for health care vs. changing to separate rates for singles, two people or families.

The Company is pushing for the change to avoid tax penalties under the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare.)

If we stick with the composite rate, the cost would go up from $49.02 a week for every employee to $55.67. If we switch to the Company proposal, the cost would phase in over three years. In the first year, the cost would be $45.22 for singles, $53.09 for two, and $60.67 for families.

The Company provided estimates for the subsequent two years, but those are based on health insurance rates not increasing. In the second year, singles would pay $34.80, doubles would pay $50.79 and families $66.16. In the third year — again, not counting any increases in annual cost — the price would be $24.69 for singles, $48.54 for couples and $71.49 for families.

For an employee with a family, that would mean a 46 percent increase in costs over three years or an added $1,168.44 a year without any other rise in insurance costs.
There are two reasons the Company is seeking this change: Under Obamacare, the premium must be no more than 9.5 percent of the salary of the lowest paid employee effective in 2015. Company officials said Wednesday there is one worker, a part-timer working 30 hours a week, who would fall under that category. Guild bargainers suggesting giving the one worker a raise would make more sense than shifting costs to all families.

In 2015, the one employee would have to seek health insurance through the federal exchange and a federal subsidy in order for the penalty to be triggered. The penalty would be $3,000 per person.

The company also worried it might have to pay a penalty in 2018 for having a “Cadillac plan.” The penalty is a 40 percent tax on the portion of most employer-sponsored plans that exceed $10,200 a year for singles and $27,500 for families.

Guild leaders noted there is no telling whether that provision would take effect in 2018, given changes in Congress and a new president being elected in 2016. Guild President Tim O’Brien added that the tax penalties are assessed on employers.

“Our members are not under any obligation to pay any portion of the Company’s tax penalties, if such penalties were ever assessed,” O’Brien said.

Under the imposed conditions under which Times Union employees have been living since 2009, O’Brien noted the Company cannot make further changes without negotiation. The union would not agree to pay any portion of taxes without a contract.
Publisher George Hearst attempted to argue the tax penalty would be part of the “total cost” for health care. O’Brien noted under the imposed language, the employees are obligated to pay 23 percent of the total cost of “health and dental insurance.” A tax penalty to the government does not pay for the insurance, so Guild members could not be ordered to pay any part of it, O’Brien said. In addition, the employer tax penalties were implemented after 2009 so they could not be retroactively considered as having been part of any prior agreement as to what “total cost” means.

The Guild will seek input from its members before deciding what we should approve. The mechanical unions in the plant have accepted the switch, but their members also have had raises more recently than ours. Let us known what you think by contacting a Guild officer, emailing the union office at office@albanyguild.org, or calling Tim O’Brien at 466-8700. We are also looking to find a meeting space at the library next week to gather members’ input.

In its ongoing efforts to let the public know about the lack of a fair contract and seven-year wage freeze at the Times Union, the Guild showed up at last night’s Citizen Laureate dinner for the University at Albany Foundation.

Braving a cold drizzle, Guild members handed out leaflets and held signs at the entrance of the SEFCU Center as people arrived to attend the annual dinner, which was hosted by Times Union Publisher George Hearst. He is chairman of the foundation’s board of directors.

It was the second public action by the Guild in less than a month. In October, Guild members were outside Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady for the North American premier of the traveling production of the musical “Newsies.”

The Guild leaflet congratulated the winners of the UAlbany award and _ Fr. Kevin Mullen, Phoebe Powell Bender and Daniel Nolan. And it let dinner guests know that Mr. Hearst, who is active in the Capital Region’s charitable community, has “earned a much different reputation among his employees” for freezing TU wages for seven years while “bragging that the Heart Corporation’s newspaper division is the most successful in the industry and that the Times Union remains profitable.”

The message continued: “We appreciate Mr. Hearst’s giving nature in public, but we think his employees deserve equal consideration. We hope you do too and will let him know you think TU employees deserve raises after seven long years.”

Despite those seven years, Mr. Hearst still will not deliver a contract unless the Guild agrees to hand over control of both employee seniority and outsourcing of jobs _ two extreme demands that no other union in the Capital Region, or New York State for that matter, is being asked to do.

Bill Federman, an editor at the Times Union, is the newest member of our Executive Board.

Bill fills the position of first vice president.

The union members agreed to leave the position of third vice president open at this time while we continue to recruit candidates. We had an excellent potential choice who decided late Tuesday family obligations prevented the person from joining the board at this time.

Because it is important to the union that we have board members from throughout the workforce, Guild members agreed to continue conversations with other employees upstairs about joining the board.