The Newspaper Guild of Albany has endorsed a bill that would allow employees to sue over workplace intimidation, threats and harassment.

The union took the rare step of backing a bill due to the extreme circumstances faced by some employees at the Times Union.

The union endorsed a bill by State Senator Diane Savino that would allow workers to sue when facing workplace threats, bullying and intimidation.

Under current law, employees can only sue if they can prove they were discriminated against based on race, religion, age or gender. Savino’s bill would allow workers to sue if faced with workplace bullying, harassment and abuse.

“Our union does not endorse political candidates or contribute to their campaigns because that’s a sensitive issue for our editorial members,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “On rare occasions, we have endorsed specific pieces of legislation. Given the extreme mistreatment of some of our members, and management’s utter failure to rein in the bad behavior, we support Senator Savino’s legislation to make extreme workplace behavior illegal.”

Times Union advertising employees have been subject to unprecedented bullying and intimidation. The Guild surveyed workers, and almost 83.3 percent said workplace stress was interfering with their quality of life. Almost half said they had sought medical attention.

The union is prepared to meet with Senator Savino and other legislators about the bill, and its members are prepared to testify as to its necessity. The only other bills the union has endorsed in recent years are a federal shield law to protect journalists from being forced to disclose sources and the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing field for workers looking to unionize.

The new edition of the Guild International’s newspaper, The Guild Reporter, includes a piece on the recent seminar on workplace bullying conducted here in Albany.

It also details the events in the Albany and Kingston locals that inspired the seminar.

Read it here.

In the latest case of ad employees being treated inappropriately, a training exercise scheduled this week calls for employees to earn points by dancing in front of their colleagues.

The exercise calls for ad sales staff to answer questions. If they get the answers wrong, they can ‘choose’ to dance. If the judge likes their dancing, they will get half the points back.

Ad employees brought the exercise to the Guild’s attention, and we have informed the Company that this is inappropriate and, with a largely female staff, carries “the strong stink of sexual harassment.”

The staff are not trained monkeys, the Guild wrote, and they should not be asked to dance to please their bosses.

UPDATE: That was fast. We are told the signs have been altered to remove the offending word. That’s only a start in addressing our concerns.

As part of what it deems a motivational technique, the Times Union is branding some of its ad sales staff ‘terrorists’ on charts posted outside the department.

This is the latest effort in an increasingly misguided, inappropriate way of handling the sales staff. On Tuesday, as the Capital Region braced for a massive snowstorm, Advertising VP Kathy Hallion sent staff  an email telling them to “plan ahead” and be on time for an 8:30 a.m. training session.

Guild President Tim O’Brien replied that it was inappropriate to push employees to rush to work on a day when roads were likely to be unplowed and when schools and many offices were being shuttered.

“Employees should be cautious driving into work tomorrow,” he replied. “No training is worth injuring yourself or others.”

Last fall, advertising employees met with Publisher George Hearst and presented a petition that formally complained about the hostile work environment in advertising. The Company then sent a corporate lawyer to do “an investigation.”

The Guild then did a survey of advertising employees that documented how bad conditions are and how half the staff had sought medical help due to stress in the workplace. The union emailed a link to the Company’s management, locally and nationally. You can read the results here.

Finally, Hearst replied with a brief note to ad sales staff. To date, he has never responded to the union.

“As you may know, we have conducted a full investigation into the issues raised and will take action to address these concerns as appropriate,” Hearst said.
“We also will continue to closely monitor the situation going forward.”

That was it. No details, no specifics. Advertising employees have grown increasingly frustrated with Hearst’s failure to respond to and address their concerns.

On Saturday, the union held a training seminar at the Desmond on how to respond to bullying in the workplace. Most participants came from the advertising department.

“This is a phenomenon that has serious consequences,” speaker KC Wagner of Cornell University said. “This is not just something happening in your head. This isn’t just the union doing its thing.”

She said workplace bullying today stands where sexual harassment in the workplace was 30 years ago. With new emphasis on preventing bullying in schools, companies will start to realize they must also bar the use of threats and intimidation in the workplace.

The Guild gathered numerous ideas from the seminar it will be working on going forward. Members interested in helping or learning more can attend our monthly Executive Board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, February 13, at the Albany Labor Temple.

In the meantime, the union will reach out to the Company and demand that the shameful signs declaring some ad sales employees “terrorists” be taken down.

Guild leaders agreed Thursday to switch health care to Empire Blue Cross for 2014.

The employee deductible share would stay at $750, and most benefits would remain the same. The only significant change is that out-of-network visits would not be covered.

Some members have asked what that means if they are sick on vacation or have a child outside the area still on their health plan. Blue Cross, like the Blue Shield plan this year, has an extensive network of doctors nationally who accept the insurance. Employees who are suddenly sick or injured are covered for emergencies.

It is only employees who go to a doctor not who does not accept Empire Blue Cross who would not be covered. That means either having to switch doctors or pay for the coverage directly.

The switch is less expensive than sticking with Blue Shield. By moving to Empire, the weekly premium cost for employees would be $46.51 for medical care. Dental care, which would remain unchanged but cost 25 cents more a week next year, will add $2.51 to that bill for a total medical cost of $49.02 per week.

Employees now pay a total weekly bill of $46.17 so the total increase would be $2.85 a week or 6 percent.

To stay with Blue Shield, the cost would rise to $51.20 a week plus the dental coverage. And that would be with a $1,000 deductible.

“The Company is required each year to present us with a comparable plan to the one we have, and we have in recent years often brought changes to the membership for approval because the plans were not comparable,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “This year, the Executive Board decided the new plan is comparable so no vote was needed. If the Company had sought to increase the deductible, cut coverage or change from a composite rate, any of those changes would have rendered the plan not comparable and required membership approval.”

O’Brien was joined by Chief Steward Brian Nearing and Third Vice President Adam McAvoy at the table.