Updated: The company now says the new dental insurance firm it has suggested, Guardian, has agreed not to cap coverage. We’re still looking into the proposal, and the Executive Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. next Thursday, July 12, to discuss it as well as other business including the impact of our returning colleagues. If you have input to offer on the dental coverage, please pass it along by next week’s meeting.

CLICK HERE for the list of Guardian covered Dentists in the Capital Region.

CLICK HERE for the full list.

The Company made a proposal Wednesday for a different health care provider to oversee dental care.

The dental coverage would be provided by Guardian, rather than Empire Blue Cross which has provided the coverage for more than 20 years. The estimated savings to members would be about $11 a year.

The offer was made to union leaders throughout the company, including Guild President Tim O’Brien and Vice President Lindsay LaFountain.

The insurance brokers from Rowlands & Barranca said that Guardian offers a broader network of dentists. If a dentist is not a member of the network, Guardian would still reimburse the provider directly whereas Blue Shield requires the employee to pay upfront and be reimbursed. The brokers also said Guardian offers a better discount.

O’Brien noted that the documents showed Guardian with an annual maximum of $2,500 whereas Blue Shield sets no limit on dental costs. The company said the cap was $2,500 for each member of a family, not $2,500 for a whole family. But the brokers said they had not yet been able to obtain information on how many, if any, workers would have reached the cap. The brokers said they believed they could get Guardian to drop the cap.

All the union leaders said that information was critical to making any decision, and the brokers said they would obtain and share that data. They also promised to get a list of participating dentists. O’Brien swiftly learned after the meeting his own dentist is not a participant and asked some additional questions as a result.

Guild members are encouraged to talk to their own dentists’ office, ask about whether they accept Guardian and whether they think the coverage and cost to the patient is better or worse than Empire. Please let your Guild leaders know what you think as we continue to review the proposal. The company stressed it was offering it as an optional switch, not one they were seeking to require.

You can find information on Guardian at its website, http://www.guardianlife.com/.

The Newspaper Guild of Albany is deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Teamsters leader Mike Cipollo.

”Mikey was a tough negotiator who really looked out for his members,” said Guild President Tim O’Brien. ”Every year we would sit down together to talk to the company about health care costs. Despite his gruff, working class exterior, Mike was an incredibly smart guy who would sit there doing all the math in his head. He was amazingly sharp. Nothing got by him.”

The Guild sends its condolences to Mike’s family, friends and members.

In today’s email, Publisher George Hearst asserted the Guild violated confidentiality rules by disclosing a settlement in principle has been reached in the NLRB case.

We believe we are within our legal rights to disclose Friday’s news. As we said, some final details on the payout to the affected employees must still be settled.

I heard today from many of my colleagues about anti-union comments posted by Kristi Gustafson Barlette on her Times Union Facebook page.

“I find unions protect the weak, and don’t produce viable results. People don’t DESERVE raises, they earn them,” Kristi wrote in response to a reader. She went on to add: “If you believe you should earn more, and your company doesn’t give it to you, then leave — find another job.”

Kristi’s comments were viewed by many of her colleagues in the newsroom as a slap in the face. It has been five years since employees at the Times Union have had a raise, and it is not because employees don’t “deserve” one. And they should not have to leave to get one.

But let me back up a minute: I have to say any interaction I’ve ever had with Kristi has been pleasant. We have a good professional relationship. Recently we’ve worked well together to boost traffic to the Getting There blog, and her advice has proven successful. I expect to continue to work well with her.

But I agree with the many employees who contacted me after seeing her remarks. They are offensive. I think Kristi owes her colleagues an apology. It is distasteful and unprofessional for a member of management, which Kristi now is, to suggest her fellow employees who have not received raises don’t deserve them and that they should quit if they don’t like it.

And she is dead wrong about unions, in general and the Guild specifically. Ironically, I remember when Kristi was an editorial assistant and came to me, upset because a member of management had said if she wanted to be a reporter, she should leave, get experience elsewhere and then apply to come back. I told her that two of her colleagues, Bob Gardinier and Dennis Yusko, had been told the same thing. They persevered and became reporters. I advised her to do the same. She did and succeeded.

To say the Guild exists to protect the weak is nonsense. I could go on at length but let me give just a couple of real-life examples of what the union actually stands for.

When the Times Union wanted to outsource our print shop coordinator’s job to Connecticut, the Guild worked with him, proved he did more than the company gave him credit for and saved his job. When a colleague named Terri Currie was dying of cancer, her co-workers wanted to donate some of their sick time to her. The company would not allow it. I fought for years to obtain that benefit and finally did during our last round of negotiations (even though that did not lead to a contract). Two employees since have been able to be out on extended sick leave without losing pay, thanks to the Guild.

We’ve bargained a paid week off for new parents, a benefit for those who adopt and space for nursing mothers to pump breast milk.

That’s not “protecting the weak.” And those are the “viable results” good unions produce.

Guild leaders and members met Tuesday with the company to discuss its plans to use a Hearst-owned company, Local Edge, to sell advertising into the newspaper.

Local Edge used to sell ads into the Talking Phone Book, which no longer exists, and Publisher George Hearst said the aim is to try to keep that revenue. He said the firm, which is on Wolf Road, will sell print, digital and search engine optimization ads, all work our employees do. They will have access to Salesforce, the same tool used by ad sales staff to schedule appointments.

Naturally, the union was concerned about the potential of losing the work or the commission revenue.

Under the imposed conditions, the company must negotiate over outsourcing if it would replace or displace an existing staff position. Hearst said it would not. There are currently vacant positions in SEO sales.

Local Edge employs 10 people including eight salespersons.

Hearst said the firm is largely focused on selling in the northern part of the market in Saratoga County. He said they had 275 active advertisers who bought into the now-defunct phone book, only 20 to 25 of which were also TU clients. Those who already work with TU salespeople would stay with TU sales staff, he said.

Rick Barber, one of the members attending the meeting, told Hearst of a disturbing situation involving a Local Edge salesperson and one of Rick’s clients. The salesperson arrived unannounced, interrupted a business owner during a meeting after being told she was occupied, and then shouted “You are rude!” at the owner when told to make an appointment. Barber had to do damage control on an account he worked hard to sustain.

The business cards for Local Edge workers identify them as working for “Hearst Media Services in conjunction with the Times Union.” But the key words a potential customer will hear is that the person is a Times Union representative, and Guild members worry about the potential impact on the value of the brand they helped to build.

Guild leaders said they worried about potential issues with the professionalism and high turnover of salespeople common in these kinds of firms.

Guild Vice President Lindsay LaFountain asked if the Times Union would get credit for revenue. Under the company’s plan, the Local Edge salespeople could call on any account that a Times Union salesperson had not contacted in 30 days.

LaFountain said a TU salesperson might know that a customer usually buys $10,000 in ads a year, while a Local Edge person could not know that and book a $1,000 ad and consider it an accomplishment.

“It’s going to be an ongoing management challenge. Members of that group will be held accountable to goals,” Hearst said. “If it doesn’t prove to be a successful venture, we’ll have to reconsider.”

Managers at the Times Union will be actively involved in these blended sales efforts, Hearst said.

Hearst said the Local Edge staff will start selling inactive accounts at month’s end. Asked by LaFountain who would design any print ads sold, Hearst replied that the Times Union’s advertising art staff would do so.

Guild members at the meeting, which also included President Tim O’Brien and salesperson Linda Rocke, thanked Hearst for his time. The union, as always, is reviewing the information and welcomes input from sales staff about any concerns or questions they may have.