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.

Once again, the Guild has offered to settle our long-standing contract dispute to give our members the raises they have long deserved.

It is the 10th time since 2010 that the Guild has made a settlement offer. The Company meanwhile is still insisting on the same offer overwhelmingly rejected by members in 2009, the one that would provide no raises, a one-time $1,000 bonus and gut layoff and outsourcing language.

The Guild’s newest proposal calls  for 2 percent raises retroactive to August 1, 2014 and on August 1 in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Previously, the union had proposed retro pay going back to 2011.

With just under 180 members now, the pay raise would be equal to about $185,000 for the first year, hardly a challenge for the Hearst Corp.

The Guild would also agree that members would pay 24 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums effective January 1, 2016 and 25 percent a year later. Under the imposed conditions, that percentage is frozen at 23 percent.

The Guild would allow the Company to make out-of-seniority layoffs, but it would have to guarantee the added severance for those let go could not be taken away in the next round of bargaining. And we also proposed reducing the early retirement penalty so anyone laid off between ages 55 and 65 would take less of a hit on their pensions.

We dropped a proposal to increase the pension multiplier to improve everyone’s retirement pay.

With outsourcing, what the Guild proposes is what the Company can do now under imposed conditions: It must bargain with the union. The law does not allow the Company to impose what it wants — a blank check to outsource — and for good reason.

“We continue to work for a complete settlement,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “Unfortunately, our efforts continue to be a one-way street with Company officials disinterested in rewarding employees for their many years of hard work. The good news is the imposed conditions mean everything stays in place: The Company cannot reduce pay, eliminate the pension, or change the differentials or vacation time accruals. All those benefits remain intact, but our members deserve more than the status quo. Raises are about more than money. They are about respect.”

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.”

This year, your Guild’s Annual Picnic will be at the Crossings of Colonie, Sunday, June 14.

We will be located at the West Pavilion near the playground. Food will be served from noon to 4 pm.

Come out for a day of fun, friendship and fellowship. The picnic is open to members of our union and their immediate families. Singles can bring a guest.

LT’s Grill, who provided the food last year, will again be serving up burgers (beef and veggie), BBQ chicken, salads and cookies. Wine, beer and soda will be provided too.

Join with your union colleagues for a fun day, rain or shine!

RSVP at albanyguild.org/picnic

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.