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.

Guild Members approved the buyout offer at today’s Membership meeting. It is intended for graphic artists in the hopes of saving two people from layoff. It is two weeks per year of service up to 15 weeks, with health insurance for the same period of time.

The Guild and Company agreed to a buyout offer that is very limited, with only graphic artists eligible to take it. The Times Union approached the Guild wanting to eliminate jobs held by two of our members. The Company is making changes to the magazine division, moving it down to become part of the editorial department.

We represent two excellent employees in the magazine division, and the Company emphasized the decision was financial. The quality of their work, all parties agreed, is excellent.

Under the imposed conditions, the parties must try to negotiate a buyout offer before any layoffs can occur. It is always the union’s preference that a person leave voluntarily.

Because the most senior of the two employees has been with the Times Union for 5 years, the Company wanted to limit the buyout to two weeks per year of service for a maximum of 15 weeks. An employee taking the buyout would get health care for the same time number of weeks. The company would not challenge an unemployment claim, though unemployment might require someone to wait until the buyout money is exhausted before collecting it.

Anyone taking the buyout would receive all benefits, including vacation and pension accrual, they are entitled to receive.

The Guild continues its ongoing social media campaign with a new message on the marquee at the Times Union Center. This message tells people to keep up with the latest on our web page, our twitter hashtag #tufamilies or through our Facebook postings.

Our members just wrapped up a Facebook campaign posting pictures of themselves holding signs about what the ongoing 7.5 year wage freeze means to them. We have also launched a Twitter effort using the Peeps candy _ joined with the #tupeeps hashtag being used by the newspaper _ to highlight the wage freeze.

We asked our members what going 7.5 means without raises means to them.

Keep an eye out here, on Facebook and Twitter to see what they say. We’ll be posting multiple photos a day over the next few weeks. Please share using the hashtag #tufamilies.

The Guild has once again reached out to the Company with a new offer designed to settle our contract and give our members much-deserved raises.

It is the ninth time since 2010 that the Guild has made a new settlement offer.

The company, in return, hasn’t budged from its 2009 proposal that allows the company to lay off any employee and outsource any and all work in return for a one-time payment of $1,000. If accepted, the company proposal could result in some employees losing their jobs and having their pensions cut in as much as half.

The Guild proposal calls for 2 percent raises retroactive to August 1, 2011 and on August 1 in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

That means that by 2018, 11 years since our last raise, a person in Class C would be paid about $100 more per week or less than $10 per week per year. It is a perfectly reasonable proposal based on the number of years involved.

The cost to the Hearst Corp. would amount to $127,273 a year, a not unreasonable figure.

The union members would pay 24 percent of the cost of health care effective January 1, 2016, and 25 percent effective January 1, 2017.

On layoffs, the Company would first have to offer buyouts (the same as it has to do now). Once the buyouts were complete, the TU could then lay off employees out of seniority, with those let go given 3 weeks of pay for every year of service.

In our last proposal, the union had included an additional lump sum based on years of service. That proposal was dropped this time. We kept our language that if the company eliminates the added severance for out-of-seniority layoffs in a future negotiation, the layoff language would revert to being based on seniority.

The union added in language that the Company must accept a buyout offer from a person with less seniority in a job title rather than involuntary lay off a more senior employee. This way, the Company could not deny a buyout to an employee who wants one and then fire someone with more seniority.

The Guild proposal also calls for a reduction in the early retirement penalty from 5 percent a year to 2.5 percent. This way, an employee laid off out of seniority would take less of a hit to their retirement income should they need to begin collecting their pension before age 65.

The Guild proposal continues to say that the Company could outsource work but it would first have to negotiate with the union. This is no different from what the Company can do under posted conditions, and the law does not allow companies to impose an ability to outsource without negotiation.

“The Guild has been very consistent in being flexible and offering compromises over the years,” President Tim O’Brien said. “This is a fair and realistic offer, and it should be taken seriously. We will continue to mobilize more and more publicly if we must, but we would much rather reach a settlement.”