For nomination and possible election to the office of Third Vice President

time: 12:30 pm
date: Wednesday, March 4, 2015
location: Colonie Town Library

The Guild will hold a membership meeting to fill a vacant position on the Executive Board. Nominations will be made at the meeting or can be done via petition. We will also discuss our mobilizing efforts on the lack of raises and any other topic members wish to discuss.

Election Information:

The vacant position is Third Vice President. The term will continue through December 31, 2016.

Members must be in good standing to run for office and to attend the nomination meeting. If you want to check your standing, email the Guild office at office@albanyguild.org.

If there is only one nomination for any office, and the person accepts nomination, the person will be elected at the meeting. If there is more than one candidate for any office, a Local Elections Committee will be appointed and a mail-in ballot election will be held.

Nominations for any office may be from the floor, by petition. Petitions may be for an individual candidate in which the name of the candidate, his/her Local unit (if applicable), and department worked listed. Such petitions must also contain the names of at least 25 members. Individuals signing a petition must be members in good standing. These petitions must be filed with the local Secretary at the membership meeting. The secretary shall notify all candidates of their nomination and shall receive from them a written notice of their willingness to serve.

How it works:
By February 15, the Company must notify all employees of the amount of vacation they are entitled to. Ten days later, employees must tell the Company in writing of their preferred weeks off. If an employee fails to do so, the Company can assign the time. Selection is based on seniority. After everyone has selected their first two weeks, the schedule is open again on a seniority basis. By March 5, the Company must post what weeks you will get. Please let us know if a supervisor fails to do so. The Company and employee can mutually agree to change assigned vacation time. In an emergency, the Company can change an employee’s vacation on two weeks’ notice.

An important fact:
The Company must provide every employee who wants it at least two consecutive weeks of vacation between May 15 and September 30. We’ve had managers attempt to decree only one or two people can be on vacation at a time. The contract language outweighs any such edict.

When obtained:
The current vacation scheduling language by and large first appeared in the 1970-73 contract. In between the 2000 and 2004 contracts, the parties agreed to move the dates earlier after some members had trouble booking vacations.

Where to find:
Section 16.B, inside cover for dates. Pages 36-37 has incorrect dates but is otherwise accurate.

Want a benefit explained?
E-mail the Guild at: office@albanyguild.org

“Are you serious!?!” asked a visitor to the Times Union-sponsored Home Show Saturday after reading our latest bulletin on how we’ve gone seven years without a raise.

The bulletin focused on the “timesunionMINUS” program. It discussed how rising costs and stagnant wages are making employees lose money year over year.

A special thanks to Luke Carleo for braving the cold to join his dad as we handed out our bulletins.

A couple who own a business sent this heartfelt letter to Publisher George Hearst. We are sharing it with their permission.

Dear Mr. Hearst,

 

We lived and worked in Albany until buying land and starting a small vineyard/winery near Ithaca NY in 1982. Thus we have been following the Albany Newspaper Guild discussions about salary, seniority and outsourcing issues.

 

We hope you can resolve this satisfactorily for all because the TU is a respected newspaper and probably wants to continue to be so. But to respect an employer and thus do an exemplary job for that employer, employees need to be valued – paid well and be reasonably secure in their jobs – if they are doing the job they were hired to do. From articles we read in the TU we believe that your current staff reporters care about what they do and have insight that comes from experience.

 

The editor of a weekly group of papers here (Finger Lakes Community Newspapers) recently told me that she has more staff than the daily Ithaca Journal. That Gannett paper ‘let go’ local reporters who covered local news—to ‘save money’. Now the IJ draws its news from other sources (and we can get that anywhere these days) and is paying the price of lack of respect (thus readership) and fewer ads. So they’ve lost money!

 

The FLCN editor points out that the FL Community Newspapers is thriving because they have enough senior staff reporters who live in and love their community so consistently provide dependable coverage of local news – as well as selected news from beyond. People want to read ‘local news’ thus advertisers can target local customers. When outsourcing provides inconsistent, superficial and scant local reporting readership and ad revenue suffer.

 

You have a difficult ‘road to travel’ needing knowledgeable reporters to cover not only local tri-city news but also our amazing State Government. So we look to you to continue a high level of consistent reporting and hope you are seriously listening to the needs of your senior reporters. They have given the better part of their lives to make the Albany Times Union a leader.

 

People are our most valuable asset in our businesses.

 

Yours truly,
Jim and Carol Doolittle

As many people now know, the Times Union has begun charging for access to its premium, locally-created stories and other content under a program called TU Plus.

At as little as $1 a week for digital-only access, TU Plus is a great value, and the Guild fully embraces this effort to support the quality journalism produced at the Times Union each and every day.

But the Guild also wants the community to remember, at a time when the Times Union is asking its readers for greater financial support, that the workers who make the Times Union what it is have gone for seven years _ and counting _ under a wage freeze.

The freeze stems from the company’s insistence that the Guild surrender seniority and outsourcing rights in exchange for a very modest one-shot payment, but no raise in annual salary. The Guild has declined to submit to this.

With wages frozen, the average TU family has seen their standard of living drop by about 20 percent during this time as the cost of living continues to increase.

So if the owners of the Times Union really believe in TU Plus, they need to apply it not only to their readers, also to the people who are working harder than ever at the newspaper to create the stories, shoot the photographs, create graphics and advertising copy, sell the ads, and deliver the product.

Please call Publisher George Hearst at 454.5555 and urge him to apply TU Plus to the people who work here.