In its ongoing efforts to let the public know about the lack of a fair contract and seven-year wage freeze at the Times Union, the Guild showed up at last night’s Citizen Laureate dinner for the University at Albany Foundation.

Braving a cold drizzle, Guild members handed out leaflets and held signs at the entrance of the SEFCU Center as people arrived to attend the annual dinner, which was hosted by Times Union Publisher George Hearst. He is chairman of the foundation’s board of directors.

It was the second public action by the Guild in less than a month. In October, Guild members were outside Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady for the North American premier of the traveling production of the musical “Newsies.”

The Guild leaflet congratulated the winners of the UAlbany award and _ Fr. Kevin Mullen, Phoebe Powell Bender and Daniel Nolan. And it let dinner guests know that Mr. Hearst, who is active in the Capital Region’s charitable community, has “earned a much different reputation among his employees” for freezing TU wages for seven years while “bragging that the Heart Corporation’s newspaper division is the most successful in the industry and that the Times Union remains profitable.”

The message continued: “We appreciate Mr. Hearst’s giving nature in public, but we think his employees deserve equal consideration. We hope you do too and will let him know you think TU employees deserve raises after seven long years.”

Despite those seven years, Mr. Hearst still will not deliver a contract unless the Guild agrees to hand over control of both employee seniority and outsourcing of jobs _ two extreme demands that no other union in the Capital Region, or New York State for that matter, is being asked to do.

Bill Federman, an editor at the Times Union, is the newest member of our Executive Board.

Bill fills the position of first vice president.

The union members agreed to leave the position of third vice president open at this time while we continue to recruit candidates. We had an excellent potential choice who decided late Tuesday family obligations prevented the person from joining the board at this time.

Because it is important to the union that we have board members from throughout the workforce, Guild members agreed to continue conversations with other employees upstairs about joining the board.

time: 12:30 pm
date: Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014
location: Colonie Town Library

The Guild will hold its annual membership meeting Thursday, November 6 at the library. This year, two vacant seats on the Executive Board need to be filled, and nominations will be made at the meeting or can be done via petition. We will also discuss health care for 2015 and our new mobilizing efforts on the lack of raises.

Election Information:

The vacant positions are: First and Third Vice Presidents. Terms will continue for two more years ending, 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 or in the form of a slate of candidates. 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 or 5 percent of the Local’s membership, whichever is greater. Individuals signing a petition must be members in good standing as of September 30 preceding the election. 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.

Persistence pays when it comes to mobilizing to get a contract, panel members said this weekend at a TriCouncil meeting of The Newspaper Guild held in Albany.

Guild leaders from Pittsburgh, Scholastic Magazine and the Associated Press all talked about their efforts to win contracts.

Delegates were especially impressed by the actions taken in Pittsburgh, where employees of the Post-Gazette had gone more than eight years without a pay raise.

“The power we had at the negotiating table was because of the mobilizing effort,” said Mike Fuoco of the Pittsburgh Guild. “When I said our members are not going to take this, they knew I wasn’t bull—-ing.”

But Guild leaders also cautioned against thinking one or two actions would make a change. Pittsburgh mobilized for more than a year, and it was that dedication and commitment to the effort that won an agreement.

“They don’t react to a mobilization,” said Lou Grieco, administrative officer of the Detroit Guild. “They react to the fear of more.”

Albany Guild leaders took note of the different methods that were used, and we expect to borrow some of those ideas. (That’s why we are holding off on the details.)

Also at the meeting, which drew 37 delegates from 14 locals, Guild International President Bernie Lunzer discussed a proposal to change the union’s name to the NewsGuild to reflect that members work at other news outlets in addition to newspapers. That change will be voted on at the union’s sector conference this January in Orlando, Florida.

Also planned for that conference is training and discussions on how to negotiate over advertising commissions and unrealistic sales goals, important issues in Albany.

How did Guild locals at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Scholastic and the Associated Press win contracts?

Albany Guild members can find out at 1:30 pm Saturday at the Ramada Inn off Everett Road in Albany.

Union members from those units will participate in a panel discussion on successful mobilizing at a regional meeting of Guild locals from the MidAtlantic, Midwest and Great Lakes regions. The Albany Newspaper Guild is hosting the event from 9 am to 5 pm Saturday and 9 am to noon Sunday.