S3863, the Newspaper Guild of Albany endorsed NYS Healthy Workplace Bill passed the Senate Labor Committee on Tuesday.

New York Healthy Workplace Advocates is now asking supporters to start calling Senator DeFrancisco’s office and request that the bill be heard in the Finance Committee before the end of session.

The Senator’s office can be contacted at his District office in Syracuse at: (315) 428-7632 and his Albany office at: (518) 455-3511.

This year’s Guild picnic will be held in a brand new location, but with the same great food as last year.

We’ll be having our picnic at the Crossings of Colonie, closer to the Times Union building and with no parking fee!

Food will be served from noon to 3 p.m., with beverages until 5 p.m.

Guild members can bring their immediate families. Singles can bring a guest.

CLICK HERE to RSVP

See the bulletin below for details. This is a great chance for members of our union to get together for fun, food and fellowship.

2014-05-14 Guild Picnic Flyer

Lindsay Connors (LaFountain) earned the annual Guild Service Award presented by the union’s International in recognition of outstanding service. It is the union’s highest honor.

The award was presented Friday at a nationwide meeting of Guild locals in Lake Buena Vista, FL.

​Lindsay was chosen due to her hard work, care for her colleagues and for her strength in continuing to stand up for co-workers.

​“She has been a stunningly effective advocate for her colleagues,” our local wrote in nominating Lindsay.

She did not know she was going to win but gave a beautiful, heartfelt speech.

She discussed her efforts to reconnect editorial and advertising employees and to stand up for fair commissions.

“It is a brotherhood and sisterhood, and that’s absolutely the truth,” Lindsay said. “This is an awesome honor. Thank you so much.”

Guild officers Tim O’Brien, Brian Nearing and Adam McAvoy also attended. Lindsay and Tim did a presentation on how to respond to workplace bullying, and all received training on negotiating health care under Obamacare.

The time has come for all Times Union employees to get raises.

The day after President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address called on business leaders to do what they can to give their workers raises, Guild President Tim O’Brien quietly wrote to Publisher George Hearst asking him to heed the President’s call. The Guild would prefer a contract but proposed a merit raise for all that would not require either side to agree to any other changes.

Last week the Guild launched an effort to show Times Union employees agree: We have all earned a merit raise.

In just two days, a third of the membership went on the Guild website and clicked to send the message they too want a merit raise for all.

Please go to albanyguild.org/raise to add your voice. We all merit a raise!

Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Newspaper Guild of Albany.

And we do have to say, we look pretty damn good for our age.

We invite members to come to the cafeteria from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday to celebrate with FREE CUPCAKES! And we’ll show you how you can swiftly apply for a much-deserved raise.