On Tuesday, the Guild’s Executive Board voted to approve a plan to offer a 50 percent refund to members in good standing and 50 percent forgiveness to those who fell behind.

People who are now in good standing will get the rebate within the next two weeks. There who are in arrears will have until Oct. 1 to become current and still be able to receive the rebate.

For an employee in the top tier of pay classification C, the rebate will be about $900. Dues are a percentage of salary, so the rebates will also be a percentage of what employees are paid. Employees who do not become current by Oct. 1 will be forgiven half of their dues owed from April 2009 through the end of July 2011.

The union will send invoices to those in arrears within a week, detailing how much people owe and how much of their debt is being forgiven.

Those who need extra time beyond Oct. 1 to pay what they owe can be placed on a payment plan. They will have six months to get their debt paid. As long as they stick to their payment plan, they will be considered members in good standing.

The union recognizes it has been difficult for many people to keep current given that Times Union employees have not had raises in four years. The union continues to work toward a full settlement of its contract.

The Guild’s Executive Board will meet at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Colonie Public Library to approve a plan to offer a 50 percent refund to members in good standing and 50 percent forgiveness to those who fell behind.

The meeting is open to any members who want to attend.

People who are now in good standing will get the rebate within the next two weeks. Those who are in arrears will have until October 1 to become current and still be able to receive the rebate.

For an employee in the top tier of pay classification C, the rebate will be about $900. Dues are a percentage of salary, so the rebates will also be a percentage of what employees paid.

The union will send invoices to those in arrears next week, detailing how much people owe and how much of their debt is being forgiven.

Those who need extra time beyond October 1 to pay what they owe can be placed on a payment plan. They will have six months to get their debt paid. As long as they stick to their payment plan, they will be considered members in good standing.

“For more than two years, the Guild has survived thanks to the continued support of our most loyal members and by tapping into the union’s reserves,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “With dues checkoff now restored and a more stable income base, the Executive Board decided that the Guild could afford to offer a rebate to our most consistent, loyal supporters. Without them, this union would not have made it through this difficult struggle.”

The union recognizes it has been difficult for many people to keep current, given that Times Union employees have not had raises in four years. The union continues to work toward a full settlement of its contract.

“The Executive Board members felt strongly that they wanted to maximize the number of members who could be returned to good standing,” said First Vice President Lindsay LaFountain. “While the board had discussed a smaller rebate, we concluded a larger one would be most effective both in paying tribute to those whose support never flagged and in convincing those who fell behind to return to good standing.”

The bonus you will receive today is a direct result of the hard work of your union.

It is settlement money the company is paying after your dues collection was cut off in June 2009. Both parties agreed on the settlement before the case went to arbitration August 30. Dues collection will resume today as well.

This is a victory for Guild members, and it provides a chance to reinvigorate the union as we continue to work with the company toward a settlement of all outstanding issues.

Now we want to discuss with our members how we move forward. We will hold an open, informational meeting everyone can attend at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 24, at the Colonie Public Library.

We want to discuss with you the Executive Board’s tentative ideas for dues rebates for those who stayed in good standing. (We’d also offer a window for people who fell a bit behind to get current in time to get the rebate.) We want to discuss partial forgiveness of the debt for those who fell behind and do not get current in time, and we’d like to go over the concept of repayment plans for our members who want to get current but need some time to do so.

If you’ve got ideas, please share them in the comments or come to the meeting and do so.

And if you have not filled out a dues checkoff form, contact Tim O’Brien at 5092, Lindsay LaFountain at 5023 or Brian Nearing at 5094. You can also call the Guild office at 482-9218 or by email at office@albanyguild.org.

The Newspaper Guild reached a settlement with the Times Union over the newspaper’s cutting off of union dues in 2009.

As part of the agreement, the company will resume dues collection from members’ paychecks effective Friday, Aug. 19. The Times Union will also pay $32,720 to be distributed equally among Guild-covered employees.

Before taxes, that amounts to a little more than $160 a member. While the amount is not large, it is significant that the company is making a payment to settle the case, which was scheduled to go to an arbitrator on Aug. 30.

“We appreciate the members who have been consistently paying their dues all along, and we understand they may question why people who failed to pay dues are getting a financial payment as part of the settlement,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “If we had taken the case to arbitration and won, however, the company would have been required to pay back dues for everyone who was in arrears and our most loyal members would have received nothing. This agreement also makes it far easier for all our members to support the union through payroll deduction.”

The Executive Board will now decide, with input from the membership, how to determine good standing for members going forward.

Chief steward Brian Nearing said: “The board will be crafting a package from our own treasury that recognizes the need to give something back to our long-standing supporters.”

That will entail providing money back to those who have paid their dues consistently. For those in arrears, that will mean setting an amount people must pay of their debt before they are in good standing and eligible to vote, run for office and attend membership meetings. There are strict federal rules we have to follow, and we will seek advice from our International. We intend to hold a membership meeting by early September to have this discussion.

“Our board had hoped to include settlement of the dues case as part of a package that included all outstanding issues including our contract,” O’Brien said. “But you have to settle when the timing is right, and we were about to go to arbitration on the dues issue. Though we were confident in our case, you never know what an arbitrator might decide. The union remains committed to seeking an overall settlement.”

What can help inspire a full agreement is the action now being taken by the National Labor Relations Board: The board is calculating the official number for what the Times Union owes for laying off 11 workers illegally in 2009. The union estimates that number to be more than $500,000.

The Times Union does not have to decide on appealing until the NLRB provides that number. Once it is in hand, the union hopes it will be an impetus to a full settlement of all the issues, which has long been the union’s goal.

Here is an update on the Albany Newspaper Guild’s case against the Times Union supported by the full National Labor Relations Board.

The Compliance Office of the board is calculating the financial liability owed by the newspaper. The office has requested, and received, payroll records information from the newspaper.

Earlier this summer, the National Labor Relations Board upheld a federal administrative law judge’s decision that the layoff of 11 Guild-covered employees almost two years ago at the Times Union was illegal. In the unanimous decision, the Board also upheld the judge’s ruling that the company’s declaration of impasse in the layoff negotiations broke the law.

The Albany Guild is assisting the calculation process and has forwarded to the Compliance Office its own calculations dating back to May of this year. Then, the estimated financial liability to the Company was $500,000 and growing. The full Board is assessing the newspaper compounded daily interest on money owed to the workers.

Once the Compliance Office calculates the liability, it will share the figure with the Company and the Guild. The board has already contributed significant resources to this case. The Compliance Office did not estimate how long it will take to establish the Company’s liability but meantime the amount continues to increase.

The Board also ordered the newspaper to rehire the workers and return to bargaining with the Union over the layoffs.

“We are hoping that once the Times Union sees the official number on how much is owed, it will return to the bargaining table for further off-the-record discussions,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We appreciate our members’ patience. The process is slow, but in the long run it does work.”

Also, the Union’s complaint that the Company violated the contract when it stopped withholding Union dues is scheduled to be heard before an arbitrator on Aug. 30.

The Union has stated that it continues to stand ready and is willing to negotiate a complete settlement over all the issues, including the full contract, layoffs, and the dues deduction case.