Albany Guild president Tim O’Brien served as a delegate last week at the CWA Convention in Las Vegas. He filed this report upon his return:

Convention delegates agreed to cut one of the CWA’s three top officer positions to save costs, and we also voted to allow some of the money that goes into the Strategic Industry Fund to be used by the locals and the national union for everyday expenses.

CWA secretary-treasurer Jeff Rechenbach retired. Members then eliminated the position of vice president. Annie Hill, who had held that job, ran to succeed Jeff as secretary-treasurer. She faced an opponent who, while a well-regarded leader in his local, ran a single-issue campaign focused on AT&T negotiations.

The CWA’s membership is now so diverse, it includes everyone from health-care workers to flight attendants to those of us in the media. Hill better reflected that diversity. Our local endorsed her, I voted for her, and she won by an overwhelming margin.

CWA president Larry Cohen was re-elected without opposition.

Two regional vice president positions also were combined.

In the convention’s biggest news, delegates agreed to allow a small fraction of the money that flows in for specific projects, called the Strategic Industry Fund, to be used to help the national and locals deal with financial issues caused by job losses. (The union also will switch to conventions every other year as another cost-saving measure.) For our local, it will mean about $20 a member more we get to keep for each of the next two years. Our Executive Board will decide what to do with those funds.

I took time at the convention to meet with Guild International president Bernie Lunzer to discuss our ongoing efforts to get the Hearst Corporation to return to off-the-record negotiations. I also spent a great deal of time talking to Michael Cabanatuan, my counterpart at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle. (Michael lives in Albany, Calif., and covers transportation, so we have a lot in common.) Michael is very good at sharing what proposals he faces, as what is often proposed in San Francisco eventually makes its way to Albany, N.Y.

At the beginning of the convention, officers in the Newspaper Guild sector were sworn into office. Among the new officers are John Hill of Providence, R.I. He will be the new vice president for Region 1, which includes our local. Martha Waggoner of The Associated Press became the new international chairperson.

Sadly, a week to the day later, the former international chairperson, Connie Knox, passed away at age 68. Her death was a great shock to her friends and colleagues in the Guild.

When I attended my first Newspaper Guild convention in Minnesota in 2001, it was Connie who spotted the newbie and invited me to join her and others for lunch. She made me feel welcome and part of the national organization.

In April, Connie retired as a copy editor at the Baltimore Sun. Anyone who ever watched Connie make sure the language of any resolution was perfect knows she was great at that job, too.

At the Guild Sector Conference in February in Orlando, Fla., it was my great privilege to stand up and call on my fellow delegates to give Connie a round of applause for her service to the union. She received a well-deserved standing ovation. We will truly miss her.

For more about Knox’s life, click here.

The Guild and Company reached an agreement on a buyout offer Friday to be presented solely to maintenance staff.

The company is seeking to reduce the staff by one position after work being done for the Connecticut papers was sent back to Connecticut.

The buyout is for three weeks per year of service with health care for the same period. The company will not challenge any claims for unemployment.

“While we never like to lose positions, we of course prefer people to leave voluntarily with extra money to ease  their transition,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We are glad the company was willing to offer a buyout at the three weeks of service rate.”

O’Brien was joined in the discussion with the company by Ray Lifite of the facilities staff.

The deadline for applications is Friday, July 8. They can be given to Human Resources Director Carole Hess.

Providence Newspaper Guild president John Hill defeated Carl Younger, the chair of The Newspaper Guild’s Human Rights and Equity Committee, 299 to 234 in an election for TNG Region 1 vice president.

Hill will succeed Donna Marks, who did not seek re-election after she was laid off by the Quincy Patriot Ledger.

In our local (CWA 31034), there were 16 votes for Hill and 8 for Younger.

“I know he will represent us well,” local president Tim O’Brien said. “Both candidates ran a positive campaign, and both serve the union well. I am proud to know both of them.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Labor Relations Board upheld a federal administrative law judge’s decision that the layoff of 11 workers by the Times Union newspaper in 2009 was illegal.

In an unanimous decision this week, the Board also upholds the judge’s ruling that the company’s declaration of impasse in the layoff negotiations broke the law.

In addition to ordering the newspaper to rehire the workers, pay lost wages and benefits and return to bargaining over layoffs, the Board in Washington, D.C added a new penalty: The Times Union was ordered to pay compounded daily interest on money owed to the workers.

The Board’s decision stated the company’s “unilateral application of its criteria for selecting employees for permanent layoff and its unilateral placement of the selected employees on paid leave presented the Union with a fait accompli, tainting the parties’ subsequent bargaining over the layoffs.”

The Guild calculates the bill for lost wages is now more than $500,000 – and growing – even without the interest.

“The Times Union needs to stop its losing legal war on its employees and return to the bargaining table to settle all of our differences,” Albany Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “Too much money already has been wasted on lawyers at a time when the newspaper can ill afford it. We stand ready and willing to negotiate a settlement with significant concessions that still preserves our right to negotiate over layoffs and outsourcing.”

The decision also requires the Times Union to post a notice that it broke the law to employees by email or by internet posting.

In an interesting side note, the Times Union argued to the Board that its own reporting on the layoffs was hearsay and should not be considered reliable.

The NLRB’s ruling comes just a couple of weeks after a federal court sided with the Guild in another issue in the contract negotiations.

In that decision, the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the company’s appeal of a federal district court ruling over dues checkoff.

The appeals court ruled that the Guild has the right to arbitration over the company’s unilateral decision to end dues checkoff. The court ordered the Times Union to submit the matter to arbitration. The two sides have scheduled the arbitration hearing for August 30 in Albany.

“We are grateful to the International’s attorney, Barbara Camens, for her outstanding legal work and to Guild International and CWA’s leadership for allowing Barbara to handle these cases for us at no additional cost,”O’Brien said. “We have always said these cases provide leverage that should lead to a settlement, and that is now more true than ever.”

At a general membership meeting May 19, Jeff Boyer was chosen as our local’s third vice president.

Jeff joined the Times Union in June 2000 as an editorial artist. He graduated with A.A.S. in commercial art from Sullivan County Community College. After working in an aerospace company’s art department for 10 years, he entered the newspaper business in 1990.

His design and illustration work has received numerous awards from The Associated Press, Gannett and Hearst. The Syracuse Press club and Gannett have also honored him for his cartoons.

Jeff has illustrated for several magazines and has exhibited paintings in several galleries within New York state and Maryland, including a one-man show of sports themed art.

“Jeff Boyer’s excellent work has brightened many a page, especially front pages on Sundays,” Guild local president Tim O’Brien said. “We are so proud he is willing to join the board, and we know he’ll be a great voice for his colleagues.”