The Times Union began using an independent contractor to clean the building this week, despite ongoing negotiations over whether the work can be outsourced.

The Guild’s discovery follows a sadly predictable pattern of the Company implementing what it wants while claiming it is negotiating.

And while the Company presented a proposal that would have 1.47 full-time equivalents cleaning the building, the firm is actually using three people to do so, one of the Company’s two out-of-town attorneys said Thursday. They claimed the firm was brought in “temporarily” because the two Guild members who did the work had “resigned” after being told their jobs were being outsourced.

Language in the Guild contract that remains in effect requires the Company to post all temporary positions, and the Company was at a loss to show that it had done so.

“It’s been very difficult to examine the Company’s proposals on outsourcing because the numbers change every time we meet,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We were told today the Company was withdrawing its first two cost analyses of outsourcing  the print shop because it could not provide documents to back them up. And then we were told today that the Danbury, Conn. shop is adding a fee of $15 to $25 a job that had not been calculated in the Company’s third cost comparison.”

That cost comparison also claims Mark DeCenzo’s employment costs the Company more than $8,000 in medical premiums when in fact he is covered under his wife’s insurance.

“We continue to believe that an unbiased look at the facts shows that keeping the print shop here is both economical and vastly more convenient,” O’Brien said. “We fear that if the Company outsources the work to Connecticut, it will soon find it can’t get all it needs printed in a timely manner and will end up spending far more to outsource some of the work to local printers.”

The parties are scheduled to meet next on Thursday, Sept. 10.

The Guild made a comprehensive package proposal on Wednesday to settle the entire contract.

You can read it here.

The proposal makes a number of significant changes.

On wages, the Guild proposed a $750 bonus upon signing and another one on August 1, 2010. Previously, the union had proposed a $1,500 signing bonus (essentially raises for 2009 and 2010) and a 3 percent raise in 2011.

The Guild proposed to eliminate a cap on the number of employees who could be laid off outside of seniority.  The Company would have to show the people they skip have demonstrable skills or exceptional ability.

Language that would have required outsourced work to remain in the Capital Region was struck. The union proposal calls for limiting layoffs to no more than six percent of the staff, or roughly 12 positions, in a year, which is quite a lot. No one could be laid off to effect outsourcing.

The union dropped its proposed increase in the pension contribution from $1.05 to $1. The current contribution has been at 85 cents for more than 20 years. With fewer employees and a weakened stock market, it is not too much to ask the TU to make the first increase in contributions in decades.

The Guild also proposed to agree to the increased share of health insurance costs the Company proposed. In return, however, the Company would agree to keep the deductible cap at $750.

The Guild eliminated all the upgrades it had proposed except for the title of niche salesperson, the lowest paid job in  the union. The commissions these workers once got, which made up for their low wage, are much harder to come by now.

“This was a significant move by the Guild, offering substantial concessions and demonstrating our ongoing willingness to negotiate,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said.

Sadly, the Company refused to respond on any of the issues. The Company’s refusal to bargain in good faith and illegal declaration of an impasse led the union to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

The Times Union is trying to turn a good-paying job with benefits to a poverty-level one with no health insurance, dental care or pension benefits.

According to information provided by the Company, the work of cleaning the building would go to a firm, GCA Services Group, that would pay cleaning staff $9.97 an hour. While that’s slightly more than minimum wage, it is not a living wage. Workers earning that little, if they had children, would be eligible for free school lunches.

In a building full of confidential documents, where reporters’ desks hold notebooks full of sources who do not wish to be publicly identified, the Guild expressed concern about having the building maintained by people from an outside contractor who likely would have high turnover.

“As a leader in the community, we do not think the Times Union should be trying to convert good union jobs into low-wage nonunion ones,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We don’t think a newspaper that describes itself as still profitable should be letting go good employees to be replaced by people who will be able to barely make ends meet. That’s not a message that makes the Times Union look very good in the community’s eyes.”

The Guild also continued to press its case for keeping the internal printing coordinator. On Wednesday, the Company acknowledged that it had sharply underestimated the number of jobs Mark DeCenzo has performed. After the union showed Mark had done 284 jobs last year, not the 180 the Company counted, the TU’s attorney returned with its third sheet calculating the alleged “cost savings” of moving the work to the Hearst paper in Danbury, Conn.

International Representative Jim Schaufenbil said the Company was engaging in “fuzzy math” and constantly trying to fix its numbers to get to the same result.

The union also provided telling information to the Company. This past Friday, the TU attempted to send a print job of 31,000 fliers for the circulation department to Danbury hoping to get them returned by Wednesday. On Monday morning, the print shop in Danbury sent a note saying it would be unable to fill the order in time. A second e-mail was sent, asking the Danbury shop if it could provide the material by Thursday instead. This time, there  was no reply.

“One of the very first times the TU sought to get printed material from the Danbury shop, they not only were unable to do the job but they didn’t even reply to an e-mail,” O’Brien said. And while the TU has said they could use the Danbury shop to print four-color documents, a recent attempt to do so was rebuffed by Danbury, whose staff said its four-color press was too backed up.

The Company acknowledged that the information discovered by the union was true, but they were still arguing that outsourcing the print shop work there made sense.

Keeping the internal printing coordinator will be less expensive than shipping the work to Connecticut, the Guild demonstrated Tuesday.

The union provided evidence that the Company dramatically underestimated the amount of work Mark DeCenzo does. Three boxes of plates tell the story: Last year, Mark DeCenzo produced 284 different jobs not the 180 the Times Union had claimed. The TU had counted material done directly through the marketing department, but DeCenzo has long done work for others who called or came to his office.

While the Company says it would cost an average of $300 per job for the work to be done in Connecticut, the Guild said the revised figures show that having the work done inhouse would cost an average of $260 each, a savings of $40 per job. In addition, the internal printer says he is willing to produce the single-page  Smart Sheets for the newspaper, generating added revenue.

“It makes no sense to outsource the work,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “Mark always turns around work quickly and gets it to the person who needs it. You’re not going to get the same level of dedication and service by shipping the work out of state. And on top of that, it’s going to cost the Times Union more.”

The union also continued discussions with the Company over the layoffs. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, and Guild leaders reiterated that the appropriate time to propose and negotiate layoff criteria is before an impasse is declared not afterward. The union also said the Company’s actions are a fait accompli, not a genuine effort to negotiate.

In questioning an editorial manager Thursday, it was revealed the Company developed its criteria in May, while the parties were in negotiations and before an impasse was declared. The manager also said in retrospect that some of the criteria — like scoring page designers as “below expectations” for not shooting video — made no sense.

The Guild pointed out that some reporters were graded as failing to meet expectations for not shooting video when they have asked for training and not received it.

The union also asked for copies of all the laid-off workers personnel files. The union had already examined the files and found major differences between the commentsmade in performance reviews and those made when it came time for layoffs. But on Tuesday, one laid-off worker told O’Brien he examined his own file and found glowing performance reviews missing.

 “We had assumed the Company’s personnel records were complete, but now we need to let the targeted employees review their own files to make sure we’ve seen everything,” O’Brien said.

The Company complained that the Guild was not making a proposal on layoff criteria, but the union replied that it is still examining what the Company has proposed. At the same time, union bargainers are having to review the proposals to outsource maintenance and the print shop work all at the same time while doing their day jobs.

The Newspaper Guild today held a forum for laid-off workers from the Times Union.

Representatives from the state Labor Department, the state Health Department, the Workforce Development Institute and the AFL-CIO also presented information on unemployment insurance, health insurance options and job training opportunities.

“While we continue to legally challenge the layoffs the Company has made, we know this is going to be a long battle and we wanted to be sure our members were provided with all the information we could get to them,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “They learned valuable information about how unemployment works and about the fact that once their health insurance runs out, they can use COBRA for their own care but might be eligible for state assistance to get health care for their children.”

The union invited all members to attend. Those who have been laid off by the Times Union got personal calls reminding them of today’s event. The handful of laid-off workers who were unable to attend will be sent information packets containing copies of all the material distributed at the forum.

Afterward, the workers said they were grateful to the union for providing the forum as well as for its continued fight against the Company’s illegally handled layoffs.