Guild members packed a ballroom at the Desmond Monday to discuss contract negotiations and the proposed switch to a different health care plan next year.

Workers at the Desmond kept having to set up more chairs and tables and bring out more food because the number attending the meeting vastly exceeded the Guild’s expectations. One hundred members strong showed up, and the message was resounding.

Members said over and over — as they had at the Company’s health care discussions — that they wanted protection against the Company jacking up the deductible in future years. While the Company has said it will cover all but $750 of the deductible in 2009, members worried that they could take a hit in future years or be faced with both the percentage of the health insurance they pay and their share of the deductible being raised.

Members also said that since the Company would save money next year, it made no sense to increase the percentage employees pay next year.

Guild bargainers brought that viewpoint to the negotiating table that afternoon. They presented a proposal, which you can read here, that locks in the deductible at $750 for the four years of a contract. It also says that for 2009, the percentage share would remain at 16 percent. The parties would negotiate the percentage in subsequent years in bargaining.

The Guild also called for the Company to continue to pay for routine eye exams, whether through a rider provided by MVP or directly if that is not available. (We work in a business where many of us stare at computer screens all day, after all.)

The union also said the Company should drop its effort to eliminate the cap on how much health insurance could increase in one year. The current language says that the health-care hike could not increase more than half the amount of the raise in the top scale of the lowest pay classification. Under the current contract, that raise is $17.35 a week, meaning the employee’s weekly share of health-care costs could not rise more than $8.67. That is a more than reasonable limitation.

The Guild decided to bargain health care separately from the contract because January 1 is fast approaching. However, our contract requires that any plan offered by the Times Union be “comparable” to the one we have now. MVP’s high-deductible plan is not, so an agreement must be reached with the union and ratified by the membership for the switch to take place.

Should the Company attempt to switch everyone without such an agreement, it would certainly face the filing of a grievance that would be taken to arbitration. We believe it is in both parties’ interest to negotiate a settlement instead, provided it is a reasonable one.

The Company is expected to respond at the next bargaining session at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 1. Members may attend on their own time.

Members asked if the union would be giving up leverage in contract talks by negotiating the health insurance separately. “What other leverage would the union have?” Guild leaders were asked.

Guild President Tim O’Brien gestured at the packed ballroom. “The leverage that we have,” he said, “is all of you.”

Contract negotiations ended abruptly Monday when Company negotiator George Hearst showed up two hours after talks were originally scheduled to begin. Guild negotiators told Hearst his perpetual lateness is disrespectful and needs to stop, then they left.

It is not the first, or second, or third time that Hearst has been an hour or more late for a bargaining session. Usually, he just shows up late. This time, he had his administrative assistant call to say the session would start at 11 a.m. instead of 10 as the parties had agreed. Monday morning, she called shortly before 10 a.m. to say talks would begin at 11:30 a.m.

A couple of minutes after noon, Hearst and Company attorney Peter Rahbar finally walked in the door.

Guild President Tim O’Brien pointed out that under the Company’s proposal, an employee could be fired for “just cause” without getting dismissal pay. O’Brien asked if an employee who consistently made appointments and then showed up more than an hour late for them would be given dismissal pay under the Company’s proposal.

Hearst tried to treat the matter as a joke, but Guild bargainers weren’t laughing. They are tired of the Company wasting the team’s time and the money members pay bargainers when they are negotiating,

“It’s disrespectful, and it has to stop,” O’Brien said. Afterwards, bargaining committee members — who had come prepared with a comprehensive off-the-record proposal to make — discussed among themselves that it might be time to bring in federal mediators.

The parties are scheduled to resume negotiations at 10 a.m. next Monday, Nov. 24. This time, if Hearst does not keep to the schedule, the bargainers won’t wait long.

All Guild members are urged to attend a critically important meeting from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24, at the Desmond. We will provide lunch.

We need to discuss with members the Company’s efforts to impose a switch of health-insurance plans without consent or a contract. We also need to discuss contract negotations and our mobilizing plans.

“This is an extremely important meeting,” said Guild President Tim O’Brien. “It affects your health care coverage not just for 2009 but into the future, and it affects how quickly we can move toward obtaining a contract.”

In addition, at 12:30 p.m., there will be a vote to fill a vacant position on the Executive Board. Renee Bernard has stepped down as second vice president, and we need to fill that position.

The position requires attendance at the monthly Executive Board meeting, held the second Thursday of each month except in July and August at the Guild office at the Albany Labor Temple. Special meetings are also sometimes called, though infrequently. There is also a required membership meeting each fall.

Among the duties of an Executive Board member are: to oversee spending of dues money; to decide what grievances go to arbitration; and to set and implement policy for the local. The person filling Renee’s seat will serve until January 1, 2010.

Nominations can be made from the floor or by a nomination petition bearing the signatures from 5 percent of the membership in good standing. (Currently that would be 12 people). That petition may be presented to the local secretary at the meeting.

If there is a contested election, an elections committee would be appointed and a ballot election would be held in December.

Please do all you can to make this urgent meeting.

Guild leaders are being asked whether members should go to the health-care meetings the Company has scheduled.

The answer is: Yes. We believe our members should be well-informed about the Company’s proposed switch to an MVP plan. The union has made clear its position that the change cannot be made without a vote of the membership and that a switch in health care should be part of an overall contract settlement.

The Company appears to be preparing to switch everyone without consent, arguing that the contract says the Company must offer the current health plan or a “comparable”  one. Times Union officials are claiming the MVP plan is comparable; Guild leaders say it’s high deductible makes it a very different kind of plan, more akin to a catastrophic-care plan.

Guild leaders are also concerned that while the Company says it will cover all but $750 of the deductible in the first year, it opens the door to that amount being raised in future years.

The Guild’s Executive Board will meet at 7 p.m. this Thursday at the union’s office at the Albany Labor Temple, 890 Third St., Albany. (It’s behind the OTB Teletheater.) Board members will discuss contract negotiations and the health-care issue, and we will likely schedule a membership meeting for you to voice your thoughts. (The Executive Board meeting, as always, is also open to all members to attend.)

The board will also need to have a membership meeting to fill an opening on the Executive Board. Renee Bernard, who did a wonderful job as a board member for several years, had to step down due to a serious illness in her family. (We passed a resolution honoring Renee for her service.)

We are looking to fill the remaining year on Renee’s term as third second vice president. (Oops, John DeMania is third vice president. Sorry about that, John.) We’ll explain the process if you’re interested in that position in an upcoming flier once we set a membership meeting date.

Delegates to a regional meeting of the Newspaper Guild/CWA expressed support for our local during its contract negotiations with the Times Union. More than 20 members of the Southern and MidAtlantic District councils met at the Best Western Albany Airport Saturday, with the session continuing Sunday morning.

Delegates came from Memphis; Lexington, Kentucky; Baltimore-Washington; New York City; Philadelphia; the News Media Guild and Puerto Rico. International President Bernie Lunzer, International Secretary-Treasurer Carol Rothman and International Chair Connie Knox all attended.

They discussed the state of the industry and the treatment of advertising employees as well as sharing ideas on how to build stronger locals in difficult economic times.