Under the Company’s initial offer (page 1, page 2) Tuesday, it could cut your pay and change your days off without your consent, even splitting them so you could have Mondays and Thursdays off. The Company could pile on an unreasonable workload – and then refuse to pay severance when you couldn’t handle it.

Or they could just take your work away from you and hand it to an independent contractor – like they did with Classified Plus. You may recall employees in classified were taken off the phones, the calls went to an independent contractor and the workers were forced to correct the contractor’s mistakes while losing their commissions. (This ended when the Guild intervened, citing that language.)

Oh, and the Company also wants to eliminate seniority protections when it comes to layoffs. Rather than having to let go the least senior people by department, they could pick and choose who they eliminate no matter how long and loyal your service. (This would eliminate the incentive for offering buyouts.)

Sadly, we’re not done. The Company also wants to raise your health insurance premium co-pay from 16 to 25 percent. They want to stop the measly one day’s bonus they give you for never calling in sick. And they want to eliminate the bonus paid to employees who opt out of health insurance coverage if they have other insurance. (That one was just bizarre, because it actually saves the Company money. Go figure.)

The Company also wants to eliminate the bar on reporters working regularly as photographers and photographers working regularly as reporters. (Our photographers are professionals specially trained to do their work.)

The proposal calls for eliminating contract language that has recently helped three different employees. The contract says that the Company cannot change your days off without your consent unless it is necessary for publication. The Company wants to eliminate that protection, but worse: It wants to be able to assign people to work split days off.

It would also remove language, called Section 1(D) that says part-timers and independent contractors cannot be used when they would displace or eliminate a current staff position. That’s important language: It means your work cannot be taken away from you and given to an outside contractor. The Guild spent two years in protracted negotiations over that very issue in the 1990s. Apparently those who forget the past are trying to repeat it.

The Guild’s offer reduces the work week to 35 hours, increases protections from exempt managers doing our work and allows workers to share sick time with a seriously ill colleague.

Workers could also bank up to 25 sick days that could be cashed out at retirement, and we propose adding periodontal and orthodontic coverage. The union also calls for increased vacation time, including an added week at the 15th anniversary.

The union also is proposing increased holidays, including allowing non-Christian employees to get major holidays off without having to take a personal day. It also calls for sufficient staff to maintain the premises and improvements to the condition of the parking lot during rain and ice.

The Guild did not yet propose wage increases, upgrades or commissions. It did propose a longevity bonus of $10 per week for each five years of service.

Employees who use their cell phones for work would be paid $50 a month.

Bargaining continues at 2 p.m. Wednesday and sessions are set for Thursday and Friday. Members can attend on their own time during lunch hours or breaks.

Imagine you’re sitting at a table with a stack of 50 $50 bills in front of you.

Across the table sits a man with a stack of 50 nickels.

“OK, let’s cut to the chase here,” the man says. “You cut your stack down to five, I’ll cut my stack down to five, then we’ll trade and call it even.”

You, of course, aren’t buying this argument. You tell him if he wants five of your $50 bills, he’ll have to give you 5,000 nickels. The man fusses and fumes, telling you that you’re completely unreasonable.

This is what contract negotiations are like. Former General Manager Bob Wilson used to push Guild bargainers to come quickly down to their “short list,” the top priorities, so that the Company could then swap with the top priorities on its list. The problem, of course, is that the Guild’s list would include items like a bump in the night differential or a modest increase in the pension contribution. The Company’s short list would include things like eliminating your right to consent to getting your days off changed or allowing you to be displaced and an independent contractor to get your job (and, in advertising, commissions.)

Keep this in mind as you look at our initial proposal. You’ll probably notice that it’s full of nickels. Some of them are items we are quite serious about obtaining this year, some are things we’d like to get sometime and some are there in case the Company demands we hand over a stack of $50’s. How swiftly we whittle down our pile will depend not on how many items are on the Company’s agenda, but the value of what they want. The less they demand, the sooner we can get a fair contract.

The wait is over. We’ve got bargaining dates. We’ll be meeting all day on Tuesday, June 24, starting at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, and all day on Thursday and Friday, June 26 and 27. By then, the Company should be thoroughly convinced and in fact decide to give us even bigger raises than we propose.

OK, so it might not go that fast. In fact, traditionally we don’t propose wage increases, upgrades or negotiated commissions until later. We first try to get as many of the non-economic issues off the table as we can first.

This year’s committee will include Local President Tim O’Brien, Mary Fultz of Editorial, Stacy Wood of Advertising and John DeMania of Circulation. International Representative Jim Schaufenbil will again be joining us with his wit, wisdom and good advice.

To those who have been through this before, we know we can rely on your support. To people who have been hired since the current contract was bargained, you’re about to get a close-up view of the benefits of having a union.

As always, the strength of any contract we get is not based solely on the eloquence of our bargaining committee. It is through the activism of our membership. United, we’re strong.

As of Friday, 22 people had applied for the buyout. The Company has now enhanced the offer, giving three years’ health insurance to employees with 25 or more years with the Company.

Publisher Mark Aldam told the Guild on Friday that he heard from several members who wanted to apply but had existing health conditions and feared they could not get insurance or who just could not afford to pay for health care until they became eligible for Medicare.

With the added incentive, the Company should be able to reach its goal of 30 employees taking the buyout. Naturally, the Guild is opposed to involuntary layoffs.

The Guild continues to talk to the Company about the proposed newsroom reorganization. Many of the proposals are fine, others will require more discussion and clarification and a few are problematic. The union will oppose what has become a disturbing trend at the paper lately — an effort to convert Guild-covered positions into exempt management ones. The Guild will oppose any effort to take away our work; we don’t need more managers supervising the same (or fewer) employees.

This issue is cropping up all over the plant, including the “design director” position in marketing. That employee is doing work that has been done by Guild members in Specialty Publications. A grievance has been filed. The Company also broke a 20-year agreement when Fred Lebrun retired. The post was to go to the Guild. Instead, the column is being done one day a week by an exempt manager.

Guild members met twice Thursday to hear what the Company is proposing. Your thoughts will be helpful to the Guild in deciding how to respond.