The time has come for all Times Union employees to get raises.

The day after President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address called on business leaders to do what they can to give their workers raises, Guild President Tim O’Brien quietly wrote to Publisher George Hearst asking him to heed the President’s call. The Guild would prefer a contract but proposed a merit raise for all that would not require either side to agree to any other changes.

Last week the Guild launched an effort to show Times Union employees agree: We have all earned a merit raise.

In just two days, a third of the membership went on the Guild website and clicked to send the message they too want a merit raise for all.

Please go to albanyguild.org/raise to add your voice. We all merit a raise!

Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Newspaper Guild of Albany.

And we do have to say, we look pretty damn good for our age.

We invite members to come to the cafeteria from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday to celebrate with FREE CUPCAKES! And we’ll show you how you can swiftly apply for a much-deserved raise.

The Newspaper Guild of Albany has endorsed a bill that would allow employees to sue over workplace intimidation, threats and harassment.

The union took the rare step of backing a bill due to the extreme circumstances faced by some employees at the Times Union.

The union endorsed a bill by State Senator Diane Savino that would allow workers to sue when facing workplace threats, bullying and intimidation.

Under current law, employees can only sue if they can prove they were discriminated against based on race, religion, age or gender. Savino’s bill would allow workers to sue if faced with workplace bullying, harassment and abuse.

“Our union does not endorse political candidates or contribute to their campaigns because that’s a sensitive issue for our editorial members,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “On rare occasions, we have endorsed specific pieces of legislation. Given the extreme mistreatment of some of our members, and management’s utter failure to rein in the bad behavior, we support Senator Savino’s legislation to make extreme workplace behavior illegal.”

Times Union advertising employees have been subject to unprecedented bullying and intimidation. The Guild surveyed workers, and almost 83.3 percent said workplace stress was interfering with their quality of life. Almost half said they had sought medical attention.

The union is prepared to meet with Senator Savino and other legislators about the bill, and its members are prepared to testify as to its necessity. The only other bills the union has endorsed in recent years are a federal shield law to protect journalists from being forced to disclose sources and the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing field for workers looking to unionize.

The new edition of the Guild International’s newspaper, The Guild Reporter, includes a piece on the recent seminar on workplace bullying conducted here in Albany.

It also details the events in the Albany and Kingston locals that inspired the seminar.

Read it here.

In the latest case of ad employees being treated inappropriately, a training exercise scheduled this week calls for employees to earn points by dancing in front of their colleagues.

The exercise calls for ad sales staff to answer questions. If they get the answers wrong, they can ‘choose’ to dance. If the judge likes their dancing, they will get half the points back.

Ad employees brought the exercise to the Guild’s attention, and we have informed the Company that this is inappropriate and, with a largely female staff, carries “the strong stink of sexual harassment.”

The staff are not trained monkeys, the Guild wrote, and they should not be asked to dance to please their bosses.