Long fight yields 5-year contract at San Francisco Chronicle

We have asked our Hearst colleagues in San Francisco for details so we can review them in the hope of finding some guidance for us in Albany.

Of course, one of the biggest stumbling blocks in Albany is that a few years ago our colleagues at the Chronicle were told to agree to a contract or the paper, which was losing millions, would fold. That deal included significant reductions in layoff protections and greatly weakened the outsourcing language.

It is understandable why that language was accepted in San Francisco, given the dire straits the newspaper was in and the threat to fold. The Times Union has never been anywhere close to that situation and in fact as we saw this summer remains very profitable. The fact that the two papers are owned by the same Company does not mean the same concessions are reasonable in both places.

We will gladly review all the language in detail and intend to discuss what we find at our upcoming membership meeting.

and nomination of officers for election to all Executive Board seats

time: 12:30 pm
date: Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013
location: Colonie Town Library

The Guild will hold its annual membership meeting September 12 at the library. This year, all seven seats on the Executive Board are up for election, and nominations will be made at the meeting or can be done via petition.

The positions are: President, Secretary, Treasurer, Chief Steward and the First, Second and Third Vice Presidents.

Members must be in good standing to run for office and to attend the nomination meeting. If you want to check your standing, contact the Guild office at 518-466-8700 or by email at office@albanyguild.org.

If there is only one nomination for any office, and the person accepts nomination, the person will be elected at the meeting. If there is more than one candidate for any office, a Local Elections Committee will be appointed and a mail-in ballot election will be held.

Terms are for three years beginning January 1, 2014 except the person elected President would take office immediately after the election. The position of Second Vice President is being vacated because Tim Neff is leaving the newspaper. If there is only candidate to that post, the person will take office effective immediately.

Nominations for any office may be from the floor, by petition or in the form of a slate of candidates. Petitions may be for an individual candidate in which the name of the candidate, his/her Local unit (if applicable), and department worked listed. Such petitions must also contain the names of at least 25 members or 5 percent of the Local’s membership, whichever is greater. Individuals signing a petition must be members in good standing as of September 30 preceding the election. These petitions must be filed with the local Secretary at the membership meeting. The secretary shall notify all candidates of their nomination and shall receive from them a written notice of their willingness to serve.

• Come and grab a slice of pie at 12:30 pm in the Cafeteria
• Change your Twitter and Facebook avatars to:

• Follow and share our tweets and write some of you own
(include #timesunion and #6years0raises)

Please join us Monday, July 25 at 12pm over at the Colonie Town Library to discuss your concerns in the Advertising Department.

“Belonging to a Union means you have to participate and join together to win the battles being fought”
– William Devore

How should we mark the occasion?

A raise is long overdue. Our members deserve one for our hard work, our dedication and our continued willingness to do more with less. Our health care costs and expenses have gone up, so we are rapidly losing ground. And as we recently (and accidentally) were able to see, this company has a profit margin any other business would envy.

If you have an idea how to mark this anniversary, email us at office@albanyguild.org.