The Newspaper Guild reached a settlement with the Times Union over the newspaper’s cutting off of union dues in 2009.

As part of the agreement, the company will resume dues collection from members’ paychecks effective Friday, Aug. 19. The Times Union will also pay $32,720 to be distributed equally among Guild-covered employees.

Before taxes, that amounts to a little more than $160 a member. While the amount is not large, it is significant that the company is making a payment to settle the case, which was scheduled to go to an arbitrator on Aug. 30.

“We appreciate the members who have been consistently paying their dues all along, and we understand they may question why people who failed to pay dues are getting a financial payment as part of the settlement,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “If we had taken the case to arbitration and won, however, the company would have been required to pay back dues for everyone who was in arrears and our most loyal members would have received nothing. This agreement also makes it far easier for all our members to support the union through payroll deduction.”

The Executive Board will now decide, with input from the membership, how to determine good standing for members going forward.

Chief steward Brian Nearing said: “The board will be crafting a package from our own treasury that recognizes the need to give something back to our long-standing supporters.”

That will entail providing money back to those who have paid their dues consistently. For those in arrears, that will mean setting an amount people must pay of their debt before they are in good standing and eligible to vote, run for office and attend membership meetings. There are strict federal rules we have to follow, and we will seek advice from our International. We intend to hold a membership meeting by early September to have this discussion.

“Our board had hoped to include settlement of the dues case as part of a package that included all outstanding issues including our contract,” O’Brien said. “But you have to settle when the timing is right, and we were about to go to arbitration on the dues issue. Though we were confident in our case, you never know what an arbitrator might decide. The union remains committed to seeking an overall settlement.”

What can help inspire a full agreement is the action now being taken by the National Labor Relations Board: The board is calculating the official number for what the Times Union owes for laying off 11 workers illegally in 2009. The union estimates that number to be more than $500,000.

The Times Union does not have to decide on appealing until the NLRB provides that number. Once it is in hand, the union hopes it will be an impetus to a full settlement of all the issues, which has long been the union’s goal.

Here is an update on the Albany Newspaper Guild’s case against the Times Union supported by the full National Labor Relations Board.

The Compliance Office of the board is calculating the financial liability owed by the newspaper. The office has requested, and received, payroll records information from the newspaper.

Earlier this summer, the National Labor Relations Board upheld a federal administrative law judge’s decision that the layoff of 11 Guild-covered employees almost two years ago at the Times Union was illegal. In the unanimous decision, the Board also upheld the judge’s ruling that the company’s declaration of impasse in the layoff negotiations broke the law.

The Albany Guild is assisting the calculation process and has forwarded to the Compliance Office its own calculations dating back to May of this year. Then, the estimated financial liability to the Company was $500,000 and growing. The full Board is assessing the newspaper compounded daily interest on money owed to the workers.

Once the Compliance Office calculates the liability, it will share the figure with the Company and the Guild. The board has already contributed significant resources to this case. The Compliance Office did not estimate how long it will take to establish the Company’s liability but meantime the amount continues to increase.

The Board also ordered the newspaper to rehire the workers and return to bargaining with the Union over the layoffs.

“We are hoping that once the Times Union sees the official number on how much is owed, it will return to the bargaining table for further off-the-record discussions,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We appreciate our members’ patience. The process is slow, but in the long run it does work.”

Also, the Union’s complaint that the Company violated the contract when it stopped withholding Union dues is scheduled to be heard before an arbitrator on Aug. 30.

The Union has stated that it continues to stand ready and is willing to negotiate a complete settlement over all the issues, including the full contract, layoffs, and the dues deduction case.

Albany Guild president Tim O’Brien served as a delegate last week at the CWA Convention in Las Vegas. He filed this report upon his return:

Convention delegates agreed to cut one of the CWA’s three top officer positions to save costs, and we also voted to allow some of the money that goes into the Strategic Industry Fund to be used by the locals and the national union for everyday expenses.

CWA secretary-treasurer Jeff Rechenbach retired. Members then eliminated the position of vice president. Annie Hill, who had held that job, ran to succeed Jeff as secretary-treasurer. She faced an opponent who, while a well-regarded leader in his local, ran a single-issue campaign focused on AT&T negotiations.

The CWA’s membership is now so diverse, it includes everyone from health-care workers to flight attendants to those of us in the media. Hill better reflected that diversity. Our local endorsed her, I voted for her, and she won by an overwhelming margin.

CWA president Larry Cohen was re-elected without opposition.

Two regional vice president positions also were combined.

In the convention’s biggest news, delegates agreed to allow a small fraction of the money that flows in for specific projects, called the Strategic Industry Fund, to be used to help the national and locals deal with financial issues caused by job losses. (The union also will switch to conventions every other year as another cost-saving measure.) For our local, it will mean about $20 a member more we get to keep for each of the next two years. Our Executive Board will decide what to do with those funds.

I took time at the convention to meet with Guild International president Bernie Lunzer to discuss our ongoing efforts to get the Hearst Corporation to return to off-the-record negotiations. I also spent a great deal of time talking to Michael Cabanatuan, my counterpart at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle. (Michael lives in Albany, Calif., and covers transportation, so we have a lot in common.) Michael is very good at sharing what proposals he faces, as what is often proposed in San Francisco eventually makes its way to Albany, N.Y.

At the beginning of the convention, officers in the Newspaper Guild sector were sworn into office. Among the new officers are John Hill of Providence, R.I. He will be the new vice president for Region 1, which includes our local. Martha Waggoner of The Associated Press became the new international chairperson.

Sadly, a week to the day later, the former international chairperson, Connie Knox, passed away at age 68. Her death was a great shock to her friends and colleagues in the Guild.

When I attended my first Newspaper Guild convention in Minnesota in 2001, it was Connie who spotted the newbie and invited me to join her and others for lunch. She made me feel welcome and part of the national organization.

In April, Connie retired as a copy editor at the Baltimore Sun. Anyone who ever watched Connie make sure the language of any resolution was perfect knows she was great at that job, too.

At the Guild Sector Conference in February in Orlando, Fla., it was my great privilege to stand up and call on my fellow delegates to give Connie a round of applause for her service to the union. She received a well-deserved standing ovation. We will truly miss her.

For more about Knox’s life, click here.

The Guild and Company reached an agreement on a buyout offer Friday to be presented solely to maintenance staff.

The company is seeking to reduce the staff by one position after work being done for the Connecticut papers was sent back to Connecticut.

The buyout is for three weeks per year of service with health care for the same period. The company will not challenge any claims for unemployment.

“While we never like to lose positions, we of course prefer people to leave voluntarily with extra money to ease  their transition,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We are glad the company was willing to offer a buyout at the three weeks of service rate.”

O’Brien was joined in the discussion with the company by Ray Lifite of the facilities staff.

The deadline for applications is Friday, July 8. They can be given to Human Resources Director Carole Hess.

Providence Newspaper Guild president John Hill defeated Carl Younger, the chair of The Newspaper Guild’s Human Rights and Equity Committee, 299 to 234 in an election for TNG Region 1 vice president.

Hill will succeed Donna Marks, who did not seek re-election after she was laid off by the Quincy Patriot Ledger.

In our local (CWA 31034), there were 16 votes for Hill and 8 for Younger.

“I know he will represent us well,” local president Tim O’Brien said. “Both candidates ran a positive campaign, and both serve the union well. I am proud to know both of them.”