The Times Union is trying to turn a good-paying job with benefits to a poverty-level one with no health insurance, dental care or pension benefits.

According to information provided by the Company, the work of cleaning the building would go to a firm, GCA Services Group, that would pay cleaning staff $9.97 an hour. While that’s slightly more than minimum wage, it is not a living wage. Workers earning that little, if they had children, would be eligible for free school lunches.

In a building full of confidential documents, where reporters’ desks hold notebooks full of sources who do not wish to be publicly identified, the Guild expressed concern about having the building maintained by people from an outside contractor who likely would have high turnover.

“As a leader in the community, we do not think the Times Union should be trying to convert good union jobs into low-wage nonunion ones,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “We don’t think a newspaper that describes itself as still profitable should be letting go good employees to be replaced by people who will be able to barely make ends meet. That’s not a message that makes the Times Union look very good in the community’s eyes.”

The Guild also continued to press its case for keeping the internal printing coordinator. On Wednesday, the Company acknowledged that it had sharply underestimated the number of jobs Mark DeCenzo has performed. After the union showed Mark had done 284 jobs last year, not the 180 the Company counted, the TU’s attorney returned with its third sheet calculating the alleged “cost savings” of moving the work to the Hearst paper in Danbury, Conn.

International Representative Jim Schaufenbil said the Company was engaging in “fuzzy math” and constantly trying to fix its numbers to get to the same result.

The union also provided telling information to the Company. This past Friday, the TU attempted to send a print job of 31,000 fliers for the circulation department to Danbury hoping to get them returned by Wednesday. On Monday morning, the print shop in Danbury sent a note saying it would be unable to fill the order in time. A second e-mail was sent, asking the Danbury shop if it could provide the material by Thursday instead. This time, there  was no reply.

“One of the very first times the TU sought to get printed material from the Danbury shop, they not only were unable to do the job but they didn’t even reply to an e-mail,” O’Brien said. And while the TU has said they could use the Danbury shop to print four-color documents, a recent attempt to do so was rebuffed by Danbury, whose staff said its four-color press was too backed up.

The Company acknowledged that the information discovered by the union was true, but they were still arguing that outsourcing the print shop work there made sense.

Keeping the internal printing coordinator will be less expensive than shipping the work to Connecticut, the Guild demonstrated Tuesday.

The union provided evidence that the Company dramatically underestimated the amount of work Mark DeCenzo does. Three boxes of plates tell the story: Last year, Mark DeCenzo produced 284 different jobs not the 180 the Times Union had claimed. The TU had counted material done directly through the marketing department, but DeCenzo has long done work for others who called or came to his office.

While the Company says it would cost an average of $300 per job for the work to be done in Connecticut, the Guild said the revised figures show that having the work done inhouse would cost an average of $260 each, a savings of $40 per job. In addition, the internal printer says he is willing to produce the single-page  Smart Sheets for the newspaper, generating added revenue.

“It makes no sense to outsource the work,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “Mark always turns around work quickly and gets it to the person who needs it. You’re not going to get the same level of dedication and service by shipping the work out of state. And on top of that, it’s going to cost the Times Union more.”

The union also continued discussions with the Company over the layoffs. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, and Guild leaders reiterated that the appropriate time to propose and negotiate layoff criteria is before an impasse is declared not afterward. The union also said the Company’s actions are a fait accompli, not a genuine effort to negotiate.

In questioning an editorial manager Thursday, it was revealed the Company developed its criteria in May, while the parties were in negotiations and before an impasse was declared. The manager also said in retrospect that some of the criteria — like scoring page designers as “below expectations” for not shooting video — made no sense.

The Guild pointed out that some reporters were graded as failing to meet expectations for not shooting video when they have asked for training and not received it.

The union also asked for copies of all the laid-off workers personnel files. The union had already examined the files and found major differences between the commentsmade in performance reviews and those made when it came time for layoffs. But on Tuesday, one laid-off worker told O’Brien he examined his own file and found glowing performance reviews missing.

 “We had assumed the Company’s personnel records were complete, but now we need to let the targeted employees review their own files to make sure we’ve seen everything,” O’Brien said.

The Company complained that the Guild was not making a proposal on layoff criteria, but the union replied that it is still examining what the Company has proposed. At the same time, union bargainers are having to review the proposals to outsource maintenance and the print shop work all at the same time while doing their day jobs.

The Newspaper Guild today held a forum for laid-off workers from the Times Union.

Representatives from the state Labor Department, the state Health Department, the Workforce Development Institute and the AFL-CIO also presented information on unemployment insurance, health insurance options and job training opportunities.

“While we continue to legally challenge the layoffs the Company has made, we know this is going to be a long battle and we wanted to be sure our members were provided with all the information we could get to them,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “They learned valuable information about how unemployment works and about the fact that once their health insurance runs out, they can use COBRA for their own care but might be eligible for state assistance to get health care for their children.”

The union invited all members to attend. Those who have been laid off by the Times Union got personal calls reminding them of today’s event. The handful of laid-off workers who were unable to attend will be sent information packets containing copies of all the material distributed at the forum.

Afterward, the workers said they were grateful to the union for providing the forum as well as for its continued fight against the Company’s illegally handled layoffs.

The Times Union proposed Thursday to eliminate the internal print shop and outsource the work to Connecticut, a move that could cost a 13-year employee his job.

Over the years, Mark DeCenzo has worked diligently in a small room off the back shop. He’s printed business cards, rack cards, posters, envelopes, letterhead and business forms. It’s a demanding job, and he’s made literally tens of millions of impressions on the two-color offset press he runs.

Mark has been a printer since he was 15 years old. His wife, Tina, works in the business office. The couple has a 10-month-old daughter. Both of their families live in the Capital Region so a layoff for Mark would be particularly devastating. The Times Union wants to send the work to a nonunion Hearst paper in Danbury, Conn.

“The Company refused to divulge what jobs it wanted to outsource prior to the contract vote, but it has made swift work of trying to outsource our work after declaring impasse,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “Now the bosses have made clear they looking at what work they can ship off to a nonunion newspaper where the pay and benefits are less.”

After speaking to Mark at lunch time, the Guild proposed that the Company look into use Mark’s skills to increase revenue rather than lay him off. For example, the Times Union now pays outside contractors a premium to print the single-page Smart Sheets advertisers pay to have placed in the newspaper. Mark has said he’d be willing to do that work.

“Rather than lay off a devoted, loyal worker with a new baby, we believe the Times Union should be looking to find ways to take advantage of the great skill and knowledge Mark brings to his work,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said.

Company bargainers said they had not looked into the possibility of using the print shop as a revenue source but they would do so and respond. The parties next meet at 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 13.

The Times Union also is looking to outsource two full-time and one part-time maintenance jobs and to transfer that work to an independent contractor. One of the maintenance workers the Company has said it intends to lay off is a single father whose wife recently passed away who has a 13-year-old daughter.

The Guild maintains the outsourcing of any work is improper. The National Labor Relations Board is investigating the legality of the Company’s declaration of impasse.

The Guild also had a discussion in the morning with the Company over the 14th person laid off. The employee had been on a three-week vacation and returned to learn he was losing his job. Suspecting that may be the case, the worker had e-mailed in advance to ask if he could go directly to the personnel office rather than be walked there by a manager the moment he came into work. Like many of the Times Union workers, he thought that was a more dignified way to be let go than the way the company had treated others.

Today marked Mary Fultz’s final day as a Times Union employee, and there was no better way to spend it than at the bargaining table.

Mary came to the Times Union from the Troy Record in 1987 to work on the copy desk. She spent her final months at the TU as a page designer.

Over the years, Mary has served as unit chair and chief steward in the union, and she has suffered through several rounds of negotiations as a bargaining committe member, none as difficult as the current ones. She has brought her humor, kindness and wit to all of her roles both for the newspaper and the union.

Mary is a huge “Star Trek” fan, and her first stop post-retirement will not be Disneyland but a “Star Trek” convention in New Jersey. She plans to move from the area to be close to her family in Oswego.

We do hope Mary keeps in touch (she’s on Facebook if you want to join her there). We will miss her, and not only because she’s the one who takes the minutes at bargaining. But we do wish her the best of luck wherever she chooses to boldly go.