At the top of the July 19 classified advertising section appeared this headline: “Making layoffs less painful.”

Below it was this attention-grabbing information in a box: “Kindness is key: Business owners and bosses should follow these five simple tips to better handle layoffs in this trying economic climate.”

Here are the five tips in the Tribune Media Services column the TU reprinted:

1. Say you are sorry for their loss.
2. Thank them for their past service.
3. Let them stay on for a few days after the layoff notice.
4. Offer to help with their professional transition.
5. Let their colleagues say a proper goodbye; perhaps arrange a farewell luncheon.”

That’s right. The TU printed a column telling business owners that the best way to handle layoffs is NOT to make people leave right away and that you should LET THEM HAVE TIME FOR A PROPER GOODBYE.

You’ll notice the column said nothing about making sure you have extra security in the building, walking those selected off to the personnel office as their colleagues watch in horror, immediately shutting off their Internet access, removing their names from their mailboxes right away and making sure their swipe cards no longer let them in the building. (Oh, and then claim they’re not really laid off. They’re just on a paid leave.)

The column’s author, Joyce Lain Kennedy of Tribune Media Services, responds to her reader’s 5 tips on properly handling a layoff this way: “I couldn’t agree more with your philosophy. And the people who show kindness under stress won’t be branded as jerks when business rises again.”

So to summarize, the TU printed a column saying that if during layoffs you make people leave immediately without letting them say a proper goodbye, you are a jerk. That’s not the Guild talking here, folks. It’s words to live by, brought to you by the Times Union, which ought to practice what it prints.

Company managers said Wednesday they never examined employees’ personnel records before deciding which to lay off. Even Publisher George Hearst said he never looked at employee’s performance reviews in reviewing managers’ decisions.

The Company also said one manager reviewed the work of an employee he does not oversee, and a top manager in editorial said he had no idea why one employee’s review said the person was “abrupt” with editors when there is no personnel history to substantiate such a claim and the employee denies it.

The Times Union also wants to take its  first step toward outsourcing our work. The TU proposes to hire an independent contractor to clean the building, resulting in three additional lost jobs.

The Company’s answers came during questioning by the union over the criteria used in out-of-seniority layoffs. So far, the Company has let go 13 workers, 12 of them out of seniority, and says one more person has yet to be notified. While the Company claims the employees are on a paid 45-day leave, the union maintains that they have effectively laid them off.

The union is continuing to meet with the Company over these two issues but is challenging the out-of-seniority layoffs in front of the National Labor Relations Board. The parties next meet Thursday, July 30.

In preparation for Wednesday’s meeting, the Guild reviewed the personnel files of all the people on the Company’s layoff list. In many cases, the union found sharp contradictions between what was said in recent performance reviews on file in employee’s personnel records and what was said in the Company’s process for determining who got laid off.

For example, one supervisor said an employee lacked a “gung-ho attitude.” That worker’s most recent review said the person “is extremely resourceful and takes prides in her work. … No matter what she is asked to do, she will find a way because it is the right thing to do for the customer.”

One employee laid off was named Page Designer of the Year in this spring’s editorial award ceremony and twice received merit raises. One of the reporters let go was named the Young Journalist of the Year. Both were laid off outside seniority.

In its annual Best of Edition, Metroland named the Times Union’s horrific treatment of its employees as the “best media meltdown.”

The Capital Region’s finest alternative weekly excoriates the Times Union for its  recent behavior. Metroland states that the Guild has “waged an admirable campaign to retain local jobs and editorial credibility.” It also says the newspaper’s bosses have been “employing heavy-handed negotiations to advance its demonstrably bad agenda.”

(The alt weekly also praises the TU’s blogs, but does not mention that many of its participants have stopped blogging in support of the Guild, with some like Corey Ellis and Shawn Morris stating their support and others like Jerry Jennings and Neil Kelleher simply stopping all posts until we get a fair contract. Metroland does single out Brendan Lyons as outstanding reporter, and we heartily agree.)

Metroland laments it appears Hearst is winning the battle over the newspaper’s future and its editors shudder to think what the newspaper will look like when the dust settles. To which we kindly reply: Don’t count ol’ BB out, friends. As you will soon see, this fight isn’t near over.

What a difference a coast makes.

In San Francisco, the Hearst-owned Chronicle  did not treat employees the awful way that Times Union workers were treated. There were no added security guards, no tap on the shoulder and no forcing people to leave the building.

Michael Cabanatuan is the president of the Northern California Media Guild, the Guild local that represents workers at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle. Michael also works at the Chronicle.

When he learned what had happened here, he said: “I’ve heard of nothing this absurd. In San Francisco, they notified people in mid-May that they would be laid off — some immediately, some at the end of June, July and August. But they were not escorted from the building and were, in fact, were/are expected to report to work.”

Guild President Tim O’Brien has a next-door neighbor who just was laid off from Albany International.

“He knew for months what his last day was going to be,” O’Brien said. “He still reported to work every day and did his job. He was not escorted from the building like he was going to attack the place. This is a horrible way to treat employees, many of whom had worked for the newspaper for a decade or more. This was not treating employees with fairness, kindness, dignity or respect, the motto the Company once used to describe its approach to workers. No one should ever be treated this way again and those who were are owed an apology.”

The Guild is pursuing charges before the National Relations Board over both the illegal declaration of impasse and the layoff of employees before negotiations over criteria were complete.

Pope Benedict says that labor unions are more important than ever in this global financial crisis. Read about it here.

Reached for comment, the Pope also stated that the Times Union’s treatment of its workers this week is a mortal sin which won’t easily be forgiven.