In one of his forums with employees Wednesday, Publisher George Hearst inaccurately claimed an impasse is forever.

Guild President Tim O’Brien was in the meeting. He suspected the answer was wrong, but didn’t immediately respond because he needed to research the right response. He consulted with representatives of the Guild International, including its legal counsel, after leaving the meeting and had a swift answer.

“What George Hearst said is untrue,” O’Brien said. “An impasse lasts for what would have been the term of the contract. In this case, the Company is proposing a three-year agreement, one year of which is almost over. We would be back in negotiations by 2011 at a minimum.”

In addition, the Company could make no further contractual changes without an agreement with the Guild. So, for example, if the Company wanted to reorganize positions in a department (as it did last year in editorial) the Company would have to bargain over it. The Guild would naturally insist that any agreement be part of an overall contract settlement.

The parties also would continue to negotiate and, at any time, could reach a mutual agreement.

“We do not believe that the parties are at impasse just because the Company decided to force a vote,” O’Brien said. “But George was wrong to tell members that an impasse is forever. It is not.”

During the session, Hearst was asked about a recent tentative agreement at the Washington Post, where the company agreed to limits on layoffs outside seniority and a bar against laying off people in order to outsource work. Hearst conceded the Guild in Albany had offered flexibility by setting percentages on the number of jobs that could be outsourced or the number of workers who could be laid off outside seniority. When he said the percentages offered by the Guild were unacceptable, one employee bravely asked what percentages would be acceptable.

“We’re not here negotiating,” Hearst responded crisply. “I appreciate the spirit of your question.”

Hearst did not offer much in the way of reasons why members should support his efforts to outsource any and all work or to lay off anyone regardless of how long their service, except to say that a yes vote would have ‘more curb appeal,’ ‘better kharma’ and ‘the optics are better.’ We’re not sure what any of that means.

But Hearst did acknowledge the Guild would have greater say in negotiating layoffs or outsourcing if the proposal was defeated. And he urged members to pay their dues so that they are eligible to vote. On that point, we wholeheartedly agree.

Yet another local governmental body has voted to support the Albany Newspaper Guild and to condemn the recent actions of the company.

On Tuesday night, the Schenectady County Legislature voted 13-to-1 with one abstention to support the Guild in its battle with the Times Union for a new contract.

“The Schenectady County Legislature supports the efforts of the Newspaper Guild of Albany to keep experienced and loyal employees at work, to retain jobs in the Capital District, and this Governing body opposes the actions of the Albany Times Union to cancel the union contract,” the resolution states.

The legislature’s bipartisan vote drew passionate favorable comments from both side of the political aisle.

“People in Schenectady have seen the damage outsourcing can do,” said Republican Minority Leader Robert T. Farley. “We need to support workers trying to retain jobs.”

Schenectady County is the home to General Electric, which has outsourced much of its manufacturing jobs.

Local newspapers are supposed to employ local people said Democratic Majority Leader Vincent M. DiCerbo.

The Guild mobilizing committee is extremely grateful for all the support we’ve seen from so many members of the Capital Region community and we hope the company will come to see how important local jobs are to the health of the newspaper.

Unlike the Times Union, the Washington Post has been losing millions. But when it came time to settle a contract with the Newspaper Guild, the Post agreed to limit the number of people laid off outside of seniority and to protect workers from being laid off and their work outsourced.

Here’s a quote directly from the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild’s Web site:

“The Post demanded absolute flexibility in conducting layoffs with seniority as only a part of these decisions. After heated discussions, we arrived at a compromise solution which would allow The Post to exclude up to 25 percent of employees in a section targeted for layoff from consideration for layout. After that, the remaining 75 percent of employees would be laid off by seniority. This largely maintains seniority protection for long term employees as well as giving shorter term employees the possibility of being excluded from layoffs.”

And on the issue of outsourcing, the language in the tentative agreement says that no one could be laid off as a proximate cause of outsourcing.

Publisher George Hearst likes to talk about the state of the industry and what is happening elsewhere. We’d be happy to talk to him about why the money-losing Washington Post is willing to be flexible on the issues of seniority and outsourcing. And we are hopeful that, if his proposal receives the defeat it deserves, he will be similarly flexible at the still-profitable Times Union. In good faith, we expect that kind of approach would result in an agreement we could recommend.

Publisher George Hearst, a good man trying to sell a bad deal, is making the rounds of various offices promoting reasons to vote ‘yes.’ He has stunned many members by telling them, however, that if we vote yes, layoffs  will begin immediately. If we vote no and he declares an impasse, he will have to bargain for 45 days with the Guild over its implementation.

Workers walked away from the sessions shaking their heads. The publisher just said voting no means people get more than 6 weeks of additional pay.

If the Company’s proposal is defeated, the union would be able to negotiate over the implementation of layoff and outsourcing language. That would give us the ability, for example, to argue on behalf of someone who is 54 and whose pension would be cut in half if he or she was forced to leave before reaching age 55. (In one meeting when George was asked about that, he made a comment about how the pension trustees set the retirement age and half of them are appointed by the union. That’s true but irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the Company forcing people out before they hit retirement age.)

If the Company’s proposal is accepted, the Guild will not be able to negotiate on anyone’s behalf.

And, finally, the Company’s proposal would allow outsourcing of any and all jobs. No other union in the plant has agreed to such language. Yes, the Company has brought some work from the Connecticut papers to Albany, and we favor that. But the Company cannot now send work the other way because our outsourcing language bars it. Remove the language, and the work can be shipped off.

Here’s what happened at other newspapers where some outsourcing language was agreed to. (Other papers have agreed to limits on outsourcing, by the way, and on enhanced severance for anyone who loses a job that way.) In Brockton, Mass., all the district managers were let go. In Miami and a Hearst paper in San Antonio, the advertising art departments were eliminated. Here in Albany, the one area where outsourcing was allowed was among the drivers, and there are now none left. Not a one, even though the Company said when it got  the language it had “no plans” to eliminate all the drivers’ jobs. And that language barred the Company from laying off any of them. The Company’s proposal would allow people to be laid off and their work to be outsourced without limits.

No other union in the plant has agreed to such language. Neither should we.

The Newspaper Guild has scheduled a second meeting for people who cannot make Sunday’s session.

A second chance to vote will occur between noon and 1 p.m. Monday, June 15, at the Desmond. (The library was unavailable.) Members can attend both sessions if they want to speak out and be heard, but naturally you can only vote once. You have to sign in at a table and then you will be handed a ballot. You must have paid the dues that were due May 10 in order to vote.

Absentee ballots will be provided only to those who can document that they will be away on vacation both days. If you are in that situation, please contact the Guild office and let us know. We will ask you to provide documenting information (copy of a plane ticket or hotel reservation) and will then provide you with an absentee ballot and instructions on how to complete it. There is a legally prescribed way that requires two envelopes. Absentee ballots are counted at the same time as every other ballot. There will be only one vote count with the results announced at the end of that Monday’s meeting.

“It is vitally important that members go to either one of the meetings for their entire duration,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “People need to give their colleagues a chance to be heard, to air their concerns and taking an hour to do so is not much to ask.”

To emphasize just how important this vote is, Guild International President Bernie Lunzer will be at Sunday’s session to talk to members about the state of the industry, how this proposal compares to others and why giving the Times Union a blank check to outsource any position is a bad deal. On Monday, we will be joined by International Secretary-Treasurer Carol Rothman, who comes out of the advertising department of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Our national officers see this vote as so important, they are taking the time to come to Albany to attend our meetings,” O’Brien said. “We appreciate their support and advice, and we know our members will learn a great deal from listening to them.”

The decision to hold a second vote came after several requests were made to the union by people who could not attend Sunday’s meeting. At the same time, other members were equally adamant that we are one union and that everyone should take time to hear each other out at one hourlong session on a Sunday afternoon. That session is still scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, June 14, at the Albany Labor Temple.

“In the end, we balanced those strong, divergent views by deciding to hold a second session, but it is a meeting and not just a chance to walk in, walk out and not listen to each other,” O’Brien said. “Voting will begin once everyone has had a chance to speak, though we are conscious of keeping it quick because people will be using their lunch hour on Monday.”