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.”

Some folks have asked for proof that you have to be paid up on your dues to vote. Here is the section of the TNG/CWA Constitution that is relevant. It’s under Article 13, Section IV.

Tim O’Brien here.

It was an interesting day, to say the least.

It began with one of my editorial colleagues walking up to me, very upset.

“I just talked to one of my friends in advertising,” she said. “Apparently they had some meeting today with George, and there were some people complaining to him about the Guild who haven’t paid their dues or come to any of the union meetings.”

In short order, I heard from a few other advertising colleagues who were also at the meeting. They wanted to speak up in defense of the Guild, they said, but they found the forum very intimidating.

I invited some of those who expressed their concerns, as well as other leaders in advertising, to speak to me directly. Some were glad to do so. Others beefed about ‘moles’ disclosing what they said.

The central complaint was over the voting process. As in every past contract negotiation, we’ve scheduled the meeting at 1 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon because that’s when the fewest number of people work. We meet off the premises so members can feel comfortable talking. And we talk with each other before the secret ballots are cast so that people get a full airing of others’ concerns.

Some people have inquired about a second voting day. I’ve made some inquiries with the International union about that. There are rules, of course, about securing the ballot box that must be followed. I have not closed the door on it, but I need some legal answers before a final decision can be made.

One of my editorial colleagues heard me discussing that and walked over to say, as adamantly as some of the folks upstairs want a second voting date, that it should not be allowed. “These people need to come to the meeting and hear what others have to say,” this member said: No drive-by voting.

It’s not easy being me.

I also got an e-mail from one person demanding that I provide proof the failure to pay dues meant he could not vote. I was legally required to do this, he said, and he expected me to produce it immediately!

Um, dude, I replied (OK, I left out the dude part) I’m working right now so I can’t get it ‘immediately’ but yes I will get it to you.

At lunch time, I ate with some colleagues from a different end of advertising. One of them made a witty comment I have to share.

“The rule should be that if someone votes yes on this contract, then their jobs should be among the ones that could be outsourced,” he said. “If you vote no, then the company should not be able to outsource your job.”

I had to laugh. The inverse is true, of course. The more you think your job would be safe, the less likely you are to oppose this agreement. The more you think your job would be eliminated, the less likely you are to vote for this agreement.

I am told one of the things the publisher said upstairs was that he did not intend to lay off the district managers and outsource their jobs. “That’s great,” one of my colleagues said with a grin. “Now will he put that in writing?”

Of course, the publisher refused to put in writing a bar against outsourcing any jobs. And the drivers too were told that the Company had ‘no plans’ to eliminate all their jobs. And now they have.

At the end of the day, I heard from one of my advertising colleagues I very much respect even though we occasionally have different views. After discussing her views on the voting issue, she asked if the Guild might be able to offer an alternative health care plan. From what she was hearing from her direct colleagues, she said, that was the biggest issue.

She was very sincere, but I was stunned. Everyone I’ve heard from to date has identified outsourcing as the biggest issue in these negotiations. If the company’s proposal is defeated, that will undoubtedly be why.

But then I thought her remark was very interesting. Last year, as you know, the Company pushed very, very hard to get us to switch to this health care plan. They were willing to push it through even if the members had voted it down. And, in the end, it turned out not to be the good deal the Company said it was.

Wow, I thought. That sounds familiar. And if people vote for this agreement now, I thought, next year they will be expressing similar regrets about buying into something the Company pushed and realizing too late it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Two positions on the Executive Board will be up for election at the June 14 membership meeting. The meeting will be at 1 p.m. at the Albany Labor Temple, 890 Third St. in Albany.

The treasurer’s position and a vice presidential slot will be available. Those elected will serve until January 1, 2011.

The treasurer oversees the union’s books and provides a monthly report at the Executive Board meeting. Both the treasurer and the vice president are members of the seven-member board that sets policy and makes decisions on issues facing the union.

There are two ways to be nominated: You may circulate a petition and gather signatures from 5 percent of the membership (12 people at the moment.) Or you may be nominated from the floor at the meeting and that nomination would have to be seconded.

From time to time, a manager will refer to the union leaders as “the usual suspects,” but in fact we’ve had frequent turnover over the years and never had trouble filling a slot on the board. There is a reason our union has lasted 75 years: thanks to a membership that is willing to support the union in good times and bad.

Please consider serving your colleagues on the Executive Board. It may not always be fun, but it is always rewarding.

In our summary of the Company’s proposal, we erred in our description of the language on OT.

Overtime would be paid after 40 hours a week, rather than the current 37.5, but a supervisor could not order you to work 10 hours one day and then send you home early the next. The way the language is written, employees and supervisors would have to mutually agree for that to occur.

We apologize  for the error and will correct it in our summary.