The Albany Newspaper GuildServing the employees of the Times Union, Albany NY |
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Local Guild NewsGuild newsletter wins awardUpdated July 9, 2008 Please congratulate your colleagues! Once again, our local won first place for general excellence in the national CWA newsletter contest. Congrats to:
For more, go to the CWA Web site. Guild bargaining beginsUpdated June 23, 2008 Contract negotiations officially begin Tuesday, June 24. View the video for more from our bargaining team: Wood, Wright step up to fill Lahoff’s shoesUpdated June 12, 2008 With the retirement of longtime Guild activist Audrey Lahoff, two of her advertising colleagues are stepping up to fill the various roles she played. Stacy Wood, an outside saleswoman in advertising, was elected to fill Lahoff’s seat on the Executive Board. She will serve the remainder of Lahoff’s term, which extends through Dec. 31, 2009. “Stacy already had agreed to serve on the Bargaining Committee, which Audrey had done during our last two contract negotiations,’’ Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “She has gone through the International’s officer training program. She is smart, energetic and fun.’’ Before she even took office, Stacy worked with Audrey to organize a meeting for advertising employees to air their concerns about recent treatment and the Company’s disallowing them from calling customers who have not bought ads in six months. Instead, even if the customer calls the salesperson, the calls must be forwarded to a team handling “new business.’’ Wood joined the Times Union in 1998 as a zoned outside salesperson. She now works selling real estate advertising. Christine Wright agreed to serve as one of the four Guild pension trustees. She will join John Runfola, Mark Corelli and Terry Brown. Christine, who is also an outside salesperson, has served as the leader of the Commission Committee. She started working at the Times Union as a teen-ager, working as summer relief in classified. (Yes, we keep these records.) She became a Guild member in 1991 and a full-time employee in 1992. Her husband, Ken Wright, recently retired from the newspaper, so she fully understands what a pension means to an employee. “Christine was the first choice of both Audrey and myself,” Tim O’Brien said. “She is very nice and friendly, but she also is very willing to stand her ground. During our last round of bargaining, I recall what happened when she spoke and Bob Wilson criticized her. While others might have withered, Christine stood up for herself and her colleagues.’’ The Guild president said it’s a tribute to Audrey Lahoff that two people are willing to succeed her. “The worst thing that could happen to a Guild leader is to have no one willing to step up,’’ O’Brien said. “Audrey let her colleagues see how much the Guild meant to her life and theirs. It’s a lasting tribute to her that Stacy and Christine are willing to serve, and we appreciate they’re taking on these roles.’’ Updated: Guild votes in favor of buyout packageUpdated May 22, 2008 Guild negotiates plan to prevent layoffs. Members vote in favor of plan. Yes: 109, No: 7 From earlier: Guild negotiates plan to prevent layoffs; members to vote Thursday. The Times Union is seeking to reduce staff by 30 employees and wants to offer a buyout to avoid layoffs. Company and union leaders met to bargain an agreement, which must be subject to a vote of the membership. Voting will take place at two separate sessions, one at 11 a.m. and one at 5 p.m., this Thursday to accommodate employees’ varied schedules. Voting will be held in the Executive Conference Room on the second floor. If members were to reject the buyout package, layoffs could result. Exempt managers and members of other unions are also being offered the buyout. “The Guild agreed to offer this package to members in the hopes it would avoid layoffs,” said Guild President Tim O’Brien. “It does not mean we agree the staff size needs to be cut.’’ The agreement calls for employees to receive two weeks of pay for each year of employment. Employees would receive all differentials or commissions they would normally earn. For people with more than 20 years but less than 30 years of employment, a lump sum of $11,000 would be given in addition. For those with between 30 and 40 years of service, a bonus of $22,000 would be paid. Employees who take the buyout would receive one year of health insurance coverage. Those employees already slated to get a health insurance buyout payment would receive it. For people with more than 40 years of service, the bonus would be $33,000. People who take the buyout will also receive all accrued vacation, personal days and makeup days. One major difference this year is the Company will not accept claims filed for unemployment by anyone who takes the buyout. In making their decision, employees should weigh that factor. A significant amount of the buyout payment will be taken out in taxes, although workers may be able to get some money back after filing their income tax returns. Employees will have 30 days from today (May 19) to file an application. Applying for a buyout is strictly voluntary. No employee should be told by a supervisor to apply. Read the full buyout agreement. Audrey Lahoff to retire with Guild’s gratitudeResolution for AudreyUpdated May 11, 2008 Guild seeks pension trustee, Executive Board member. Audrey Lahoff, a longtime Guild board member and pension trustee, is leaving the newspaper effective May 30. “We are very happy for Audrey and extremely grateful for her dedication to the Guild, its members and its retirees,” said President Tim O’Brien. “She is an irreplaceable voice for her advertising colleagues, and it will literally take multiple people to fill her many roles.” Audrey began work at the Times Union in 1992. She has served on the Executive Board since 1999 and as a pension trustee during that same time period. She also was on the bargaining committees in 2000 and 2004. In 2004, she managed to win a Publisher’s Award for outstanding sales for both halves of the year while simultaneously serving on the Bargaining Committee. She also was struck by a car during a break in negotiations but battled back from her injuries to return to work, to the Bargaining Committee and the Executive Board. A resolution in honor of Audrey was unanimously passed by the Executive Board at its monthly meeting Thursday. In the wake of Audrey leaving the newspaper, the Guild is seeking two people to succeed her: one as a pension trustee and the other as an Executive Board member. There are four pension trustees representing the Guild. The others are John Runfola and Terry Brown of Editorial and Mark Corelli of Circulation. The trustees meet at least quarterly, and they are responsible for decisions on how the Guild members’ pension money is invested. A person seeking the position must have a strong understanding of finance and the stock market. It requires a person who is willing to face Company representatives, state the Guild’s position firmly and work together to maximize the return for current and future beneficiaries. If you are interested in being considered for as a pension trustee, contact the Guild at 482-9218 or via e-mail at office@albanyguild.org by May 30. The Guild’s bylaws require a vote to fill the position on the Executive Board. The person elected will serve until Jan. 1, 2010. The position of first vice president requires attendance at Executive Board meeting, held the second Thursday each month except July and August, at the Guild office in the Albany Labor Temple. Special meetings are sometimes called, but infrequently. There are also membership meetings, including one required each fall, which the board is expected to attend. Among the duties of an Executive Board member are: to oversee the spending of dues money; to decide what grievances should be taken to arbitration; and to set and implement policy for the local. An election to fill this position will be held at 7 p.m. June 12 at the Guild office. Nominations may be made from the floor during the meeting, or a nomination petition bearing the signatures of five (5) percent of the membership in good standing may be presented to the local secretary at the meeting. The minimum number of signatures required on a petition is 13. In the event of a contested election, a mail ballot will be conducted during the month of June. National Guild Officer Election ResultsUpdated April 30, 2008 Members of the Albany Newspaper Guild-CWA voted for national Guild officers on Tuesday, April 29. The results are as follows:
It appears national votes total will not be available for some time. The national Guild’s Web site reports that one local did not give proper notice of the election and its voting is now being overseen by the Sector Election and Referendum Committee. That has required the official certification of all voting to be pushed back to May 15 and the committee has asked that no preliminary results from other locals be posted on the Guild Web so as not to influence the later voting in what is being called “the problematic local.’’ The committee plans to post unofficial national totals on May 11. Check www.newsguild.org for further updates.  We have winners!Updated April 9, 2008 Children of our members designed bookmarks as a reminder to visit albanyguild.org. Thanks to our winners (clockwise): Brandon Iannone, son of Renee Iannone in the Business Office, Justin Wagner, son of Tom Wagner in Circulation, and Camryn Egan, daughter of Caprice Rossignol in Advertising. Also, thanks to all the children who participated in our contest and to the people who organized it: Renee Iannone, Christina Sidoti, Stacey Uzzo and Carin Lane and to our judges Linda Pinkans and Jeff Boyer. Agreement reached on 30-hr work weekEarlier: Company must bargain 30-hr work weekUpdated January 30, 2007 The Guild and the Company reached an agreement this week on a proposal to allow full-time employees to voluntarily become temporary part-timers. Employees who work a reduced work week will still get full health insurance coverage (and pay the full share). Other benefits will remain at the same contribution level. Advertising workers who agree to the change will not have their sales goals reduced, the Company said. Guild members attempted to bargain language lowering the goals. When the Company declined, the union sought to exempt employees from discipline if they did not reach their full-time sales goals. (They could still be disciplined for failing to perform, just not for completing 100 percent of their goal in 80 percent of the time.) The Company again balked, so sales employees who make the move to part-time should be aware that they will be expected to accomplish just as much in less time. If a sales person is unable to reach the goals over a shorter work week, the employee and department manager may agree to end the switch to part-time early. The move is voluntary, and no worker can be required to switch. Once a person agrees, the move to part-time will be for six months. The move can be extended by mutual agreement between the employee and the Company. The parties agreed if an employee’s request to return to full-time ahead of schedule is denied, the Guild will be notified and can bring the matter to a joint labor-management meeting. Guild bargainers had sought a provision that would enable employees facing unexpected financial difficulty to return to full-time with two weeks’ notice. The Company argued it could not then count the savings in its budget. The senior manager in each department will determine the number (if any) of people who can make the move and will decide which employees to select. The union sought language that would give the senior worker requesting the move the part-time shift. The Company resisted that language. Since the union expects few people will want to lose 20 percent of their pay, we agreed to leave seniority out of the plan for the time being. The proposal was bargained by Guild President Tim O’Brien; Second Vice President Audrey Lahoff of advertising; Guild Secretary Mark Hempstead of Specialty Publications; and John Demania, the union’s third vice president and a district manager in Circulation. View more details of the agreement. Heywood Broun Award nomineesUpdated January 30, 2007 The Newspaper Guild/CWA of Albany has nominated former staff writer Kate Gurnett and Guild President Tim O’Brien for the Heywood Broun Award for their series on blight in Albany. The annual award is given by the national union for “championing of the underdog and the disadvantaged.’’ In September, a longtime Albany couple lost their home when a leak from a vacant building next door flooded their house. Richard and Rebecca Lawson’s house was surrounded by vacant structures, and a total of six buildings, including their home, were demolished as result. This led Gurnett and O’Brien to do a two-part series on blight in the city of Albany and the decades of neglect that led to 870 buildings being left vacant and decaying. In June, one woman said, the foundation of her house was ruined when the city demolished the vacant structure next door. The reporting – which was accompanied by a video on the newspaper’s Web site – led to immediate action. In November, Albany’s mayor announced he would be targeting 50 blocks that were most troubled by vacant structures. He appointed the city’s police chief to oversee the effort, and a special court was set up to address code violations on vacant buildings. Landlords that had long been allowed to let their buildings fester were suddenly being rounded up and taken to court. The city’s Common Council raised fees for landlords who continue to leave buildings vacant without making any effort to rehabilitate them. Blight is now a regular topic in public conversations, due to this dogged reporting effort. “The bulk of the work on this project was done by Kate,” O’Brien said. “She interviewed most of the people, worked with a photographer to shoot both video and photographs, and she wrote both stories. My role was to interview the mayor, to do a sidebar on one woman whose home was damaged in June when a vacant building was demolished next door, and to review code histories on some of the buildings. This was the last story Kate did for the newspaper before leaving for a job with the state Inspector General, and I know she was proud to end her journalism career on such a high note.” This is the second time Gurnett has been nominated for the Broun Award. The Guild previously recommended her for her reporting on problems with a housing development in Albany where a woman died in a fire. The resulting series on how badly the Corning Homes were built led to the demolition of the housing project and the construction of newer, safer public housing. Company can offer deductible plan as optionUpdated December 18, 2007 Earlier: Members reject health-care changeThe Guild’s Executive Board agreed to allow the Company to present the deductible plan as an option so long as members can stay in their current plan. Since this does not requiring moving all Guild-covered workers, a membership vote is not required to be taken again. A meeting for employees to hear more about the option and ask questions is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18, in the Executive Conference Room. Members had rejected forcing all Guild-covered workers to switch. The option would reduce the weekly cost of co-pay from employee paychecks. (Employees who stay in the current plan will see rates increase 14.21 percent. Those who move will see rates increase 5.95 percent.) In return, employees would be responsible for an upfront deductible for certain medical expenses that would top out at $100 for an individual and $200 for a couple or family. (Employees who switched to the option created last year, which costs $20 for office visits and has higher prescription costs in return for a lower weekly paycheck deduction, will see their rates rise 2.8 percent if they stay in the current plan or decrease 2.3 percent if they also switch to the 90/10 plan with the same $20 office visit and higher prescription rates.) Employees who take the new option also would be billed for 10 percent of certain medical expenses up to $1,000 for an individual and $2,000 for a couple or family. The Company would then reimburse the employee, with the aim of doing so before the doctor’s bill had to be paid. Employees would not be reimbursed for the deductible. The amount members pay for office visits would remain $8, and the prescription drug costs would remain $5 for generic, $10 for name brand and $25 for other name brand drugs. Whether that saves an individual money will vary. Those who have to pay the full deductible for a couple or family will see a slight increase in costs. Those who do not may see some slight savings the initial year. The deductible would not have to be paid for routine office visits, general physicals and eye exams. Women’s services such as mammograms and two annual ob/gyn visits would also not trigger the deductible, nor would chiropractic care. Outpatient surgery, hospital stays, physical rehabilitation and chemotherapy would require payment of the deductible and reimbursement of the 10 percent. Managers are being moved into the 90/10 plan, and Teamsters in the mailroom also agreed to the switch. One challenge with this split is that employees will now be divided into two experience pools: One for those who choose the 90/10 plan (which will put some Guild members in with managers and mailers) and those who remain in the existing plan. The smaller a pool of people in a health-care plan, the bigger impact a small number of people who need to make extensive use of health care can have on the following year’s rate. The Guild discussed that issue at length with the Company, but decided in favor of allowing the option to be offered. “We will have little doubt we’ll be discussing health care again next year in bargaining,’’ Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “And these issues will continue to arise until some decisions are made at the national level to lower the annual double-digit increases in the cost of health care.” Meet the Guild International Presidential CandidatesUpdated December 6, 2007 No, it’s not Hillary or Rudy, Mitt or Barack, or even one of the two Johns (McCain and Edwards), but the Guild International is having its first contested election for President in twelve years. Incumbent President Linda Foley will be coming to the Holiday Party at the Pump Station from 6-9 pm on Friday, December 7, to meet members and chat with them about why she believes she deserves another term. On Thursday, December 13, Incumbent Secretary-Treasurer Bernie Lunzer will come to Albany to speak to our members and our Executive Board about why he believes he is the best candidate to run our international union. To date, our Executive Board has not endorsed either candidate, though we have great respect for them both. In addition to our regularly scheduled Board meeting, we will hold a membership meeting at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Albany Labor Temple, both for members to hear Bernie Lunzer speak and to elect delegates to The Newspaper Guild’s annual Sector Conference to be held from February 27 - March 2, 2008 in Providence, Rhode Island. Our local can send up to five delegates. If there are more people interested in being delegates than there are slots, we would hold a mail-in ballot election. If there are five or fewer people interested in being delegates, they can be elected at the meeting. If you’re interested in being a delegate, contact us at the Guild office at 482-9218 or by e-mail at office@albanyguild.org or ask someone to nominate you at the membership meeting. Among the items on the agenda for the Sector Conference are the formal nominations of Linda Foley and Bernie Lunzer and their slates. Every Guild member nationwide will then vote so it’s important to get to know as much as you can while they are in Albany. You can also find out more about the two candidates and their slates on the Web: For Linda Foley, go to www.teamguild.org. For Bernie Lunzer, check out www.astrongerguild.org. Members reject health-care changeUpdated December 6, 2007 Guild members voted Thursday to reject proposed changes to their health-care coverage. By a 59-37 vote, members opposed the revisions proposed by the Company. The changes would have lessened the increase in health-care costs next year from 15.06 percent to 6.48 percent. In return, employees would have been responsible for a deductible for certain medical expenses that would cap out at $100 a year for a single person or $200 annually for couples and families. The third proposed change was that employees would be billed for 10 percent of certain medical expenses up to $1,000 for an individual and $2,000 for a couple or family. The Company would then reimburse the employee, with the aim of doing so before the doctor’s bill had to be paid. Employees would not be reimbursed for the deductible. Members voted in three sessions after hearing a presentation in each from the Company’s brokers, Rowlands and Barranca. “The consensus we heard from opponents was that the savings, if any, did not seem worth the effort needed to seek reimbursement,’’ Guild President Tim O’Brien said. “Many thought the better part of any savings would be eaten up by the deductible, even though that would not have applied to routine doctor’s visits.’’ The Guild has in the past agreed to changes to health insurance to reduce costs, including switching all members to Blue Shield in 2005. “It is not that our members oppose finding ways to reduce health care costs,’’ O’Brien said. “We have done our part to do so in the past. But many members said they found this proposed process cumbersome especially when the savings for some would be slight and others might see a small increase in annual costs.’’ The Guild appreciates the Company’s effort to find ways to reduce health-care costs and remains committed to working with the Company to explore other alternatives, the Guild president said. Company must bargain 30-hr work weekUpdated November 5, 2007 The Company violated the law last week when it e-mailed an offer to turn full-time employees into part-timers without negotiating with the union. Newspaper Guild leaders swiftly responded, informing the Company that no applications should be accepted or processed unless or until an agreement is bargained. The parties will begin discussions at 2 p.m. today. “Changes in working conditions are a mandatory subject of bargaining, and the Company had no right to e-mail that offer to members without first bargaining with the union,” said Guild President Tim O’Brien. “Worse, they did so a day after we had a Joint Labor-Management meeting, and they never broached the issue there.” O’Brien said the union is willing to listen and negotiate but needs answers to many questions. For example, if an advertising employee took a 20 percent reduction in hours, what would happen to that person’s sales goals and commissions? If an employee wanted to return to full-time, how soon could they do so? Would they be guaranteed their prior position back or risk losing it? When do such workers get paid overtime? How does it affect their seniority and their pensions? And an urgent question for all those who don’t take the offer: Who will do the work of those who are now part-timers? “The Company cannot just unilaterally say, ‘Here is the offer. Take it or leave it.’ It must bargain over these issues so that we can get an agreement in writing that makes clear to members what their rights are and how any change in working conditions will affect them,” O’Brien said. “That’s the fundamental reason we have a union.” Joining the Guild president at today’s meeting will be Second Vice President Audrey Lahoff of advertising; Guild Secretary Mark Hempstead of Specialty Publications; and John Demania, the union’s third vice president and a district manager in Circulation. The Guild will update employees on what if any agreement is reached. Turn off Channel 13!Members of the Newspaper Guild/CWA of Albany strongly support the workers of WNYT, Channel 13, in their fight for a new contract. Hubbard Broadcasting is taking millions of dollars out of the Capital Region, while seeking to lower regional living standards with a series of drastic demands. To find out why Channel 13’s behavior is a real turnoff, please go to http://www.turnoff13.com. |