Update, March 26: As we noted in our bargaining bulletin Tuesday, talks exploring the possibility of merging the BANG-EB bargaining unit with the unit representing the Mercury News have failed to reach agreement.

So all parties now return to expedited bargaining to secure separate contracts. In our case, that means we’ll be back at the table with the company next week, continuing to negotiate a first contract for BANG-East Bay.

At the request of both the Guild and the company, David Weinberg, a federal mediator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, will remain involved in the talks.

We look forward to continuing our productive relationship with management. Our top goal is to reach agreement as soon as possible on a tentative contract, which must then be ratified by a vote of our members. Previous bargaining sessions have led t tentative agreement on many non-economic items, and our bargaining team also has offered comprehensive proposals on pay and benefits.

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March 24: Bargaining committees representing the two largest MediaNews Group Guild units in the Bay Area will resume expedited negotiations for individual contracts after talks about a proposed merger of the units failed to produce an agreement Monday.

A meeting of the Guild and management committees was held Monday with David Weinberg, a federal mediator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Negotiations for a Guild contract with the Mercury News will resume Thursday, while talks for a contract covering BANG-EB employees will resume next week. Weinberg will remain involved at the behest of both the Guild and the company in order to help us reach separate contracts as soon as possible.

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Update, Feb. 26: Our bargaining bulletins are usually brief, but Tuesday’s contained some pretty big news: Company representatives are proposing that we explore merging our new BANG-EB Guild unit with the established Guild unit at the Mercury News.

What does this mean exactly? In a consolidated Guild unit, we would share the same contract with our coworkers at the Mercury News, and managers likely would have more leeway to coordinate operations across our newsrooms.

We’ve always used the term “One Big BANG,” and we think the idea of formally creating a seamless Bay Area News Group deserves a serious look amid our current financial crisis. So our bargaining team and its counterpart from Merc have agreed to talk about the idea. With the help of federal mediator David Weinberg, we’ll enter talks with the company in early March to begin discussing what a merged unit could look like, and how employees might be affected.

This is by no means a done deal: A merger would be a complex undertaking, requiring support from members of all the affected units, and involving separate votes of our members and Guild members at the Mercury News. It won’t happen unless all sides see evidence that it’s in the best interest of our company and its workers.

So we want to hear from you: How would you feel about sharing a union contract with our colleagues in San Jose? What concerns or questions do you have?

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Bargaining bulletin, Feb. 9: Our Guild bargaining team presented BANG-EB management negotiators with a new comprehensive proposal and parties tentatively agreed to several sections during the a round of expedited bargaining on Monday.

We hope to reach a tentative accord on a comprehensive agreement, subject to ratification vote by membership, by the end of the month. During this round of talks we will report out specific tentative agreements less, as we are negotiating large chunks of contract at a time.

We entered expedited bargaining with the Company on Jan. 30, as a condition of agreeing to its furlough plan.

Representing the Guild was bargaining team chair Karl Fischer, bargaining team members Jeremiah Oshan and Eric Louie, unit chair Sara Steffens and lead negotiator Carl T. Hall. Representing the company was attorney Marshall Anstandig and vice-president Jim Janiga.