A new proposal will be on the table when the Centre Daily Times and its production staff employees enter the 25th month of contract deliberation this afternoon.

The proposal would relieve the company of certain legal burdens if a revised union security clause is approved, said Bill Lieb, chairman of the negotiating committee for Graphics Communications International Union.

The union security clause has been the sticking point throughout the talks.

Under the change, if a union employee is dismissed, the proposal promises that the union would fight the litigation and not the company, said Lieb, who is also a press room employee.

The union security clause also insists that the company only hire union members. Any employees who are hired that do not belong to the union would be required to join within thirty days.

The CDT management, under former publisher Chris Harte, did not favor unionization. Harte left the company last month to become president and publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal.

While GCIU employees were picketing CDT offices during a one-day informational strike in September, Harte said the CDT opposed union security because it did not want to force its employees to join a union.

But James A. Moss, the paper's new president and publisher, said he has not yet decided his position.

"I am basically still in the process of studying the position of the CDT and GCIU," Moss said.

Contract negotiators met on Dec. 21, but Larry Peck, representative for the GCIU, said no progress was made.

Currently 20 press room employees have been working without a contract for more than two years, Lieb said.

Moss was not present at that meeting, and said last week he is unsure if he will attend today's session because he wants to be completely aware of the two-year background of the contract stalemate.

Main points the employees will re-emphasize include the length of the contract, union security, general grievances and a wage increase, Peck said.

Harte had offered a 4 percent wage increase to press room employees.

The employees have not received a wage increase in two years, Peck said. "That really isn't a fair, reasonable figure."

Moss said he has not decided if he will offer a higher wage increase and believes an increase is not as important as the union security clause.

"At this point a salary and/or increase is not the issue that divides the CDT and the employees," Moss said. "I see that as being somewhat a moot point."