Three New Officers Elected to WBNG Board

In a ballot count certified Oct. 13, Robert Struckman (AFL-CIO) was elected president, Elise Bryant (At-Large) was elected vice president, and Dave DeJesus (Washington Post) was elected secretary of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.

NewsGuild-CWA President Bernie Lunzer swears in Robert Struckman (center) as WBNG president, and David DeJesus (right) as secretary at the local’s Executive Council meeting Oct. 17. In attendance via conference call, Elise Bryant, the newly elected vice president, also took the oath to serve as an officer for the remainder of the 2017-18 term.

The election – a re-run of balloting in January – was held following a settlement agreement between the local union and the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. The agreement resolved a complaint filed shortly after the local’s election for the three contested positions on the WBNG Executive Council.

OLMS supervised the new election: Mail-in ballots were sent out in September, while the large majority of eligible Guild members voted at 17 locations among the workplaces of WBNG shops in D.C. and its Virginia and Maryland suburbs, and in Baltimore. In-person balloting took place Oct. 11 and 12.

WBNG localwide elections are held every two years. In the January balloting, incumbent President Sheila Lindsay (American Nurses Association) was re-elected. Amy Lampkin was (AFL-CIO) was elected vice president, and Mikhail Romanov (United Food and Commercial Workers) was elected secretary.

American Postal Workers Union unit member Tim Fitzgerald, who had been serving as the local’s vice president, was unopposed for the position of WBNG Treasurer. There are five other localwide seats on the WBNG board. Nominated by the Guild membership late last year, none of these At-Large delegates had opposition.

Newly elected officers Struckman, Bryant, and DeJesus were sworn in at WBNG’s Executive Council meeting Oct. 17. They will serve out the remainder of the 2017-18 term.