2008 Guild Service Awards

Member of the Year: Bill Salganik (was Sun, now at-large); Herb Block Community Service Award: Dan Duncan (at-large); Steward of the Year: Tim Fitzgerald (American Postal Workers Union); Unit Officer of the Year: Cheray Jones (American Nurses Association); Organizers of the Year: Anne Marie Ditchey and James Crudup (Washington Post); “Build the Guild” Award for Bargaining Unit of the Year: Baltimore Sun.

In his seventh year as WBNG president, business reporter Bill Salganik accepted a buyout in early 2008. “While Bill could have just packed it in and cut his retirement cake a year ago, he has still paid his Guild dues,” Salganik’s nomination letter said, noting that he continues to serve on the Executive Council. “And, when his onetime employer, Tribune Co., declared bankruptcy in December, Bill helped marshal the necessary details to equip a Newspaper Guild-funded attorney to represent WBNG at the first-day bankruptcy hearing ... [which] enabled the local to get a seat on the creditors’ committee.” Salganik himself is filling that seat.

In the nomination letter for the Community Service Award-winner, at-large member Dan Duncan, president of the Northern Virginia Allied Labor Federation, was lauded for setting into place “the structure that enabled both AFL-CIO and Change to Win-affiliated unions to send members into Virginia to canvass for Barack Obama for president.” The letter recalled how those watching TV on Election Night saw the state turn blue for the first time since 1964: “Dan helped make the change we as a labor movement sought in several other races in Virginia.”

The nomination letter for Steward of the Year Tim Fitzgerald noted that among other activities in 2008, he “artfully negotiated a pre-arbitration settlement” over his employer’s failure to pay the full amount due for a cost-of-living adjustment. “The amount in dispute was approximately $4 per week; per the settlement, each Guild member was paid a lump-sum amount of $400.”