President's Perspective
Democracy Reigns at TNG Sector Conference

(July 30, 2010) Even in a room with no windows, democracy rarely shines any brighter than it does at Newspaper Guild sector conferences.

Assigned a basement meeting room in the Washington Hilton Hotel for TNG’s annual sector conference, the 95 delegates – including 15 from the Washington-Baltimore local – charted a course to steer the union through troublesome times.
       
In truth, the only issue up that received substantial debate was an overhaul of the Guild’s election practices. Guild headquarters is going to assume the duties of counting all of the ballots for contested international elections. It estimates that this would triple TNG’s costs.

The only cost the Guild proposal wanted locals to share was that of mailing ballots to the members of each local (those costs would be trimmed if the local wanted to conduct balloting on the shop floor).

Canadians in the Guild raised the biggest objections. The Canadian Media Guild, TNG’s largest local, would be stuck with the biggest postage bill – and Canadian postage is more costly than U.S. postage. Canadians also vote on solely Canadian matters electronically – a practice the U.S. Department of Labor disallows since anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

After a voice vote on that provision proved inconclusive, the next step was a roll call of locals. Washington-Baltimore, due to the size of its local membership, had 18 votes to cast – 1.2 votes per delegate. Ours was one of only two locals to split its vote: 10.8 votes to have TNG pick up the cost of the mailing, six votes to have locals pick up the cost.

Why not 18 votes? TNG’s international chairperson, Connie Knox of the Baltimore Sun, was a member of the WBNG delegation, but in her role as international chair had to hold her vote in abeyance in order to make or break a tie. The proposal to have TNG pick up the cost of the mailings ultimately failed by a 3-2 overall ratio.

Ken May of BNA served as chair of the sector conference’s Credentials Committee. Two other WBNG delegates, Tiffany Heath of the AFL-CIO and local Secretary Mark Gruenberg (at-large), served on the Resolutions Committee, while the rest of the delegation sat in the Committee of the Whole.

Our other delegates: WBNG Vice President Darlene Meyer (Washington Post); Treasurer and TNG Region 2 Vice President Sheila Lindsay (American Nurses Association); Tim Fitzgerald (American Postal Workers Union); Barb Irwin (International Labor Communications Association); Amy Lampkin (AFL-CIO); at-large member Denise Riley; WBNG Executive Director Cet Parks; and local representatives Rick Ehrmann and Paul Reilly.

Special thanks go to Miranda Nelson of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Chosen as an alternate in January, she stepped up to delegate status on one day’s notice when at-large member Dan Duncan took ill and was unable to attend.

In my next President’s Perspective, I’ll fill you in on some of the events surrounding the CWA convention.