07 September 2004
CWA president Bahr announces retirement
as convention wraps up in California
Freelancers, youth caucus topics at sector conference
TNG Canada East
Vice-President's
Report |
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The TNG/CWA Convention in Anaheim, California wrapped up with a surprise announcement from Morton Bahr that he would be retiring next August.
Bahr, who has been with the Communications Workers of America for 50 years and its president since 1985, recommended CWA Executive Vice-President Larry Cohen as his successor. (See press release.)
There were 19 Canadians at the Sector Conference, which preceded the Convention and had more than 150 delegates registered from about 45 locals, so Canada was a little under-represented but never forgotten or invisible.
Director Arnold Amber, Canada West VP Scott Edmonds and I joined six others from the Canadian Media Guild; Luis Rufo was there from Alberta; Jan Ravensbergen and Michele Carl from Montreal; Art Lacroix and Tom Ludwig from the Schneider Office Employees' Association in Kitchener; Ottawa's Lois Kirkup, Tony Côté and Nancy Noel; and the hosts for next spring's Conference, Victoria, sent Chris Carolan and Gary Alberts. The CMG folks included Lise Lareau, Deputy Director Martin O'Hanlon, Joe Hill from the former CEP unit, Arra Sivapragasam from Reuter's, Lorne Izzard from Halifax, and Barbara Saxberg from Toronto. (Joe, Barbara, Arnold and I are also on the Guild's national bargaining committee with the CBC and we were back at the negotiating table as soon as the convention was over. Actually, we've been bargaining for a week, back to work for a week, bargaining for a week and so on through September and October.)
We were reminded on Aug. 27 by TNG/CWA President Linda Foley that it had been 1,258 days since the Guild-represented workers at the Chinese Daily News had been denied their democratic right to bargain a first contract. Imagine.
Service Award
I chaired the Guild Service Award Committee, and had the honour of splitting the award this year and presenting it to two equally deserving nominees: Darlene Meyer from Washington-Baltimore and Henry Holcomb from Philadelphia. There were four other nominees and their hard work on behalf of the members in their locals was in no way diminished by the fact they didn't win this time.
Legal Services
From the first of May to early August we've had 15 new requests from our Canadian locals and 14 from those in the United States.
Resolutions
We've finally adopted what started out as a controversial measure by many American locals — the acceptance of "freelance" members. The term "freelancer" has a slightly different connotation in the United States, unlike the experience we've enjoyed in Canada, especially within the CMG for freelance members at the CBC.
Changes will be made to the TNG/CWA Constitution to make it easier for locals to establish a freelance unit. The next step will be to make every effort as soon as possible to develop a discounted health insurance coverage program for the freelancers who become members of the Guild in the U.S. and as a matter of fact the Executive Council is looking into the possibility, although it may not prove an easy task.
In Memoriam
As many of you who have attended these Sector Conferences in the past know, there is always a resolution titled "In Memoriam". Montreal's John Belcarz was singled out as the example of what his loss has meant to his local and to The Newspaper Guild and TNG Canada. John's untimely death has hit us all especially hard. Jan Ravensbergen and I spoke briefly about John and at the end, the delegates joined us in a stirring round of applause for John's hard work on our behalf in Canada, and more so, on behalf of The Newspaper Guild in both countries, for a job well done. John Belcarz's good name and hard work will never be forgotten by his many friends within the greater TNG family!
Topics
The Sector Conference broke into five sub-committees and considered the following topics: Chain Co-ordination; The Image of the Guild; Involving the Members; Political Activity; and Collective Bargaining.
At the initiative of one of the CMG's new delegates, a promising young labour leader, Joe Hill, we also established a "Youth Caucus" for delegates under the age of 35. It falls on the heels of the CMG's special conference last year that was designed for members younger than 35. Our leaders of the future. The conference was highly successful and is being replicated by several other large locals in the United States.
Joe challenged all TNG/CWA locals to send more youth delegates to the next Sector Conference. Incidentally, he'll still be 35 by just a couple of weeks when delegates register in Victoria next May. As I mentioned earlier, he's on our Guild bargaining team at the CBC, the Toronto grievance committee, the national Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits and several other high-profile committees. He's one to watch. I join Joe in encouraging all the locals in Eastern Canada to consider doing more to involve our younger members in Guild leadership and participation.
By the way — in case you're still counting — according to the International Federation of Journalists, 83 journalists have been killed since the War in Iraq began.
That's about it for now. Remember: motivate your members, mobilize them, re-introduce yourself to them, appreciate your members, help to educate them, make them feel welcome, encourage their participation, solicit their ideas ... because together, we are Union Wise and Organized!
In addition to the TNG/CWA Sector Conference and Convention, Percy Hatfield recently attended a Sector Executive Council meeting. He also participated in Windsor's annual Labour Day parade, which was "bigger and better" than most others in the country or so he likes to believe. |