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14 April 2006
CWA: Ready For the Future
The Newspaper Guild Executive Council position paper:
Preserve sectors, extend process
In 1995, the members of The Newspaper Guild,
faced with many challenges in the media industry, took a
bold and courageous step that would position their union
to face the future in an ever burgeoning Information Age.
We voted to merge with the Communications Workers of America.
Since 1997, when our merger took effect, both the CWA and
its TNG sector have benefited from that merger. We have worked
to build a union that recognizes both the need for common
power and solidarity and the need for identity and diversity.
However, in 2006 we find ourselves faced with a new set
of challenges and concerns. We are facing an unprecedented
attack by powerful forces that would dismantle our contracts
and our very right to bargain collectively. At the same time,
the ranks of our membership have been thinned in the name
of corporate efficiencies, globalization, outsourcing, technological
change and many other factors outside of our immediate control.
In that spirit, TNG-CWA has welcomed
and encouraged the Ready for the Future discussion. This
document is the product of a process that began in October
with TNG’s Executive
Council and has continued at TNG-CWA District Council meetings
in the fall and winter, at the TNG-Canada Representative
Council and in TNG-CWA locals. This document incorporates
common elements of those discussions.
The discussions have been productive
and have forced us to think about how we use our power – finite as it may
be – to deal with the challenges we face. That’s
why we believe CWA must continue the RFF process beyond July
2006. The problems we face are too complicated and the ideas
are too numerous for us to reach a consensus about our collective
future in such a short time through our democratic processes.
If there is one universally accepted
starting point for structural changes in CWA and in the
TNG sector, it’s
this: Our merger agreement must be honored. It was examined,
debated and ratified by the members of the Guild. It was
approved by the CWA Executive Board and the CWA convention.
It is a promise we made to each other, and we keep our promises.
In at least two places, the merger
agreement clearly states, “TNG-CWA
shall not be dissolved nor shall its authority, jurisdiction,
functions or bylaws be changed or impeded without its consent.” In
other words, the right and responsibility to change TNG-CWA
belong to TNG-CWA and its members.
Nevertheless, TNG-CWA recognizes
the need to discuss structural changes and knows that TNG
members will have an important role in that discussion.
In fact, the TNG-CWA merger agreement contains some vision
for how sectors and districts could better work together.
Article III, Section 3 (a) of the merger agreement states: “The
Councils on Convergence shall seek to bring together the
various CWA sectors involved in communications/information
industries with the goal of eventually developing a single
voice and a unified approach to issues as members of the
CWA.”
We believe that industry sectors like ours are best able
to coordinate collective bargaining and organizing. Districts
are most conducive to political work, education and mobilization.
Working out what is the best combined structure for CWA that
will capture the strengths of each model will take time.
The short time frame has limited
the number of Ready for the Future discussions held in
local unions. The process of educating local leaders about
the kinds of issues that must be addressed in and of itself
has taken many months. In order for this “big conversation” to
have real meaning, it must reach all CWA locals and stewards.
Many (but not all) TNG-CWA locals used the window of opportunity
afforded by passage of the RFF resolution to discuss and
propose some ideas about the future. Locals must be encouraged
to continue those discussions. Locals that have not focused
on this dialog must make plans to do so.
The process by which we are able to achieve real change
that will benefit our members and strengthen their power
and ability to bargain collectively must involve long-term
planning and careful discussion. Consensus on decisions of
this import cannot be reached in a few months. In that spirit,
we offer the following recommendations.
(NOTE: The Guild has divided its recommendations into two
sections. The first section addresses our ideas for union-wide
changes; the second section deals with changes the Guild
can make internally to build its strength and bargaining
power. In each area, we offer a broad-based goal and some
specific steps that can be taken to help achieve that goal.)
Structure and Policies
1. Goal: Improve use of the union’s
existing resources
• Create Strategic Industry Funds by combining the
Members’ Relief Fund and Defense Fund and using a designated
portion of the combined fund’s income to finance strategic
industry campaigns and organizing campaigns. One such fund
would be a Media and High Tech Fund available to TNG-CWA
and the other media sectors.
• Improve the union’s
communications, including its multiple web sites, and coordinate
content among headquarters, districts and sectors.
2. Goal: Restructure administrative units
• Establish a process whereby
CWA districts and sectors can be restructured to better
represent our members and deliver services. All districts
and sectors should be involved. The restructuring process
should extend over several years, perhaps until 2011.
• Encourage and plan for increased
cooperation and coordination of staff.
• Share field staff (sectors
with districts, districts with sectors, sectors with each
other) where it makes sense.
• Create common headquarters
committees for communications and collective bargaining
that cut across all sectors.
3. Goal: Create incentives for merging locals
• Develop a list of criteria to measure the effectiveness
of locals, acknowledging that size isn’t always a determining
factor in viability.
• Establish financial incentives
for local mergers.
• Create administrative units
for servicing that leave locals intact.
• No locals should be forced
to merge.
4. Goal: Increase the union’s
diversity at all levels
• Explore ways to expand the
CWA Executive Board to make it more diverse and include
members who are not necessarily vice presidents. Such new
executive board members, for example, could include occupational
group leaders, other leaders involved in collective bargaining
and organizing for large groups of CWA members and representatives
of locals who would bring racial, ethnic and gender balance
to the Board.
• Develop a programmatic approach to reaching out to
younger workers to encourage union participation and leadership,
similar to the Guild’s “Next Generation” initiative.
5. Goal: Restructure TNG Canada
• Establish Canada as its own administrative unit or “District.”
• Support TNG Canada’s
attempt to create a truly international union with appropriate
representation on the CWA Executive Board.
6. Goal: Increase efficiency of meetings and conferences
• Hold CWA convention in conjunction
with legislative conference in non-election years.
• Move to biennial convention
schedule.
• Direct CWA Executive Board
to identify ways to consolidate meetings.
7. Goal: Increase participation by TNG in district activities
and services
• TNG locals should attend and
participate in their appropriate District meetings. TNG-CWA
officers will work to encourage such participation.
• District meetings and activities
should include TNG-CWA issues.
Since its merger with CWA in 1997,
the Guild has worked on the national and local level to
improve our efforts in each of the areas delineated by
the CWA Triangle: Organizing, Political/Community Action,
and Bargaining/Representation. We’ve made great strides
in each of those three areas but realize there is still
much room for improvement.
The recommendations that follow are aimed at helping the
Guild improve its internal systems and procedures, based
on the principles of the CWA Triangle.
A. Organizing
1. Goal: Improve integration into the Organizing Program
for TNG-CWA Sector Representatives
• Invite TNG Staff Representatives
with organizing responsibilities to the District organizing
retreats and staff meetings where the organizing program
or plan will be discussed.
• Inform the Guild’s Administrative
Assistant about District retreats and meetings where the
organizing program or plan will be discussed with staff.
• Include Guild staff in district organizing reports
and mailings. The Guild’s administrative assistant
will keep TNG SEC members apprised of organizing activity
in their regions.
2. Goal: Increase the awareness of Guild bargaining units
by CWA district leadership and other locals
• District staff should work
more closely with the Guild staff to avoid handing off
the organizing responsibilities to the Guild and a local.
• Make the Guild Sector an integral
part of the CWA Organizing Program; we could get non-Guild
Sector locals to consider more Guild organizing locations
and encourage Guild locals to work more closely with NABET
and PPMW Sector locals.
3. Goal: Increase coordination and cooperation among sectors
and districts:
• Guild Administrative Assistant
should be at AA Organizing meeting.
• Have regularly scheduled meetings
with the Sectors and the CWA Organizing Director.
• Clarify the process for getting
money for legal costs in organizing campaigns.
• Encourage collaboration with NABET and PPMWS Sector
leaders/staff to better apply the union’s resources
in organizing at common employers and locations.
4. Goal: Utilize trained Guild organizers in various campaigns
throughout the union, regardless of industry
• Create internships for Guild
organizers.
• Put those trained Guild interns
on the list for CWA organizers to call upon for assisting
in campaigns both in Guild-represented industries and in
other industries.
• Budget for necessary travel
expense for volunteer Guild organizers.
B. Collective Bargaining and Representation
1. Goal: Better co-ordination between CWA
units
• Encourage collaboration with NABET and PPMWS Sector
leaders/staff to better apply the union’s resources
in bargaining at common employers and locations.
2. Goal: Increase support for local bargaining efforts
• Develop a “collective bargaining toolbox” that
will provide local leaders with an array of resources to
improve their bargaining efforts.
• Expand collective bargaining
training opportunities at both the novice and advanced
levels.
• Offer training to help locals
create and maintain effective mobilizing systems.
3. Goal: Increase co-ordination among locals
with common corporate owners
• Develop and support a framework
for creating and sustaining effective chain caucuses or
employer councils.
• Compile and distribute corporate
profile information.
4. Goal: Increase diversity in Guild leadership
• Establish a TNG Equity Committee,
consisting of representatives of each of the TNG-CWA district
councils from among delegates to the TNG-CWA sector conference.
C. Political and Community Action
1. Goal: Enhance members’ involvement in the union’s
legislative and political initiatives
• Guild locals should join CWA
state councils, which work on legislative and political
issues in each state.
• Develop payment arrangements
for COPE such as bank drafts and credit card payments that
do not rely on payroll deduction.
• Encourage Guild locals to
develop policies that support political activity on issues
related to our industries and workplaces while continuing
to protect members who have conflicts of interest.
• Continue local efforts to
increase voter registration and voter participation.
Submitted by the Executive Council of The Newspaper Guild-CWA,
April 7, 2006.
Carol Rothman, International Chair
Linda Foley, President
Bernie Lunzer, Secretary-Treasurer
Arnold Amber, Director, TNG-Canada
VP Donna Marks, Local 31246
VP Connie Knox, Local 32035
VP Scott Stephens, Local 34001
VP Lucy Witeck, Local 39117
VP Peter Szekely, Local 31003
VP Karolynn DeLucca, Local 37002
VP Scott Edmonds, Local 30213
(This story first appeared in The
Guild Reporter online.)
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