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Photos: Tom Ludwig
Executive Secretary Lois Kirkup
and Director Arnold Amber consult on a matter before
answering a question posed by a delegate.
05 October 2006
TNG Canada to have full-time director,
shift operations to Ottawa in new year
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| Treasurer Gord Holder explains an aspect of the
budgeting process. |
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TNG Canada is about to take two major
steps in its emergence as a unique component of the
Communications Workers of America. As of Nov. 1, The National Guild
of Media, Manufacturing, Professional & Service
Workers will have a full-time director. At the start
of the new year — following
membership approval — all financial, administrative
and legal program operations will move north of the
border, fulfilling the terms of the agreement with
CWA to create a new Canadian Region.
In opening the semi-annual gathering
of the National Representative Council in Ottawa on
Sept. 30, TNG Canada/CWA Director Arnold Amber framed
the watershed moment in a quintessentially Canadian
manner. "This," he understated to delegates, "is
a bit of an historical meeting."
Once implemented, "this will complete the process
of making TNG Canada operationally autonomous within
the CWA," as it has been politically within The
Newspaper Guild since its inception in 1995, said Amber.
"All accounting, budgeting and membership numbers
will be done here ... maître chez nous" (masters
in our own house).
For delegates, the fall meeting was their first opportunity
to develop the procedures for setting up the new Canadian
Region, which was formalized in July.
"The document creating the Canadian Region can
now be put in operation," said Amber, who is leaving
the CBC and resigning his position as President of
the CBC Branch of the CMG in order to devote his full
attention to the task.
Amber told the meeting that a member vote to ratify
creation of the Canadian Region will need to be held
before the end of the year. Delegates later decided
the vote would be conducted at the Local level and
the results announced only after all ballots are counted.
Amber explained that per-capita payments now made
to the international will, in 2007, be handled directly
by the head office in Ottawa, which will have replicated
TNG-CWA's computer system that calculates how the per
caps are allocated.
TNG Canada will continue to contribute to and participate
in the CWA Defense Fund (which helps Locals with the
financial burden of defending their contracts and dealing
with disputes) and the Members' Relief Fund (which
provides strike or lockout pay).
TNG Canada will develop its
own program — fully
funded and administered in Canada — to provide
legal support to all Canadian Locals to defend contracts
through the arbitration process. To that end, delegates
established a Legal Review Committee that will be chaired
by the Director of TNG Canada and include the union's
counsel, a staff representative and two elected members.
Its decisions will be appealable to the national union's
Executive Committee. |