11 December 2006

Overwhelmingly, TNG Canada members
support creation of CWA Canadian Region

Members of TNG Canada who voted in a national referendum have "overwhelmingly supported and approved a new Canadian Region" within the Communications Workers of America (CWA), reports the chair of the elections committee.

Dan Seguin, who is also president of the North Bay Newspaper Guild, says that approximately 1,500 members cast ballots, with more than 93 per cent in favour of the new arrangement.

"The Locals and members of TNG Canada/CWA have spoken loud and clear," says Seguin in a news release to all Locals. "Congratulations folks!"

Members coast-to-coast, faced with the question "Do you approve of the creation of an autonomous Canadian Region within the Communications Workers of America?", were actually being asked to ratify a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the senior levels of the CWA and TNG Canada.

Members, says Seguin in the release, have "taken a huge evolutionary step toward self-governance and autonomy" within the international union.

As a consequence, the new Canadian Region will come into effect on January 1, 2007.

"None of this means that TNG Canada will be severing ties with The Newspaper Guild (TNG) or the CWA," says Director Arnold Amber. "The Canadian union will continue to be a vital force within TNG and the CWA."

What it does mean, as of the new year, is that TNG Canada will have direct control over how it spends the money that its 27 Locals now send to the CWA, through monthly per-capita payments. Currently, the CWA takes that money, keeps some, and gives an amount it determines is fair back to Ottawa to run Canadian operations.

Under the new arrangement, TNG Canada will collect the same amount of per caps (members' union dues), send a jointly determined amount to CWA to cover its obligations to the international union, and retain the rest for its work in Canada. For example, TNG Canada is now running its own legal program; a committee in Canada representing staff, TNG Canada and two Locals deals with requests for arbitrations, rather than having them approved by the CWA legal department.

TNG Canada will still participate in the CWA Members Relief Fund (strike or lockout pay) and Defense Fund, as well as the TNG Mobilization and Defense Fund.

Ray Rudersdorfer, President of TNG Canada/CWA 30403 British Columbia, was ecstatic when he learned of the referendum results.

"When I joined the Regina Typographical Union in December 1956 as a newly arrived immigrant and journeyman printer, I never thought that I would be part of the oldest international union in North America (International Typographical Union), participate in the mergers of the communications unions in North America and finally get a chance to vote on the establishment of a Canadian district of the largest and most respected communications union in North America, CWA," he writes. "We've come a long way, baby. It feels good. "

At a meeting of the National Representative Council in Ottawa this fall, Amber explained to delegates that the agreement, once ratified and implemented, "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.

"All accounting, budgeting and membership numbers will be done here ... maître chez nous" (masters in our own house).

The referendum voting was conducted at the Local level, with nearly all of them participating, says Seguin. The results were tabulated at the national office in Ottawa after all votes were in.

Seguin says the elections/referendum committee, which saluted Ottawa head office researcher Marjolaine Botsford for all her time and effort on the campaign, will be reviewing the referendum data and making a full report to all Locals.