Tom Ludwig photo

Bernie Lunzer, newly elected president of The Newspaper Guild, at the fall 2006
meeting of CWA Canada's National Representative Council.

21 May 2008

International vote installs
new leaders of Newspaper Guild

Delayed elections at 5 Locals to determine next Canada East VP

Official election results have confirmed a turnover in leadership of The Newspaper Guild (TNG), but it will be another six weeks before the winner of the contest for Canada East Vice-President is determined.

Bernie Lunzer, formerly the secretary-treasurer, is the new president of TNG-CWA, replacing Linda Foley. Lunzer's running mates were also victorious: Carol Rothman is the new secretary-treasurer; Connie Knox is international chair.

TNG's Sector Elections and Referendum Committee (SERC) will have to conduct elections in June at five CWA Canada Locals whose members are eligible to vote for TNG's Canada East VP.

Tracy Simmons, chair of the SERC, says that, for a variety of reasons, four of the Locals did not conduct elections in late April when Guild-wide voting took place. As for the fifth Local, there were errors in the voting procedure so the election will be held again.

Because the five Locals have a total of 220 votes, which is more than the spread between the two candidates, these late elections could alter the outcome of the contest between Darren Pittman, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, and Barbara Saxberg, director of education at the Canadian Media Guild. Only those members of CWA Canada whose workplace is east of Manitoba are eligible to vote for the VP East.

Voting at the five Locals will be by mail-in ballot. The SERC has already sent eligibility lists to the Locals; ballots and instructions will be mailed June 4 directly to members at their last known home address.

Marked ballots are to be mailed to a U.S. postal box in Washington and must arrive by June 28. The SERC will count the ballots and release the results on June 30, says Simmons.

With the rules governing TNG-CWA elections being so strict, it was not surprising that committee members found a number of irregularities when they met last Thursday in Washington to certify the results, says Simmons.

In most cases, she says, it amounted to "not quite all the i's dotted and t's crossed." Some Locals, for instance, failed to include tally sheets with their returns. One Local, whose envelope containing the returns bore no postmark, was able to scan and email a receipt to prove that it had been mailed by the May 3 deadline.

Although the committee had to labour into the wee hours sorting out such problems, it was in the end able to verify that presidency candidate Lunzer, with 3,611 votes, had soundly defeated Foley, who garnered 2,864. It was the first presidential race since Foley and her running mate Lunzer were elected in 1995.

Rothman, an advertising sales representative in Philadelphia, was elected to the secretary-treasurer position with 3,834 votes. She defeated Scott Stephens, a Cleveland reporter, who took 2,460 votes.

The president and secretary-treasurer are full-time, paid positions. Both officers run the day-to-day operations of TNG, along with full-time staff.

In the contest for international chair, Connie Knox, a copy editor in Baltimore, was the choice on 3,868 ballots, while Lois Kirkup, president of the Ottawa Newspaper Guild, managed 2,347.

The international chair, a volunteer position, presides over meetings of the TNG executive council as well as the annual sector conference.