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CWA delegates vote yes on diversity
By Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe, Local 37082
president
One of my proudest moments as a member of The
Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America happened
on Monday, July 16, when convention delegates voted overwhelmingly
to approve the Executive Board's Diversity Proposal.
A little background, for those of you who haven't
been following the story: The CWA Executive Board, which has
19 people on it, has only 4 women and one ethnic minority.
If things were spread out evenly, there should be about twice
as many women and four times as many ethnic minorities. Not
that there's anything wrong with white males, mind you. It's
just that the distribution is way out of whack with what we
should be able to expect if everyone has a fair shot at things.And
as a union, we need to find out what's going on, if things
don't seem to be happening in a fair manner.
So what the proposal does is create four at-large
"diversity seats" on the board. The seat holders
will be appointed in the first year, and elected in following
years. They'll have a vote on all board matters, and they'll
also be tackling the special task of figuring out what the
union needs to do to make sure all members are equitably represented.
I'm a member of CWA's National Committee on
Equity, so a lot of what I did in Toronto was work for passage
of this proposal. It's exciting to have been a part of what
may be a key turning point in the North American labor movement.
Other unions also are looking at diversity as an issue as
they consider their survival and relevance to the next generation
of workers, but CWA is one of the first. The move to create
the diversity seats is also distinguished by the fact that
it was a decision made by ordinary members on the convention
floor.
In other convention news, delegates approved
a proposal on behalf of Canadian members to be removed from
formerly border-spanning geographic Districts 1 and 7 and
put into the Canadian Region. This makes sense, especially
when it comes to lobbying efforts, since issues and politics
are so different in the two countries. The Newspaper Guild
has a large contingent of members in Canada, and they were
the members pushing for this change
Speaking of differences, health care in the
U.S. was another hot topic. Over the next year, you'll probably
be hearing more about the union's efforts to get single-payer
health coverage for all Americans
Another thing you'll be hearing about in upcoming
months is not a CWA-wide issue, but a Newspaper Guild-specific
one. (The Newspaper Guild, with 35,000 members, is a sector
within CWA, with 700,000 members). Linda Foley, current TNG
president, is running for re-election next year. Opposing
her for that office is Bernie Lunzer, current secretary-treasurer.
You can learn more about Bernie at his campaign blog: http://mysite.verizon.net/astrongerguild/.
(I don't have a campaign site for Linda, but will let you
know if they put one up.) The secretary-treasurer's race is
also contested. Scott Stephens (Northeast Ohio) is Linda Foley's
running mate, and Tim Schick (Providence, R.I.) has launched
a solo campaign for the post
In uncontested races, these re-elections get
taken care of at the Guild Sector Conference. But when there's
a contested race, the election will be decided by a mail vote
of the entire Guild-CWA membership. That means that every
member has a hand in shaping the future of the union. I hope
you'll all take that responsibility and use the upcoming months
to learn as much as possible about the candidates. Finally,
it's my pleasure to report that you were very well represented
by your delegation at the Sector Conference and Convention.
Gene Achziger, of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the veteran
of the bunch, shared his wisdom, knowledge, and contacts with
the newbies. Darryl Sclater, from The Seattle Times Circulation
department, impressed everyone with his close attention to
detail and interest in the odd, arcane bits of convention
business. And Athima Chansanchai of the P-I came bursting
out of the gate at her first conference/convention, volunteering
to be on the Guild's Next Generation committee.
Next time you see these guys, please thank
them for giving up a perfectly nice summer week to spend a
lot of time in Toronto's finest conference rooms
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