GR EXTRA!

Guild delegates steer more frugal course

Andy Zipser, Editor

30 Jul 2010

The Guild Reporter

Delegates to back-to-back conventions of the Newspaper Guild and its parent union, CWA, approved several measures this past week that will affect how the unions govern themselves, communicate with members and allocate resources.

Driven largely by declining revenues because of continued membership erosion, the new measures promise greater efficiency and cost-savings. But the price exacted by such savings could include a loss of membership involvement in the union, and the close vote on one key CWA issue -- approving biennial conventions -- has prompted predictions that the change from annual meetings will be challenged next year.

The Guild sector conference was the shortest and had the smallest delegate representation in memory, in part because it came just three months after a multi-district meeting in Cleveland attended by many of the same activists. Meeting July 24 in Washington D.C., the 93 delegates were done with business by late afternoon the same day. Moreover, because the delegates met as a committee-of-the-whole for much of the time, virtually all their remarks were off the record, including a roll-call vote on a proposal regarding funding for union elections.

Once back in regular session, the Guild delegates made short work of several constitutional amendments and as quickly approved half-a-dozen resolutions, either unanimously or with only token opposition. The constitutional amendments included the following:

• Deletion of a requirement that a minimum number of Guild Reporter editions be printed each year, with website publication satisfying constitutional requirements regarding membership notification of union business.

• A change in how revenues are allocated to the Guild Mobilization and Defense Fund,  allowing that revenue stream to be diverted to the CWA's general fund as long as the Guild fund maintains a balance of at least $1.25 million; if the fund dips below that level, its revenue stream is to be restored until the mobilization and defense fund reaches $1.4 million, at which time it will again revert to the CWA's general fund. Dues contributed to the general fund are to "be used solely and exclusively by CWA for TNG-CWA General Fund expenses," according to the new constitutional language.

• Centralizing of Guild elections that use mail ballots, with completed ballots to be mailed directly to post office boxes established by the Guild's election and referendum committee rather than back to each member's local. Locals also may request that the committee mail out the ballots initially, albeit at the local's expense for postage.

Guild delegates, anticipating a CWA constitutional amendment to switch from annual to biennial national conventions, also approved a constitutional change to automatically make terms of office for the union's elected officials conform to those set by CWA. Because CWA officers and board members are elected by convention delegates (unlike the Guild, in which members vote), a biennial convention would require a change from the current three-year terms to either two or four years.

Not that there were any assurances that the CWA constitutional change would go through. Despite years of trying by CWA leaders to reduce convention frequency, each attempt had been rebuffed by delegates determined to maintain an annual ritual. Critics of the status quo decried its expense and pointed out that CWA was the last large AFL-CIO union to hold annual meetings -- indeed, the Guild had voted to go to biennial conventions just before it merged with CWA, at which point the change became stillborn -- but supporters of meeting annually emphasized the convention's appeals process as the last check on leadership abuse or missteps.

Hotly debated, as always, this time the proposed amendment passed -- albeit on a roll-call vote that tipped the balance by just a couple of percentage points, 52%-48%. Included in the amendment is a change in terms of office to four years.  As a result, next year's CWA convention will be held July 11-13 in Las Vegas, as already scheduled, but the next convention after that will be held in 2013. And because 2011 is an election year for officers and board members of both the Guild and CWA, necessitating an earlier Guild sector conference, the Guild has scheduled its meeting for Feb. 2-6 in Orlando, Florida, to kick off its own campaign season.

Meanwhile, almost lost in all the politicking over convention frequency was an amendment to give voting privileges to  the Canadian member of the CWA executive board, currently Arnold Amber. A contentious issue when first brought before the CWA convention in 2006, the proposal passed this time without a murmur of dissent.

Underlying the discussions at both meetings were the unions' dire financial circumstances. CWA Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach observed that the union started the fiscal year that began June 1 with 32,000 fewer members than it had a year earlier, "the greatest loss we have ever experienced in our history."  The membership erosion in turn affects revenues, with this year's income projected to be $5 million less than last year and $20 million less than four years ago.

The Guild, meanwhile, reported a 14% cut in its budget for this year, to $2.6 million. Guild membership has declined to a bit more than 24,000, while CWA membership is down to 459,830.

Among the resolutions adopted by Guild delegates were statements:

• Opposing relaxation of media ownership rules.

• Deploring the strong-arming by BP and public safety officials of reporters and photographers attempting to cover the Gulf oil clean-up.

• Promoting increased attention within the Guild to human rights and equity issues, including a subsidy of up to $450  per person for attendance at Human Rights and Equity Committee meetings.

• Protesting the manner in which journalists covering the G-20 summit in Toronto were treated by police,

• Supporting the AFL-CIO unit of the Washington-Baltimore Guild in its contract negotiations with the federation, which was accused of proposing "the most egregious anti-union proposals in its 55-year existence."