Category Archives: NewsGuild

2 vying to head TNG to debate Saturday

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GRAPHIC COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two contenders for presidency of The NewsGuild-CWA will square off Saturday in a live online debate, in which CWA Canada members can participate.

Members can submit questions both before and during the debate, which begins at 6:30 p.m. EDT on Oct. 26. It will be moderated by Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), assisted by Howard Stanger, a labour educator at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y.

Send questions in advance of the debate by noon Friday, Oct. 25, to Cohen at larrycwa@gmail.com. Be sure to include your name and union Local.

The debate comes just over two weeks before in-person voting at Locals (between Nov. 12 and 17) in a re-run election for president of TNG-CWA.

The union’s election committee decided in August that the spring contest between Jon Schleuss and incumbent Bernie Lunzer had to be re-run after determining that hundreds of members had been effectively disenfranchised when mail-in ballots were sent to out-of-date addresses.

Candidate websites

Bernie Lunzer: BuildingTheGuild.org
Jon Schleuss: JonForPresident.com

Each Local determines whether to conduct in-person voting or have their members receive ballots in the mail, which have to be returned no later than Dec. 9.

Members who want to sit in on the debate need to register in advance at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AgCVXSyTT4KZDxlS7m8y7Q . Registrants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar and how to submit questions. A camera or microphone is not required to view the debate, although sufficient bandwidth is necessary.

A recording of the debate will be posted on the NewsGuild’s website soon after the debate ends.

Rules governing the election are also available on the website.

Committee orders re-run of election for NewsGuild president

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The TNG election committee confirmed that more than 1,000 ballots had been returned unopened after being mailed to incorrect home addresses. (Photo: jonforpresident.com)

 

An independent committee has ordered an unprecedented re-run of the election for president of The NewsGuild (TNG), in which all CWA Canada members were eligible to vote.

TNG-CWA’s Sector Election and Referendum Committee (SERC), following an exhaustive investigation, determined that the Canadian Media Guild (CMG), contrary to its constitutional obligations, had “provided deeply flawed and unreliable membership information” in the referendum process that resulted in the disenfranchisement of more than 1,000 members.

The SERC had certified the resultsof the April election that saw incumbent Bernie Lunzer defeat Jon Schleuss 1,282 to 1,021.

CMG — the largest Local in TNG-CWA with 5,000 members — filed an election challenge upon learning after vote-counting had concluded in May that hundreds of mail-in ballots were sent to out-of-date addresses and returned unopened to TNG.

The committee’s resulting investigation found that “CMG provided more than 1,089 incorrect home addresses for members in good standing” and also “erroneously identified to the SERC as members in good standing approximately 942 individuals who are not Guild members” and therefore not entitled to vote in Sector elections.

In its decision released on Monday, the SERC said that, because of CMG’s “violation of its constitutional duties” and “egregious errors” that were “so numerous as to impact the outcome of the election,” it had no choice but to order a re-run.

The committee also decided that the re-run election, scheduled for this November, will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA), a contractor experienced in the administration of union elections.

“The use of AAA will lift from the SERC and assisting Guild staff the considerable physical and administrative burden posed by their responsibility to conduct an international mail referendum under complex and onerous election rules and constitutional requirements with limited resources.

“Equally important, use of AAA … will ensure confidence in a fair and democratic international referendum process,” said the committee.

The SERC said that, although the decision to re-run the election rendered consideration of two other election challengesunnecessary, “we nevertheless do so in the interest of reporting the full extent of our investigation and findings.”

It found no merit to allegations of bias, secrecy and a cover-up contained in the challenges, one filed by Schleuss and the other in the form of a petition from Fatima Hussein.

Two vying for presidency of NewsGuild-CWA in spring election

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President Bernie Lunzer chaired the NewsGuild’s 80th Sector Conference held in Florida at the end of January.

An activist with a new Local has emerged as challenger for leadership of The NewsGuild (TNG) that will be decided in a spring election in which all members of CWA Canada are eligible to vote.

Jon Schleuss, 31, is running against President Bernie Lunzer, 61, who has held the position since 2008. 

TNG, a sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), is affiliated with, but has no involvement in governance of the autonomous Canadian union. (However, CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon is a voting member of the TNG executive board.)

Each CWA Canada Local will determine whether ballots are cast in person on location or by mail during the April 10-15 election period.

The two candidates were nominated at TNG’s 80th Sector Conference held in Florida at the end of January. Attending as a guest, Schleuss became a TNG member in good standing immediately prior to the start of the conference.

Jon Schleuss, 31, is running against President Bernie Lunzer, 61

Schleuss was a key player in the successful 2017 campaign to organize editorial employees at the famously anti-union Los Angeles Times, where he has worked as a data and graphics reporter since 2013. 

Lunzer — who worked at the St. Paul Pioneer Press for 10 years, then as administrative officer of the Minnesota Guild from 1989 to 1995, when he became TNG’s secretary-treasurer — is counting on that lengthy experience in his bid for re-election.

On his campaign website (BuildingTheGuild.org), Lunzer says that he and his team have “propelled the Guild to the highest level of organizing in years and have bargained strong contracts for new members.” 

In a speech at the sector conference, Lunzer said he would continue to fight within CWA for resources to double organizing efforts, which have resulted in adding more than 2,700 members in 51 workplaces since 2015.

Speaking at the same conference, Schleuss acknowledged that “I clearly have a lot to learn, but I think that’s healthy. When we started the movement in Los Angeles two years ago, we had a lot to learn.”

According to his campaign website (JonForPresident.com), Schleuss is running for TNG’s top office “because we need a modern, energized and more democratic union that will protect our members, strengthen our contracts and grow our numbers — even as we meet the challenges of the rapidly changing media landscape.”

Schleuss, who became online editor at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2009, later worked part-time as a reporter and weekend host at an NPR station. In addition to his current work at the Times, he serves as an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.

CWA Canada members who want more information or have questions about the election process should speak with their Local’s executive.

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candidates were nominated

http://www.newsguild.org/mediaguild3/contested-race-emerges-in-election-of-tng-cwa-president/

organize editorial employees at the famously anti-union Los Angeles Times

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2018/los-angeles-times-newsroom-votes-to-go-union-amid-growing-corporate-tumult/

BuildingTheGuild.org

JonForPresident.com

CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon speaks at the NewsGuild-CWA Sector Conference

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CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon tells the NewsGuild-CWA Sector Conference that 2019 will be a two-front war for quality journalism and press free

An upsurge in union organizing among journalists and other news industry employees will be the focus of a panel discussion and a question-and-answer session at The NewsGuild-CWA Sector Conference on Saturday, Jan. 26. Video of the session will be aired at about 4 p.m. on Facebook.