Challenger Schleuss wins re-run election for president of NewsGuild

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Jon Schleuss was elected President of The NewsGuild-CWA on Tuesday, defeating 12-year incumbent Bernie Lunzer.

Challenger Jon Schleuss has won The NewsGuild-CWA election, unseating incumbent Bernie Lunzer to claim the presidency.

The unofficial tally Tuesday showed Schleuss, a Los Angeles Times graphics and data journalist, with 1,979 (56.7%) votes and 1,514 (43.3%) for Lunzer.

Schleuss, whose four-year term begins immediately, ran on a platform to reform and modernize the 87-year-old union.

“We now have a stirring of wind at our backs, and we must build on our accomplishments,” he said in a news release. “It won’t always be easy, but our mission is to continue to grow the Guild and fight to preserve the future of journalism.”

Lunzer led the Guild through its greatest period of growth in decades, organizing 60 workplaces and 3,000 workers in the last four years.

The international referendum, in which all CWA Canada members were eligible to vote, was an unprecedented re-run of the spring contest. The union’s election committee determined that over 1,000 members had been effectively disenfranchised when mail-in ballots were sent to out-of-date addresses, mostly at the Canadian Media Guild (CWA Canada Local 30213). Locals are responsible for maintaining up-to-date member addresses.

The independent American Arbitration Association, which was contracted to conduct the election, reported that almost 3,600 ballots had been received by the Dec. 9 deadline. Each Local could choose whether to conduct in-person voting between Nov. 12 and 17 or arrange for members to receive mail-in ballots.

With more than 20,000 members, including 6,000 at CWA Canada Locals, TNG is the largest journalists union in North America. It is a sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and is affiliated with, but has no involvement in governance of the autonomous Canadian union.

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.

Schleuss, 32, 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 since 2013.

The 62-year-old 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 — has been president since 2008.

Stand!, a musical that tells the story of the Winnipeg General Strike, opens in theatres on Nov. 29.

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After years of effort, the movie Stand!, a musical that tells the story of the Winnipeg General Strike, opens in theatres on Nov. 29.

Please share the attached message with your members and do all you can to help promote the movie on social media.

I would also encourage Locals to buy tickets and provide them to members free of charge, either to your whole membership or hold a free lottery for a limited number of tickets. Once tickets go on sale, around Nov. 1, I will provide you with a link to the Cineplex site.

Solidarity!

Martin

Martin O’Hanlon

President, CWA Canada

The Media Union

 

Dear Sisters & Brothers:

It is with much gratitude to the labour movement that I announce the Stand! movie musical Canada-wide release at the Cineplex theatres listed below – on Friday, Nov. 29th.

The movie, already called the “next Norma Rae”, is the result of a partnership between the labour movement in Canada and the United States, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the movie’s producers.

Tickets go on sale around Nov. 1. In order to maximize the impact of the movie, attendance at the first three days of the release – Friday, Nov. 29 to Sunday, Dec. 1 – is critical to being held over in theatres for a second or third week.

In the meantime, please consider sharing the movie now. The website www.stand-movie.com has a link to the trailer. You may also download the trailer or embed it online with this link: https://vimeo.com/363210881

Thank you in advance for helping to advance labour’s cause through the movie. It is an honour to bring this story to the world.

Sincerely,

Danny Schur

Composer/Producer/Co-writer

 

—

 

A list of theatres where Stand! will be playing (more being added daily):

Silvercity Victoria

Galaxy Nanaimo International Village

Vancouver Silvercity Riverport / Vancouver Silvercity Mission 

Scotiabank Theatre Edmonton

Scotiabank Theatre Chinook

Scotiabank Theatre Saskatoon 

Galaxy Regina 

Scotiabank Theatre Winnipeg / Cineplex McGillivray Winnipeg 

Scotiabank Theatre Ottawa

CPX Hamilton Westmount London

CPX Vaughan Silvercity Windsor

CPX Oshawa

Galaxy Barrie

Galaxy Guelph

Yonge & Dundas, Toronto 

Forum Montreal

CPX Laval

CPX St. Foy 

Scotiabank Theatre Halifax 

Mount Pearl – St. John’s NFLD

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.

2020 Union Plus Scholarships Available for CWA Families

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The new 2020 application for Union Plus scholarships, open to current and retired CWA members, their spouses, and their dependent children (as defined by IRS regulations), is now available!

Over the past 28 years, more than $4.5 million in scholarships has been awarded to students of more than 3,000 union families, including seven CWAers who were awarded Union Plus scholarships in 2019. The deadline is January 31, 2020.

The application is entirely online, allowing students to complete their application over time and save their responses. Learn more and apply here: https://www.unionplus.org/benefits/education/union-plus-scholarships

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.