The Guild is pleased
to announce the opening of nominations for its annual award in honor of Tom
Keenan, former Chairperson of the New York Times Guild unit, who died in
December 2000, after a long battle with cancer.
In 1999, Local 3’s
Executive Committee created the Thomas M. Keenan Newspaper Guild of New York
Service Award. It is presented each
year to a member in good standing of the New York Local who is nominated by at
least one other member in good standing, and is then selected, after a review
process, by the New York Guild’s Administrative Committee:
the President, Secretary-Treasurer, Chairperson, and the three Vice
Presidents. Nominations may also
include members who retired from a Guild job during the past year.
However, the nomination must be made by a current member.
To
determine who will win the award, the Committee must find that a nominee “has
performed above and beyond the call of duty in service to the New York Local,
and best exemplifies the ideals of a true labor leader, in the spirit of Tom
Keenan.”
Nominations are open until February 13 at 5:00 p., and must adhere to the following guidelines:
*Nominations must be delivered to Local Secretary-Treasurer Bill
O’Meara at the Newspaper Guild, 1501 Broadway, Suite 708, NYC, NY, 10036, by
the deadline in order to be considered. The
nominations may be made either by regular mail or by e-mail to Billom1@aol.com.
Written nominations must be signed by the member(s) making the
nomination. E-mails must come from a verifiable e-mail address belonging to the
member making the nomination. No
self-nominations, please.
Tom Keenan was the Times Guild Unit Chair for seven terms, longer than
any other individual, before joining Local 3’s staff in 1997 as a Local
Representative. He became ill
shortly after coming to work for the union.
He had also served on the Local’s Executive Committee for the
second-longest period of any rank-and-file member in our 66-year history.
Last year’s winner was New York Times unit officer and activist Richard
Kompa.
This year’s prize will be presented at the next General Membership
meeting, which will take place in March.
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1/30/04