April 20, 2007

 

REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY NOMINATES ITS CANDIDATES FOR LOCAL PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY-TREASURER

 

The New York Guild’s Representative Assembly (RA) last night nominated its candidates for Local President and Secretary-Treasurer.  Local Secretary-Treasurer William O’Meara was nominated by First Vice Chairperson and New York Times Unit Chairperson Art Mulford to succeed Barry Lipton as President of the New York Guild.  Barry has announced his retirement as of the close of business on June 1.  O’Meara came to work as a Local Representative at the New York Guild in 1988 after working as a news editor and news writer at WPIX TV for several years, where he also served as the Guild Unit Chairperson.  For the past eight years, Bill has served as the Local’s elected Secretary-Treasurer.

 

Peter Szekely, the New York Guild’s Local Chairperson, was nominated for the position of New York Guild Secretary-Treasurer.  He was nominated by Second Vice Chairperson and Foreign Policy Association Unit Chairperson Karen Rohan.  Szekely, who has been a journalist for the past 28 years, has served as Reuters Guild Unit Chairperson for 17 of those years and is also currently Region 5 Vice President of the Guild Sector of the Communication Workers of America. 

 

No opposing candidates were nominated at the meeting and O’Meara and Szekely were unanimously endorsed by the RA.  Additional nominations may be made via petitions of not fewer than five percent of the membership in good standing as of April 1, 2007.  These petitions must be filed with the Secretary Treasurer no later than 5 p.m., Thursday, April 26, 2007. 

 

If no petitions are filed by the deadline, the nominees will be declared elected at that time and will assume office on June 4. In the event of a contest, the candidates will run on The Democratic Coalition Slate, and the election will be conducted entirely by mail ballot. 

 

Copies and complete rules for nominations and elections have been sent out to all shops. 

 

THREE WIN KEENAN SERVICE AWARD

 

The New York Guild’s Administrative Committee has selected three Guild activists as winners of the Newspaper Guild of New York Tom Keenan Service Award for 2007.  Those named are: Alex Blanco and Edith Fried of the Time Inc. unit, and Randye Gilliam from Standard & Poor’s.  They are the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth individuals to win the award since it was created. 

 

The annual Keenan Award was established by our Local Executive Committee to recognize individuals who have, during the previous year, “performed above and beyond the call of duty in service to the New York Local, and best exemplify the ideals of a true labor leader in the spirit of Tom Keenan.”  The prize honors Keenan, a former Chairperson of the New York Times Guild unit, who died in 2000.  He had served in that capacity longer than anyone else. 

 

            Blanco, who has been very active in the Guild since the 1970’s, most recently served as Unit Chairperson until his position was eliminated in a brutal round of staff reductions earlier this year.  One of the nominating petitions for Alex cited his pulling off a “near-miracle of signing up more than 10% of eligible workers as Guild members in the space of just a couple of months.” Time Inc. is an open shop.          

 

           Edith Fried, the longtime Grievance Chairperson of the Time Inc. unit, was cited for her long years of service as the “right-hand person to four Unit Chairs.”  Edith survived the massive layoff, and could have retired, but chose to stay on and help her co-workers and the Guild instead.

 

           Randye Gilliam has “served the Standard & Poor’s unit faithfully for many years,” and is “always on top of Guild business…handling all kinds of issues for her colleagues,” said two of the nominations naming her.  Randye is known for her low-key style and creative ideas to solve members’ problems.

 

New York Guild President Barry Lipton and Secretary-Treasurer Bill O’Meara lauded all three winners for their “outstanding work on behalf of the Guild and their co-workers.”  “Their leadership and dedication serve as a model for us all, they agreed.   

 

The winners will receive their awards at a Guild General Membership meeting to be held next month.  Congratulations to all!

 

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04/20/07