April 27, 2007

New Local Officers

Declared Elected

 

    The candidates nominated by the New York Guild’s Representative Assembly to fill the positions of President and Secretary-Treasurer of the Local have been declared elected.

 

    No nomination petitions from opposing candidates were filed by yesterday’s 5:00 pm deadline.

 

    Bill O’Meara will begin his term of office as New York Guild President on Monday June 4^th following the retirement of current Guild President Barry Lipton.  The Local’s new Secretary-Treasurer, Peter Szekely will also assume office on the same day.

 

    Bill O’Meara, the Local’s new President came to work at the New York Guild when he was hired as a Local Representative in 1988.  Previous to coming to the Guild, Bill worked for several years as a news editor and news writer at WPIX TV where he also served as the Guild’s Unit Chairperson.  Before working at WPIX, Bill was a news writer at New York radio station WINS.  While at the Guild, Bill has been involved with almost all of the Local’s 22 units and has played a major role in bargaining at several of them including the New York Times, Reuters, Consumers Union, WPIX and Standard & Poors. In his capacity as Secretary-Treasurer he has played a lead role in overseeing the Local’s finances and contract enforcement.  Bill and his wife Peggy are the parents of 2 daughters.

 

    “I am extremely grateful for the vote of confidence our members have given me by allowing me to serve as their next President,” said O’Meara.  “While Barry is leaving behind some very big shoes to fill, I pledge to do my best to lead our union in the face of the many new challenges ahead, and I know that, working with Peter, we will meet those challenges” he added.

 

    Peter Szekely, the Local’s new Secretary-Treasurer has worked as a journalist at Reuters since 1978.  Since 1983 he has worked in the Reuters Washington Bureau where he covers energy, economics, labor and political and general news.

 

    Peter has been the Guild’s Unit Chairperson at Reuters since first being elected in 1990.  He has handled numerous grievances, attended or testified at dozens of arbitrations as well as heading the units bargaining committees through several different negotiations.  He has also been the New York Guild’s Local Chairperson as well as a Regional Vice-President to the Newspaper Guild’s sector of the CWA since the middle 1990’s.  Peter is married to fellow Guild member, Chizu Nomiyama, who is a copy editor in the Reuters Washington bureau.

 

    “Being elected to a leadership post in our local with Bill is an unimaginable honor for me.  I pledge to repay the members’ confidence in us by doing everything in my power to make our local as potent and effective a force for workers as there ever was in the news business.”

 

    Upon hearing that O’Meara and Szekely had been declared elected, Barry Lipton said “I’m very pleased that the members have selected Bill and Peter as their new leaders.  I have full confidence in their ability, integrity and dedication and am  convinced that the Local and its members will be in the best possible hands”.

 

    Had there been a contest, Bill and Peter would have run as the Democratic Coalition Slate.

 

 

#####

04/27/07