June 9, 2009

 

Ceremony set for June 15

TIMES CHAIR ART MULFORD WINS 2009 KEENAN AWARD

 

Time Inc.’s Oliver Jones to get new ‘Special Merit Award’

 

After leading The New York Times unit through the most turbulent year in its history, Times Unit Chair Art Mulford was chosen as the 2009 winner of the Thomas M. Keenan Newspaper Guild of New York Service Award.

Mulford, who is also chairperson of the New York Guild, was picked by the Local’s Administrative Committee as the nominee who “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.”

 

The annual award honors Tom Keenan, former Times unit chairperson who died in December 2000 after a long battle with cancer. It was created by the Executive Committee while Keenan was still alive in 1999.

 

At its meeting last week, the Administrative Committee also created the Guild Special Merit Award and decided to bestow it on Oliver Jones, a steward in Time Inc.’s Los Angeles Bureau, where he writes for People Magazine. The new award will be given out periodically to any member whose work for the Guild and its members merits special recognition.

 

LOCAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING NEXT MONDAY

 

The Keenan Award will be presented at a membership meeting at 6:15 p.m., Monday, June 15, at Guild Headquarters, 1501 Broadway, Suite 708 (between 43^rd and 44^th Streets), New York City.  The new Special Merit award will be presented to Jones at a later date.

 

Mulford, who works in The Times’ Index Department, received multiple nominations for the Keenan Award from his co-workers. He led his unit through a year in which the unit was buffeted by numerous job cuts, including the first layoffs in its Newsroom, a now resolved financial crisis in the Guild-management fund that pays Times unit members’ health care claims, and a recently negotiated temporary 5 percent pay cut to help the financially ailing company.

 

“To say that Art has performed above and beyond the call of duty is an understatement,” said one nominator. “He is always available when needed, no matter where he is. He is supportive, intelligent and brings an enlightening perspective to the many dilemmas we have had to face.”

 

SPECIAL MERIT AWARD

 

With the entire North American continent separating the Time Inc. LA bureau from Guild unit and local leaders in New York, Jones managed to get staffers engaged in their union and involved in issues that affect their workplace. In so doing, he increased Guild membership in the open shop unit’s far-flung bureau to nearly 100 percent.

 

As several of his co-workers put it, “Being so far away, LA can often feel isolated from the action, but Oliver makes us feel involved and important to the Guild. From this perspective, morale has never been higher – and that is an unbelievable feat.”

 

Mulford, who is a member of the Administrative Committee, did not participate in the deliberations that led to his selection. Thomson Reuters Unit Chair Debby Zabarenko, a 2006 Keenan Award winner who was nominated again this year, is also on the Administrative Committee but also did not take part in this year’s awards discussions.

 

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06/09/09