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MINUTES OF THE
TNG-CWA Human Rights and Equity Committee
June 16, 2007
Telephone
conference call at 1:30 pm (1338) Eastern; 10:38 Pacific
Prepared by
Michael D’Souza
PRESENT:
Michael D’Souza, Chair; Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe; Randye Gilliam;
Natalie Hill; Carl Younger;Debbie Thomas, TNG-CWA Director of
Human Rights; Linda Foley, President TNG-CWA
ABSENT:
Matthew Harper, Secretary; Datejie Green, Vice Chair; Sheila
Lindsay.
1) Linda Foley
asked committee members to work on getting support for the
proposal to add four diversity members to the CWA Board. The
committee had discussed this proposal at a previous meeting. The
committee assured the TNG-CWA president that it will work hard to
ensure that the proposition is passed at the Toronto Convention
next month. Details about the proposal, which were previously
circulated, are attached as Adobe Acrobat files.
2) Carl
Younger Lending Library project: Carl Younger reported that the
inaugural meeting on Saturday, June 9 was successful. A series of
setbacks, from inclement weather to people not being able to find
the location, meant that fewer than expected people attended the
first session. Debbie noted that even though the numbers were
small it was a very successful meeting. A report prepared by Carl
on the meeting is attached at the end of these minutes. Carl has
scheduled the next meeting for Tuesday, June 26 and he’s expecting
the number of participants to increase. This session will include
the screening of the film, Management on Trial.
3) Debbie
Thomas Retirement: Ms Thomas advised the committee that she will
be retiring after the convention in Toronto in July this year.
The committee thanked her warmly for her help and guidance over
the year.
4) Web site:
Randye Gilliam reported that she had just sent in material to
update the website with information on the library project in
Boston. She also appealed to committee members for more content
material for the website. She will also include contact
information for the committee. The committee agreed that this
should be an info@guildequity.org address rather than the
individual addresses for committee members.
5) TNG
convention workshop: The committee again discussed holding a
workshop at the convention on equity issues. Debbie says she is
organizing it.
6) Stipend:
Debbie reported that the TNG received three applicants for stipend
in Canada and none in the U.S. The stipend is $400 U.S. each; two
to be awarded in Canada and two in the U.S. She reported that
Sujata Berry, a producer for CBC TV will receive one of the
stipends to attend the South Asian Journalist Conference in New
York in July. The other goes to Eric Shih an associate producer
at CBC Thunder Bay who will to attend the Asian American
Journalist Association meeting in Miami in August.
7) Next
meeting: The committee agreed to meeting again on Saturday, July
7, 2007 at 1 pm EST (10:00 am PST)
Adjournment:
The committee adjourned at about 2:05 EST (11:05 PST)
Carl Younger
report on first meeting of Lending Library in Boston:
The Human
Rights and Equity Committee, New England branch, kicked off its
first discussion group meeting on Saturday June 9th at
the Boston Newspaper Guild’s headquarters in Quincy,
Massachusetts.
Despite
threatening weather, equity seeking members began to arrive.
In attendance
were:
Glenda Buell,
Living department The Boston Globe
Kathleen McCabe Zone reporter The Boston Globe
Rachel Leach, Outside Sales the Boston Globe
Marc Bell, Security The Boston Globe
Debbie Thomas, Human Rights Director The Newspaper Guild
Washington.
Donna Marks, Region 1 Vice President, The Newspaper Guild
Dan Totten, Boston Newspaper Guild President
Scott Steeves, Boston Newspaper Guild Vice President.
Carl Younger, Executive Committee At Large and Human Rights and
Equity Committee Rep. New England.
Hand outs
included:
Potential
Topics for discussion.
Equity member
unity and history.
Minorities in
the workplace
The term
minority
Minority
employment and mentoring
Strategies for
our future
Is affirmative
action necessary in our current culture.
A list of
available library videos to date
American Dream
At the River I
stand
Harlan County
USA
The Navigators
Salt of the
earth
Vietnam, the
Philippines and India
Chinese
Americans
Cambodia,
Thailand and Laos
Civil Rights
Journey
Black Indians:
an American story
African
Contributions to the United States
Guidelines to
live by from 16th century warrior and Kensei,
(Sword-saint), Miyamoto Musashi.
- Think
honestly within yourself in your dealings with all people.
-
Constant Training is the only way to learn strategy
- Become
familiar with every art you come across
-
Understand the way of other discipline.
- Know
the difference between right and wrong in all matters.
- Strive
for inner judgment and an understanding of everything.
- See
that which cannot be seen.
-
Overlook nothing, Regardless of its Supposed insignificance.
- Do not
waste time idling or second guessing after you have set your
goals.
Sushi was
served. The discussion went immediately to the current effect on
minorities at the Boston Globe due to its current policy on
layoffs, buyouts and outsourcing. It appeared to the group that
minorities had taken an extremely large hit at the company and
there was talk of investigating the actual numbers lost.
The
conversation continued with discussions on developing cultural
events at the Boston local, inviting people of various cultures to
share their cultural histories and traditions and letting people
know that the Newspaper Guild includes all people under its
umbrella.
The basic
concept of the New England program was explained by Carl Younger.
“The idea is to create a family environment that members easily
tap into. The Newspaper Guild is a large group of people with a
lot of knowledge and resources yet to be tapped. The Newspaper
Guild has members knowledgeable about a myriad of subjects. If
someone wants to learn Spanish or Tai Chi there are members in our
unit knowledgeable in those subjects. Why don’t we start
networking with our brothers and sisters in our local across the
country. Study groups could be formed for work or fun or we could
just ask for advice when we need it. The untapped resources in our
group are amazing and its about time we took advantage of them.”
Debbie Thomas,
Human Rights director, Washington D.C. expanded on the concept by
saying “ for those people that think the union is not for them we
can show them that the union is more than they think it is. The
Union is a big thing made up of individuals and we do a lot more
than our day to day jobs.”
Carl Younger,
local 31245, mentioned that the library part of the program is
also an attraction to bring people in to learn about the union and
our diverse cultures and history.
Dan Totten,
President of the Boston Newspaper Guild local 31245, suggested
that the library program could be expanded to open our arms to the
public school system, to combine resources and to alleviate
misconceptions of the union movement and history.
Scott Steeves,
Vice President of the Boston Newspaper Guild local 31245, stated “
It shouldn’t take someone to be brought up on charges to make them
understand the importance of the union, some people don’t realize
what unions have gone through to bring us what we have.”
Debbie Thomas
later spoke on the CWA plan to propose 4 diversity seats and
reactions from the members to that proposal.
Marc Bell,
Security the Boston News paper Guild stated,” we need to work
harder to let members know what their rights are on the job and
simplify the information in the contract book to make it more
understandable.”
Donna Marks,
TNG Region One Vice President
said. “ As much as it is important to go back and learn history,
unions are reinventing themselves right now!”
“We could partner with Jobs with
Justice who represents many equity seeking groups that we could
immediately become involved with to help our cause grow. Jobs with
Justice helps all unions and my first experience was the Boston
Newspaper Guild's rally and mock trial of Globe/NYT management. It
was extremely powerful and really nudged the company to action.”
Donna also mentioned a tri-council meeting a few years back that
she attended at the New York Guild where they gave her a beautiful
labor history book presented by the authors, entitled "Ordinary
People/Extraordinary Lives" which spoke about how unions built
NYC and the obstacles and health risks they overcame. They all
joined together in solidarity from all walks of life and the work
they produced still stands today, generations after them. The book
is a product of the Robert E. Wagner Library Archives at New York
University. They have other resources available and she will look
into them as well.
Dan Totten,
then volunteered to Contact Russ Davis of Jobs with justice to see
if he may be available to attend our next meeting to discuss what
they do.
It was decided
to have another meeting on Tuesday June 26th 5:30 pm,
with:
Program
introduction and explanation by Carl Younger BNG
Guest speaker
Donna Marks, TNG-CWA Region 1 Vice President.
Russ Davis of
Jobs for justice.( if his schedule allows.)
Feature film:
Management on trial, Our workplace unraveling daily
Hopefully, we
can have Debbie Thomas attend as the Creator of the Human Rights
and Equity Group. Her knowledge and insight are invaluable.
Kathy McCabe
BNG agreed to take notes in future meetings
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