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MINUTES OF THE

TNG-CWA Human Rights and Equity Committee

December 6, 2008

PRESENT: Michael D'Souza, Chair; Vernon Clark; Natalie Hill; Carl Younger; Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe; Ka Yan Ng and Vincent Proteau

Melissa Nelson, TNG-CWA Director of Collective Bargaining; Arnold Amber; Carol Rothman; Michael Cabanatuan

Absent: Matthew Olson; Randye Gilliam;

MINUTES PREPARED BY MICHAEL D'SOUZA.
Ka Yan Ng and Vincent Proteau

Michael informed the committee that Ka Yan Ng is now a formal voting member of the committee being appointed by CWA/SCA Canada as the second Canadian member. So she’ll attend the HR&E face-to-face meeting and the Future of the Industry summit in Baltimore in January.

CWA/SCA Canada is also sending Vincent Proteau to Baltimore to attend the HR&E face-to-face meeting and the Future of the Industry summit. The website, redesigned by Vincent is now posted at:  www.guildequity.org

January face to face meeting in Baltimore:

The committee had a comprehensive discussion about its face-to-face meeting in January and decided to hold it on Friday, January 9.

January forum

The committee discussed its participation in the Future of the Industry Summit in January in Baltimore. Carol Rothman said President Bernie Lunzer was counting on members of the committee to bring a human rights and equity perspective at all sessions of the summit.

Carl noted that the contract at the Boston Globe includes requirements for a joint equity committee but the union has not been invited to the table. He says he has talked to management about this and while there have been promising talk the union has yet to meet with this committee.

Carl also noted that as the industry shrinks people from equity groups are being affected more than other groups. Yoko noted that this is what happened when layoff hits the circulation department at her paper. When six people were laid off all the women left and only one man of color remains.

The shrinkage of the economy means that many people who used second mortgages to pay for the college tuition of their children, Carl said adding that these people are now taking their children out of college. A large percentage of this population is members of equity seeking groups. He observed that the long-term impact of this economic squeeze will be that there’ll be few candidates from these groups applying for jobs when they become available further aggravating the already poor representation of members of these groups in the workplace.

Carl agreed that he will do some more research into the so-called ethnic media in preparation for the Baltimore summit.

Natalie will research alternative ownership
Ka Yan Ng will look into training.

Carol confirmed that TNG-CWA will pay the expenses for the elected members of the committee to attend the face-to-face meeting and the Summit.

The members elected by the districts are:

Natalie Hill
Randye Gilliam
Carl Younger
Vernon Clark
Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe
Matthew Olson
Ka Yan Ng
Michael D’Souza

Carol said members could present their expenses at the conference or mail them in or locals could make the travel arrangements and bill the TNG-CWA.

Next meeting

The committee agreed to talk about these issues further at its next meeting in preparation for the face-to-face meeting and the forum in Baltimore in January.

The committee agreed to meet again on Saturday, December 13, at 13:00 eastern.

The committee adjourned at 13:50 Eastern.

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