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MINUTES OF THE

TNG-CWA Human Rights and Equity Committee

March 13, 2010

PRESENT: Carl Younger, Chair; Natalie Hill, Sheila Lindsay, Chair SEC HRE Committee, Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe, Melissa Nelson, Bruce Nelson, Arnold Amber, director, CWA-SCA Canada, Vernon Clark, Vincent Proteau, Tim Schick

Absent: Matt Olson, Nestor Soto, Carol Rothman, Secretary Treasurer TNG-CWA, TNG President Bernie Lunzer, Tiffany Heath, Ka Yan Ng,

MINUTES PREPARED BY Carl Younger.  Called to order at 1:00 pm eastern time.

Carol Rothman sent information that: 

1) Expenses of any member of the committee who is presenting in the workshop will be paid by TNG.

2) Elected members of the committee who are not being paid to attend as delegates of their local can submit for a subsidy up to $400 to attend the
Multi-Council meeting. This subsidy would be made with the understanding that this spring meeting is intended to take the place of the sector conference for training, workshops and committee meetings.

3) I plan to propose at the Multi-Council meeting and the Council of Council meeting at Sector Conference that district councils consider providing some subsidy to elected members of the Human Rights & Equity Committee to attend their district council meetings, if they are not a delegate from their local. Any input or assistance from the committee would be appreciated.

4) Michelle Devera, San Francisco Chronicle Unit Chair, who is active in Asian-American Journalists Assn, is interested in attending SPJ convention this year in Las Vegas.  On behalf of the HR&E Committee I offered the stipend up to $400 and asked her to report back to us on some aspect of the conference or how  the Guild can step up their involvement, as we did last year with Philadelphia delegates to NABJ.

It was confirmed that the presenters at the Cleveland Multi Council meeting will be Carl Younger, Vernon Clark, and Sheila Lindsay.

Carl in an attempt to clarify a previous discussion discussed his belief that unions are under attack and are losing the war for the hearts and minds of workers mostly because of corporate deep pockets. He went on to say that unions can not afford to be exclusive. We must work with and support where we can issues of community importance. Organizing for inclusion could be the only hope for union survival. Carl continued by stating that corporations are organizing internationally to influence communities of labor bringing to the committees attention a paragraph from Citi-groups 2006 diversity report.

“Our clients understand that we are committed to having a diverse workforce that is 98 percent local in the more than 100 countries in which we operate. Our employees understand that we are committed to fostering a culture where the best people want to work, where people are promoted on their merits, where we value and demand respect for others, and where opportunities to grow and excel are widely available. And our franchise represents a commitment to transferring knowledge and people around the world so we can better serve our millions of clients and support the thousands of communities where our employees live and work. Our commitment is our promise. Diversity is one of our most potent competitive advantages and, by any measure,  a diverse workforce understands clients better and is more creative and innovative on their behalf. In turn, this translates into greater market share and greater returns for our shareholders.”

Carl continued by saying that the union movement is on life support and needs to take action.

Bruce suggested that to the extent that we can try to project our message through the eyes of what we have seen in our locals and report back in concrete terms and have specific goals that locals can take back and implement.

Melissa reminded us that our presentation should support and feed on our minority survey proposal.

Carl said that it would but if management information is not forthcoming the main premise is the need for inclusion if unions are to remain relevant.

Sheila said she would talk about the inclusion successes in her local and in the leadership.

Carl will go over information from his local as to the results of the last few round of contract bargaining.

Vernon said we should have a deadline of March 27^th to collect our local data.

Vernon also suggested that the presenters meet before the next monthly meeting to go over the data from our locals and a date of Tuesday March 30^th  at 6:30 pm eastern time was approved. Melissa will set up the conference call. This special meeting is open to any who wish to attend.

Our April meeting was scheduled for April 17^th at 1pm eastern time.

The committee adjourned at 1:52 Pm

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