Delegates to the Fifth Quadrennial Convention steered the GCIU in a bold new direction by funding organizing and education initiatives targeted to reverse declining membership and avoid merger.

The delegates also set a high priority on political action – backed up with donations to the GCIU's Political Action Fund and urged on by convention speakers Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and former Nevada Gov. Robert Miller (D).

Delegates voted to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Vice Pres. Al Gore and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), and pledged to help elect national, state, and local candidates who will support working family issues.

In addition to a heavy agenda with some 50 resolutions from the General Board and locals, the convention for the first time featured eight afternoon workshops on organizing, bargaining, political action, union leadership, technical education, women, minority, and retiree issues. Despite the attractions of Las Vegas and its surrounding area, delegates packed into the workshops, with standing room only in some.

The Credentials Committee reported that 380 delegates and 411 guests joined International officers, General Board members, and GCIU field staff in attending the convention. As mandated by the 1996 convention, also in attendance were nine youth delegates from GCIU locals in the United States and Canada.

In keeping with GCIU's proud tradition of democracy, delegates engaged in debates – often emotionally charged – over many of the resolutions. But following another tradition, delegates pledged to rally support even for those programs they had opposed.

After presiding over his first GCIU convention, International Pres. George Tedeschi in his closing remarks cited the many accomplishments at the convention and prayed they "enable us to move us where we all want to go – and that's to come back here and show that we're financially sound, we have increased our membership, and we are an independent, strong union that needs no merger. In fact, unions will look at us and say: 'I want to be part of that organization,'" he said to a standing ovation.

Tedeschi continued: "We can do that, brothers and sisters. We can do that. And the word is 'we,' because none of us can do it alone. We are united. I feel we're getting stronger, and I feel we're more united than ever."

GCIU Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau thanked the union's members and convention delegates for their courage in tackling tough financial problems and developing new programs toward solution of those problems.

"[A]t the turn of the last century," Deneau said, "the problems were much greater, but the answers were the same, brothers and sisters. One hundred years ago, you had two major problems, two major things that organizations had to do: Stand up for the members and organize, organize, organize."

To ease the GCIU's financial crunch and invest in the future through organizing, delegates voted to increase the General Fund per capita tax and the organizing per capita tax.

To reduce the projected deficit of $1 million in the General Fund over the next four years, delegates voted to increase the General Fund per capita tax by 55 cents per member per month on Jan. 1, 2001.

The resolution noted that cost-saving measures already are in effect, with headquarters staffing at the "bare minimum" necessary to operate. The resolution pledged the International to continue "to make every effort to limit expenses and control costs."

The resolution, recommended by the General Board and unanimously approved by the Finance Committee, noted that the GCIU "is at a critical time in its history when we have to decide whether we want to proceed to rebuild the union by raising the necessary money to organize or whether we want to limp along, crippled by reduced income, until we are gobbled up as the weaker merger partner of a larger union."

Organizing priorities

For organizing, delegates voted to increase the per capita tax exclusively for the Organizing Fund by 70 cents per member per month on Jan. 1, 2001, and by another 75 cents per member per month on Jan. 1, 2002.

The organizing per capita resolution also directed the International to shift field reps to organizing when feasible and to expand assistance to and coordination of local unions' organizing campaigns and training programs for members and retirees.

The resolution noted that the GCIU has experienced a 3.5 percent decline in membership nearly every year since 1993 "despite the fact that printing and publishing are growing industries, with expanding employment, in both the United States and Canada."

According to the resolution, the increase in the organizing per capita tax was needed to make up the $435,000 deficit in the Organizing Fund, to hire additional organizers, and to launch new programs in conjunction with local unions.

GCIU Vice Pres. Duncan K. Brown, who directs International organizing activities, laid out a strategy for intensifying organizing efforts that was developed in conjunction with field staff, AFL-CIO and Canadian Labour Congress representatives, other unions, and organizing consultant Richard Bensinger, the founder of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and a convention speaker.

Both per capita resolutions generated heated debate. The arguments in favor of the increases focused on preserving the GCIU as a strong, independent union through organizing and other programs that can be made available to smaller locals without the resources to develop their own. Most union analysts today say that unions with fewer than 100,000 members cannot operate effectively and urge them to merge. GCIU analysis demonstrated that potential merger partners have higher dues structures than the GCIU.

Toronto 500M Vice Pres. Norman E. Beattie, who served on the Finance Committee, said: "...[T]he bottom line is, if we don't give the International the finances they need to keep us as the GCIU, we're going to have a per capita increase to some other huge union that we're going to have to crawl to and beg to take us."

The arguments against the increases focused on shifting dues money to the locals rather than the International and the hit the dues increase will have on low-wage members and locals in right-to-work states.

Fred Correll, GCU District Council 2 secretary and General Board member, said: "Sending more money at the problem ain't going to get it done. . . . The focus has got to be redirected to the local unions."

Convention delegates approved a resolution mandating a new comprehensive trade union and labor history education program that will be used to train local officers, shop stewards, and rank-and-file members in the United States and Canada.

With the GCIU's correspondence courses badly out of date, delegates endorsed another major education program that will focus on keeping members up-to-date in technical education. Developed by a task force of GCIU school directors coordinated by GCIU Vice Pres. Edward J. Toff, the new program centers on "distance learning," which utilizes interactive television, video, the Internet and other 21st century technology to teach courses in pre-press, press, and bindery skills.

Safety first

Education also will be the focus of a new safety and health program funded through a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The "train-the-trainer" program was developed by GCIU Vice Pres. Leonard E. Adams in conjunction with the New York Labor Institute.

In addition, delegates adopted a resolution that will shift existing funds from the current headquarters-oriented safety and health program to a field-oriented program. This program also will involve teaching local leaders, shop stewards and rank-and-file members to train others on safety and health subjects.

In other action, delegates:

• Considered 11 amendments to the GCIU constitution, including a reduction in the number of International vice presidents from five to four from the June 2004 term and a requirement that locals coordinate bargaining proposals with the International before contract negotiations with a chain shop.

• Approved Legislative Committee proposals supporting: the creation of a GCIU political education fund; expanded relationships with Latin American printing industry unions; an inquiry into the concentration of media ownership in Canada; restoration of employment insurance coverage and benefits in Canada; improvement and increased funding for health care in Canada; the New Democratic Party of Canada; and a single payer national health care plan in the United States.

• Approved resolutions establishing formal complaint and investigation procedures for discrimination and harassment complaints and an harassment and discrimination policy statement to be read at GCIU meetings.

• Approved resolutions calling for symposiums on women's issues and minorities' issues to encourage wider participation in locals and the International.

• Collected more than $7,000 in cash donations plus thousands more in pledges to assist San Diego 432M members in their struggle to win a contract with Copley at the Union-Tribune.

• Following an address by Chris Harding, national officer of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union in the United Kingdom, adopted a resolution pledging the GCIU to strengthen its member education and international union cooperation efforts on issues related to globalization, including multinationals in the printing industry.

• Paid tribute to the 8,369 GCIU brothers and sisters who passed away during the past four years.