Photos by Susan Zachem

At NANC, from left, are: GCIU Rep. Joseph M. O'Connor; Providence 12N Pres. Sherrie A. Rasmusson; GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi; and Brian Earl, Seattle 767M.

From left are: Montreal 41M Secy.-Treas. Denis Fournier, Vice Pres. Doug Thomas, and Pres. Michel Cote and Richard Whit- worth, executive assistant to the GCIU president.

From left, NANC Secy.-Treas. Kevin Toomey and NANC Pres. Brian Fletcher greet host Milwaukee 23N officers Secy.-Treas. James Holtyn and Pres. Gary Benton.

From left are: Toronto 100M Exec. Vice Pres. Tom Donnelly; GCIU Vice Pres. Duncan Brown; and Secy.-Treas. George Novak and Frank Mandarino, Local 100M.

From left are: Michael Por- reco, Denver 22N; GCIU Vice Pres. David Grabhorn; and Local 22N Pres. Wil- liam Killen and Secy.- Treas. Cordelia Brimage.

The 100 delegates to the 45th annual North American Newspaper Conference (NANC) worked to build coordination on bargaining and organizing, with a focus on chain newspapers and multinationals.

Hosted by Milwaukee 23N, NANC delegates also heard presentations on the GCIU's new organizing and safety and health programs and technical and trade union education, which tied in with the NANC objectives for apprenticeships.

Another major topic of concern was getting members involved in the legislative and political arenas.

Delegates raised more than $10,000 in cash contributions and pledges to help their brothers and sisters in San Diego 432M fight for a new contract with Copley at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Delegates caucused on other newspaper chains, such as Gannett and Knight Ridder that forced GCIU locals 13N and 289M and four other local unions into a strike/lockout contract dispute for more than five years.

NANC Pres. Brian Fletcher praised locals 13N and 289M for their "very high standards for courage and conviction" during their contract fight and pledged solidarity with the San Diego members who continue in a similar struggle.

In a warning to Copley, Local 13N Pres. Jack Howe reported that the union and community subscriber and advertising boycotts in Detroit like those underway in San Diego cost the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press so much money and circulation that the newspapers have not been able to regain their pre-strike position.

"Gannett and Knight Ridder with their greed and arrogance have done irreparable harm to their Detroit franchise and their employees," Howe said. "I can't help wondering how other newspaper publishers assess the outcome of the Detroit newspaper strike and the losses in circulation and revenues these two papers have suffered and continue to suffer with."

Fletcher said "another burning issue" for NANC and all of the GCIU is the loss of membership that he said must be stopped through aggressive organizing campaigns. He called organizing "one of the major challenges that confronts us as an International and our locals and each and every member of the GCIU."

'Organize, organize, organize'

GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi emphasized how crucial it is that every member understand the importance and relevance of organizing. "They need to understand that when we have a decline in membership, we lose influence in the industry," he said. "When we lose influence in the industry, negotiations get more difficult, employers get more brazen, and they use the argument: 'How can I compete when everyone else around me is paying so much less?'" The consequences include lower wages and other givebacks, he warned.

"The only way you're going to change that is to organize those non-union shops," Tedeschi said. "That has an impact on every member of our organization" in terms of what they win in their contracts.

Among the programs developed by the International to move organizing forward, Tedeschi said, are a two-day intensive training course for volunteer organizers, the recruitment of a select group of volunteer organizers to help with local campaigns, and a financial assistance program for locals that develop strong organizing plans. "The locals must make the commitment" to participate in this program, he stressed. "As labor leaders, we will do the job."

GCIU Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau told delegates that the General Board and officers have taken actions to reduce expenditures, including the sale of the GCIU headquarters building, and to invest money wisely.

On the NANC Organizing Committee, clockwise from left are: Mary Keegan, Los Angeles 404M; Ed Rosario, San Francisco 4N; Jack Howe, Detroit 13N; David Perrapato, Local 4N; committee secretary; James Bodie, Toronto 500M; and Larry Manziano, Newark 8N, committee chairman.

But Deneau warned: "If you want to solve our financial problems, you have to get involved along with us in organizing. Organize, organize, organize. If we don't organize, there's no way that any investment or per capita tax increase is going to keep up with it."

Deneau noted that many newspaper locals are more than a 100 years old. "One of the things that have carried us along is your militancy and the ability to change and acquire new tactics to work our way through the problems." He said he is confident that GCIU locals and members will use their talents and dedication to make the changes necessary to solve current problems.

GCIU Vice Pres. Duncan K. Brown, who directs the International's organizing activities, also stressed the point: "This program is not about the International organizing. This is about the locals organizing and what the International can do for locals. If the locals don't participate in this program, we're going nowhere," he said.

Among the help that the International can bring to a local that commits to organizing, Brown said, are financial assistance under the new General Board subsidy program, assistance in developing targets and strategies, and training for volunteer organizers.

Learning and implementing new organizing strategies is the only way to win, Brown said, because most federal, state, and provincial labor laws and judicial bodies are stacked against workers and their representing unions. He cited a year-long study by Human Rights Watch that concluded that U.S. labor laws are ineffective because they are not enforced in favor of workers. "What [Human Rights Watch] said was that the United States the bastion of democracy, the bastion of the free world does not comply with the simple labor rights of the United Nations's International Labor Organization charter. That is an embarrassment," he said

GCIU Organizing Coordinator Bert Haft detailed the 12 underlying principles of the union's new organizing program that serve as the focus of the training program. In the course of training volunteers, he said, "we've found some remarkable talent people who are just natural born organizers." He urged local leaders who notice members with enthusiasm, energy, and the drive to organize to "send them my way. We'll make them organizers."

Safety and education programs

Introducing the GCIU's new safety and health program, which was developed by GCIU members and The Labor Institute and funded by a grant from the U.S. Labor Department, were Joe Anderson of The Labor Institute, Rob Theissen, education director for the Philadelphia 14M school and a program developer and lead trainer, and Boston 3N Vice Pres. Kirk B. Kenyon, who was trained in the course.

While delegates broke out into small groups for systems of safety exercises led by Theissen and Kenyon, Anderson urged delegates to take advantage of the training while the grant is still in effect over the next two years. "This is excellent health and safety training that puts the participants at the center of the training," he said. He added: "The training does a lot of things. It activates members, gives them the opportunity to participate in the local union and a place where they'll learn to exercise their abilities."

Outlining the new education program that is under development were education directors Lauren Baker of Milwaukee-Madison 577M, Glenn Biech of British Columbia 525M, and Gene Binda of Boston 3N.

Biech demonstrated modules of technical courses that could be used for distance learning on web sites or in classrooms. "With all the shift work in our industry, this would allow members to access lessons whenever it's convenient for them," he noted.

Binda's outline of the model training program for pressroom apprentices that is already being used in Boston was well received by delegates. He stressed the program uses adult learning techniques and includes sessions on safety and workplace rights. "It's very important that we set the standards not the employers," he noted.

Baker said the program was developed to fill the void left by badly outdated GCIU correspondence courses. While the program could be up and running in six months, she said, funding poses a problem. The union's education task force, made up of Baker, Biech, Binda, and Theissen, had looked to federal grants but the election of Bush makes that doubtful, she said.

Reporting for the NANC Apprenticeship Committee chaired by St. Paul 1M Pres. George Osgood, James Corcoran of Nassau County 406C reported that the committee was excited by the new education programs that have the capability of "fusing technical training, health and safety, labor history, sexual harassment, workplace violence, and all the issues that confront us each and every day. . . . Now it's up to each and every one of us in the GCIU to help out and not let this thing go stagnant."

Action for social justice

Mirroring what is occurring globally with coalitions of labor, community, faith-based, student, and environment movements, the human rights focus underlying the discussion of legislative and political action at NANC was set out in the opening prayer by Paul Maslach, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Milwaukee.

"We should remember that the economy must serve people and not the other way around," Maslach said. He said that principle includes protection of the "right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to organize and join unions, to economic initiative, and to ownership and private property."

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Pres. David Newby noted that the right-wing ideology that is driving the Bush administration in the United States and some provincial governments in Canada is the polar opposite of Maslach's remarks. "At the core of a right-wing ideology is the notion that property rights are more important than . . . human rights, more important than worker rights."

Newby said that the Bush tax cut, if it stands, plays out to conservatives' long-range targets to control the American political process because it will redistribute to the wealthy the surpluses that could have been used for Social Security, a prescription drug plan for Medicare, universal health care, education, and other programs that help working people.