Politics – both union and national – was on the top of the agenda at the 44th North American Conference of Commercial Unions.

Meeting in San Diego, Calif., delegates from 17 GCIU local unions discussed the economic health of their commercial shops and the importance of defeating President Bush in the Nov. 2 elections.

Delegates also heard both sides of the question on whether to approve a GCIU merger with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The conference opened with delegate George Osgood, president of St. Paul 1M and a GCIU General Board member, rising to remember the late John Dopp, who died on March 18. Dopp served as president of Chicago Local 3 (now part of Local 458-3M) until his retirement in December 1988. Osgood noted that Dopp was a driving force in the Commercial Conference and asked the delegates for a moment of silence in his memory.

Conference business started with a presentation by San Diego Labor Council Secy.-Treas. Jerry Butkiewycz, who explained the vital role of reaching out to outside organizations in the settlement of the contract dispute between Local 432M pressmen and the Union-Tribune newspaper. He noted that the San Diego area inter-faith committee was vital to reaching an agreement in the final stages of negotiations. He urged the delegates to take that lesson back to their homes and start forming alliances with business, religious and other civic organizations. "If you don't have liaison with religious and other leaders, get one because it gives labor an entree and connections that we don't have," he advised.

GCIU President George Tedeschi

Butkiewycz also urged the delegates to get more involved in the very important November national elections to elect a worker friendly U.S. president and Congress, as well as local office-holders. "This guy (Bush) is about to destroy our paychecks. We have to talk about jobs . . . other issues can divide us; and we have to get involved politically.

"Giving money is fine, but you have to walk the neighborhoods and speak to the members and educate them about the politics of protecting their jobs," Butkiewycz added. "Get a list of your union members and knock on their doors. Do it yourself. If we do that all over the country, we will win," he observed.

San Francisco 583M President Lee Lahtinen seconded the speaker's urging about getting active in the local unions. "We must beat Bush," he declared.

Detroit 2-289M President David R. Jacobs

Detroit 2-289M Pres. and General Board member David R. Jacobs advised that his local has organized nine new shops and is expecting a tenth to come aboard soon. He praised GCIU's organizing staff – both at his local level and nationally – for showing that organizing can be done successfully. "We have an organizing staff that is better than most of the major unions, and I will stack our staff up against anyone's in the labor movement," Jacobs declared.

Organizing is key, he emphasized, since the percentage of workers in the printing industry that are represented by the GCIU has declined from over 50 percent a few decades ago to only 10 percent today, he added.

General Board member Anthony Caifano, New York 1L secretary, said that, as a new General Board member, he wants "to ensure that what we finally decide is best for all."

General Board member Norman Beattie, president of Toronto 500M, also spoke about the pending merger with the Teamsters. "I am an apprentice General Board member also," he said, "and I am concerned that we do everything properly," Beattie said.

Local reports

Seattle 767M Secy. Steven Aldrich praised the Graphic Communications National Health and Welfare Fund. He advised that other locals choose the fund as an option, since the fund might not have a premium raise this year. He noted that increased participation dilutes any future increases.

Caifano turned to national politics when he reported that a group of his local members were branching out to visit the state of Pennsylvania as part of an Elect Kerry-Edwards effort and to work on behalf of deserving candidates.

Lahtinen reported that the industry in his area seems to be recovering. "Most shops are working full-time, and there have been no closings lately," he reported. However, one drawback is the cost of health insurance that is rising "18 percent at a minimum" among his contracted shops, he said.

Conference Pres. and Toronto Local 100M Secy. Machael Marsbergen called the Quebecor campaign "very useful" and noted that coordinated bargaining in the Toronto area with Local 500M succeeded in getting rid of a troublesome plant manager.

John Savage, secretary of Vancouver 25C, noted that the New Democratic Party (NDP), favored by Canadian trade unionists, raised their total vote in elections on June 28. He also noted that the GCIU locals in British Columbia are really pushing apprentice programs to replace an aging pool of journeymen in the region. "Because of our good pension plans, many of our members are leaving earlier, so we have a push to replace them," he added.

Osgood's report had both good and bad news about St. Paul 1M. He reported that contracted firms resisted an upgrade in health care but finally agreed to it. But now, with rising costs, they want the members to pay for the higher costs. He indicated the long decline of the industry that started in 1999 seems to be reversing. "In February 2000, the bottom dropped out" resulting in shutdown of three plants, but the local has managed to organize three small shops and things are looking better, he reported.

GCIU Secy.-Treas, Gerald H. Deneau, left, chats with Com- mercial Conference delegate Ray Wade of Edmonton Local 255C during a coffee break.

Osgood noted that his membership is finally coming to realize that politics and jobs go hand-in-hand. It has awakened the members, and they have gotten more active, he said. "Our retirees are a great resource; they still remember the fights to get pensions and other benefits and they are helping out a lot."

There was a campaign in the state legislature to make Minnesota a "right-to-work" (for less) state, but the state federation urged a moratorium on donations to political candidates until they forced a commitment from Democratic legislators to block any such effort, Osgood reported.

"This is the first time I have seen labor so united in our effort to get rid of George Bush," Osgood declared. "If we haven't figured out by now that (Bush) is out to destroy us, we get what we deserve."

GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi brought the conferees up-to-date on the progress of the campaign to deal with Quebecor and win card check recognition. He detailed the cooperation between the GCIU, the AFL-CIO, and the Teamsters that is putting pressure on the world's largest printer. And he spoke of efforts to enlist politicians, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and other notables, such as the Rev, Jesse Jackson, as allies in the effort to win cooperation from Quebecor.

Photos by Dennis B. Doris Jr.

GCIU Lead Organizer Marty Keegan introduces Kathy Hurley, left, and Nys Tognoni, who work in a Quebecor World plant in Fernley, Nev. The two workers tell delegates about the difficulties they face, including management harassment and ineffective safety standards at the Quebecor facility.

GCIU Lead Organizer Marty Keegan introduced two workers from a Quebecor plant in Fernley, Nev., who described poor and dangerous working conditions and why they need union representation. Kathy Hurley and Nys Tognoni told delegates that rank-and-file workers are grateful to the GCIU for trying to improve their working conditions.

Rob Theisen of Philadelphia Local 14M reviewed GCIU educational programs for the delegates. He described health and safety training and steward training that had been developed under a federal grant. Many GCIU locals have taken advantage of the training for their members that expect to train 300 people at the Boston Globe and in other programs at Cadmus, Newsday, Mead Westvaco, and others. For information on the training programs, Thiesen urged local officers or members to contact him at www.gciueducation.com.

Election of officers

During the conference, an Election Committee, chaired by Steven Aldrich of Seattle 767M, oversaw the election of new officers. The following Commercial Conference delegates were elected to office (all were elected unanimously without opposition): President Machael Marsbergen of Toronto 100M; Vice President Paul Jesion of Milwaukee 7C; Sgt.-at-Arms Rita Naidopoulos of Toronto 100M; Eastern Regional Representative Robert Chaney of Wilkes-Barre 137C; Midwest Regional Representative Paul Mancillas of Chicago 458-3M; Southern Regional Representative Steve Kitzman of Louisville 619M; Western Regional Representative Paul Greene of Denver 440M; Canadian Regional Representative John Savage of Vancouver 25C and Secy.-Treas. George Michael Parrish of Washington 538C.

Other business

In other business, the commercial conference delegates "endorsed" a resolution to back a "Million Worker March" on Washington, D.C., planned for Oct. 17, 2004, and organized by San Francisco Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The march aims to "forge together a social, economic and political movement for working people." The delegates heard reports from Mathew Wenner, administrator of the GCIU Employer Retirement Fund, and from John Agenbroad, who chairs the Inter-Local Pension Fund. Both reported that the retirement funds are in good shape, despite the recent recession, and are performing well again.

Politics was the subject of a report to the delegates by Dennis B. Doris Jr. of the GCIU headquarters staff. He reviewed how the Bush reelection team is using wedge issues like gun ownership, abortion rights, or even same-sex marriage to distract voters from such real issues as Bush administration plans to privatize Social Security and Medicare and eventually eliminate both programs. Doris also detailed other anti-worker priorities of the Bush administration, such as a greatly weakened Occupational Safety and Health Administration that is supposed to protect workers and ensure safe workplaces and a National Labor Relations Board that has continually sided with management since Bush was elected.

Doris brought the conference up-to-date on the GCIU Political Action Fund's money-raising efforts that had raised almost $6,000 after envelopes were inserted in the March-April Graphic Communicator. He reviewed many of the Bush administration's anti-union and anti-American family policies and warned: "If he is reelected, he is barred from seeking a third term. He will no longer have to worry about what the voters think. And Bush will work even harder to help corporations at the expense of American working families," Doris said.

The conference credentials committee announced that 31 delegates from 17 local unions attended the San Diego meeting and that San Francisco 4N had joined the conference as a new affiliate.

Merger discussions

Conference delegates discussed points of view concerning the GCIU potential merger with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Political action

Conference delegates chose to donate much of the proceeds from a 50-50 draw to the GCIU Political Action Fund. International Representative Nick Caruso donated his winnings of $265 and GCIU Education Coordinator Rob Thiesen donated $60. In addition, delegates Paul Jesion and Dan Huziak donated $30 – proceeds of a cell phone penalty fund that penalized delegates whose cell phones rang while the conference was in session.