Gormley Intent
On Contract Enforcement,
Member Unity

by Patrick Gormley
Vice President for Contract Administration

I would like to start by saying thank you for the opportunity to work with and for the membership of this local. In my 15 years at The News, I have become increasingly more involved in the Local, from serving on election committees, working on information gathering subcommittees, working as a steward to becoming grievance chairman. The title of this position, vice president for Contract Administration, has been changed under the reorganization, but the responsibility is the same -- to ensure that the terms of the contract are upheld for the betterment of the membership.

This is not the sole responsibility of any one person, but one that each member in the Local shares. Each one of us must be aware of things that happen on the job and how that may affect others. We are coming off a very busy year in which the chaos resulting from the change in management in the Circulation Department led to a large number of complaints and grievances.

Most of these have been settled, but it took hard work on the part of Tina Destro, Carol Ann Burke and Dick Fay in order to establish a working relationship with the new management

This effort will continue, but must be improved for there are still far too many problems.

This year we also took advantage of the resources offered by the TNG-CWA that helps locals with research and legal questions to help solve some of the problems in Circulation. The changes in Circulation are not isolated, it is not the only department in flux. The company has shown that it wants to run short staffed whenever and wherever it can. This combined with what seems like a more constructionist attitude toward the contract on the part of The News where it will only do what it is forced to do by the terms of the contract.

To survive in this environment, it is vital that more people are involved. To accomplish this and to give those interested an opportunity to become more involved and better informed, the Local will be holding seminars for members and stewards to learn more about the complaint/grievance process.

Stewards are the first line of defense in the maintenance of a strong working contract. It is the small steady, daily erosion of the contract that eventually undercuts the entire agreement.

With education, research, enforcement, member unity and the membership involvement called for in the recent reorganization of the Local, I believe that this new position can serve to make us a more vibrant union -- better able to serve the needs of our members.