PRESIDENT AUTHORIZED
TO TAKE LEAVE

BNG-CWA president Bob DiCesare was authorized to take up to a year's leave of absence, with the union covering his equivalent salary at the Buffalo News, to help deal with the unexpected resignation of local representative Tina Destro.

The move was authorized at the local's October meeting, with former union president Bob McCarthy offering the lone dissenting vote.

The motion to authorize the president's leave came as the union deals with the loss of Destro, its lone full-time employee.

Destro, a former union member who replaced Marian Needham as BNG-CWA's local representative last year, resigned last month to accept a job with MCI-World Com.

DiCesare, who was re-elected president at the October meeting, has not yet decided whether he will take a leave, but said the union can't afford to be without a full-time representative for very long.

"It's a precautionary measure,"he said.

"We've had a tremendous work load as a result of a change in our relationship with the News,"DiCesare continued. "In order that we're not left hanging, and so that we don't have people trying to work two full-time jobs at the same time, we felt it was imperative that we let our main officer work that job if necessary."

As evidence of the change in the union's relationship with the News, DiCesare cited the newspaper's reluctance to settle a grievance involving four union members who were told not to report to work during a snowstorm last January, then ordered to take vacation to make up for the lost hours.

After lengthy negotiations, the News finally agreed that the employees could not be ordered to take vacation time after being told not to come to work.

"We had a grievance on the table for 10 months that amounted to 56 dollars in cash, and basically close to two days in personal time when they were obviously wrong in what they did,"DiCesare said. "Is that a good relationship?"

McCarthy said he was voting against the move because he thought it a panic response to the situation.

And, he said, it goes against the recommendations made last year by a committee that looked into the union's structure. McCarthy, who was that committee's chairman, said it was decided that the union's members should take more of the responsibility that now falls on it's officers.

"I voted against it because I don't think it's a crisis situation,"he said. "I just wish the leadership would go out and do their job and remember the mandate of our study last year that said that the real leadership of the union should be exercised by its members."

DiCesare said the union must be prepared for the possibility that the search for Destro's replacement could be lengthy.

"If we don't find a quality candidate that we feel is ready to take over the job, we have to have some sort of provision so we can focus on running the union,"DiCesare said.

A search committee, consisting of DiCesare, Pat Gormley, Dick Fay, Carol Ann Burke, Bob Snyder, Kevin Collison and John Bonfatti, has been formed to help find Destro's replacement.

In an effort to help deal with the immediate problem of having no staff at the union office, members also voted to hire part-time clerical help.