The Canadian Media Guild is holding a vote next month to elect delegates to meetings and conventions of our parent unions in 2005.
CMG’s National Executive Committee has decided to send nine people plus national president Lise Lareau to both the Newspaper Guild (TNG) sector conference in Victoria May 5-8 and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) annual convention in Chicago August 29-31. Six of the nine will also attend a TNG Canada meeting in the fall.
Delegates will represent the CMG’s interests and point of view at these meetings. Ideally you should hold, or have held, a position on a Guild executive or be an activist in the union. At the same time, newer members who are just beginning to be involved in the union are also encouraged to run.
Nominations are open to all Guild members in good standing. Candidates must be able to attend all three of the meetings. To be nominated, or to nominate someone else, download the nomination form from the Guild’s website (MS word).
Once you’ve filled it out, fax it back to 416-591-7278 or e-mail to keith@cmg.ca. The deadline is 5 p.m. March 24. Confirmed candidates will have until Friday April 1 to submit a brief statement (no more than 200 words) about their background for distribution to all voters.
The national vote will be held, by phone, April 11-13. The National Executive Committee has designed a process to ensure the representation includes delegates from at least four branches (e.g. CBC, CP/BN, Reuters, TVO, etc.) of the CMG.
Here’s how it works: if the nine top vote-getters represent four branches, those nine are declared elected. If the nine elected by a majority do not represent at least four different branches, the Election Committee shall review the list and reallocate the final three positions. It will do so by removing the lowest-ranked candidate among the final three who represents a branch counted among the first six elected delegates and replace that candidate with the next highest-ranked from a branch not counted among the first six. The process will be repeated if necessary until four branches are represented in the delegation.
Nominees dropped from the list of delegates through this process will be considered alternates.
The top six vote-getters will be declared delegates to the TNG Canada meeting later this fall, provided that three branches are represented. The process to get there will be as above.
The Guild will take care of travel and accommodation expenses, as well as release from work, for the delegates selected.
If you have any questions about this, please contact Keith Maskell (keith@cmg.ca) or Lise Lareau (lise@cmg.ca) at 416-591-5333 or 1-800-465-4149.