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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 EC Endorses Merger Outline

Local Would Combine with CWA 9415 and Hawaii Guild

Members of the Executive Committee of the Media Workers Guild (CFI’s local) endorsed a merger outline on June 21, 2010 that could create a powerhouse communications local in the West, uniting the San Francisco-based Guild, the Hawaii Newspaper Guild and Oakland-based CWA Local 9415.

The tentative outline suggests the merged local be called the Pacific Communications and Media Guild. It would be a diverse alliance, one of the largest in the CWA, with more than 3,000 members drawn from industries including newspapers, language services, broadcasting, cable TV and regional, long-distance and cellular telephone service.

The merger plan is still in the planning stages and will take the approval of members of all three merging locals in order to take effect. The Executive Committee’s vote authorizes creation of membership working committees to draft a detailed plan, which ultimately would include a new set of bylaws to govern the combined local.

Other CWA locals in the Bay Area have considered joining in the innovative alliance. For now, however, the plan calls for a merger only of the two Guild locals and CWA 9415, which already includes members spread through the Bay Area as well as in Hawaii, Nevada and all of California.

All individual bargaining units and contracts would be unchanged. No unit mergers are being proposed. Instead, the plan anticipates creating a new regional structure that would allow local resources to be pooled and shared more efficiently across a wider group of bargaining units.

Leaders also propose to collaborate in such areas as communications and administrative infrastructure.

The vote by the Executive Committee endorsed principles contained in an outline, which can be viewed on the Guild website. We will be updating the membership on details of the merger plan as they become available.

Please contact us with any questions or comments.

In Unity,

Your CFI Reps

Silvia Barden
Carl Hall
Bruce Meachum
Brandon Scovill

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