Reports from the Chair

Delegates Assembly 2007 message to a recovering union: recruit, recruit, recruit

There’s nothing like the National Writers Union’s Delegates Assembly to see our union shaping itself. This year it is not the same thing. This year the National Writers Union is under the administratorship of the United Auto Workers in the persons of Regional Director Bob Madore and run day-to-day by his deputy Scott Sommer.

I went with a sense of dread that the union I have been a member of since 1992 is circling the drain. I went characterizing Scott Sommer as our very own Darth Vader, a dark corporate overlord. My evidence? As delegates were being selected months ago, Sommer and the UAW decreed that chapters with fewer than 50 members didn’t get delegates, only non-voting “distinguished guests.” That excludes our friends the surfer-poets down in Santa Cruz, it excludes the Oregon chapter, the Tucson chapter where I joined the union, and New Jersey among others. I voted no. I have always maintained that the most open democracy is the only thing right for our union. To my horror, NWU President Jerry Colby voted with the UAW. Jerry, a decent man and a damn good writer, turns out to be a feckless president trying to protect his job with the big UAW breathing down his neck.

Now let me be clear. UAW administratorship came for important reasons. National Writers Union membership has been on a precipitous decline for the past several years. From some 7,600 members shortly after the 2001 Tasini v. Times landmark victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, we are now down to some 1,600 members. Due to enormous personal sacrifice by NWU vice presidents, the dysfunctional national office is working again and the decline has been halted, perhaps even slightly reversed. But there’s a long way to go. We were in poor financial shape before we were embezzled to the tune of $60,000. The perpetrator convicted and UAW insurance restored the embezzled funds.

I’ve been a delegate representing you several times now, and I’ve come to know these people I see there as the backbone of the union. One whose judgment I trust most is Miryam Williamson, the first vice president and a onetime candidate for union president. When I thought administratorship meant the beginning of the end of the National Writers Union, Miryam said she understood my fears, but that the UAW administrators may be the best way to save our union.

After four days of wall-to-wall meetings at Emerson College on the Boston Common, I have come to agree. I don’t especially like how the UAW wants to go about things, or their monofocus on recruit, recruit, recruit. I’m a marketing guy, and I like to recruit by offering our members a better product—that is, compelling union programs that would be reason for more people to joln. The UAW takes a more corporate approach: we should sell union membership to every writer we know, every day. Get the numbers up. Of the three days of Delegates Assembly when we usually are drawing up the NWU agenda for the future, half of that time was spent with UAW recruitment trainers. They had a difficult time understanding that the National Writers Union is unlike their standard UAW locals. We not comprised of people who all walk into the same building every day and get union dues deducted from our regular paychecks and benefits. Many of their standard approaches just do not apply to a bunch of freelance writers who mostly work out of home offices or make a living elsewhere as teachers and other necessary day jobs.

Most important, I watched the dynamic of our leadership, and time after time, when President Colby was given the reins, he did little. Repeatedly, Scott Sommer stepped into the breach. It was soon clear that while we may differ in methods, that Scott Sommer is the guy making things happen, the one trying to keep our union alive, the one who is not afraid to take action, even unpopular action. Our vice presidents, Miryam Williamson, Ken Wachsberger and our own Alice Rogoff are working hard to keep us afloat. The UAW really IS trying to save the National Writers Union.

Sommer also gave me a direct answer to the question our Bay Area steering committee posed when we voted no on administratorship: how and when do we get OUT of administratorship? The answer: when membership returns and we are financially stable, which typically lasts two to three years.

I was disheartened. That’s when Alice Rogoff, who as national’s Internal Organizing Vice President calls members every day, reminded me that to members like you, the union’s governance is a minor matter at best, and that events like parties and meetings and contract sessions are why you joined.

With that dose of needed reality I ask you to join me at the delegates report back where the other delegates can have their say and we can all answer questions. Until then, I have a question to pose of my own:

What do YOU want as a member of the National Writers Union?

Joe Gold
San Francisco Bay Area Co-chair
415-642-4763

Continued opposition to the Oakland writers tax; recent events; student membership; support SF Chronicle journalists

As we reached the end of the year, I would like to inform you all of recent events, activities and accomplishments by your local union, chapter 3 of the NWU, and let you know of some exciting upcoming activities.

In this July 2004 report I’d like to briefly revisit the accomplishments achieved by your local 3 Steering Committee since it assumed office this past January, as well as note the remaining major challenges we still all face ahead.

This is the second of my promised ‘Reports From the Chair’ to the membership of Local chapter 3. A lot has happened over the past two months…

Greetings. As the new chair of Local Chapter 3 (Bay Area), I’d like to introduce the new team of Steering Committee members, as well as tell you about some of the new ideas, plans, and initiatives currently underway in the chapter.