Know your Steward
 
Nineteen of our colleagues have volunteered and trained to be your Stewards.
They are:  Don Hopey, Ann Belser, Margi Shrum, Pat Peters, Jill Daly, Cathy Tigano, Natalie Hill, Willa Kindle, Teresa Lindeman, Bill Lowenberger, Pohla Smith, Anita Dufalla, Kurt Weber, Pam Panchak, RJ Hufnagel, Eleanor Chute, Jan Ackerman, Tim McDonough and Jon Schmitz.
Each Steward has been assigned to a group of worker bees.

If you have not been contacted by a Steward, give a buzz to Patt Risher.

About Monessen
 
On Oct.12, the Guild presented its case to an arbitrator regarding the Valley Independent's denial of leave to one of our Monessesen officers to attend TNG's new officers seminar in February.

The Scaife-owned company claimed that to permit the leave was a hardship to the department in which the Guild member worked, but the publisher agreed to allow the employee to take vacation time to attend the seminar.

In other words, the company couldn't spare the employee for an unpaid leave for Guild business, but there was no problem if the Guild member wanted to use vacation. The Guild argued at the arbitration that the company's denial was discriminatory against union activities and a violation of its leave policy.

A decision should be forthcoming in December. The Guild also filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Valley Independent for its blatant retaliation against Guild members involved in the arbitration.

The company changed the work schedules - from days to nights - for two Guild members who were subpoenaed for the arbitration and made a third member, the subject of the arbitration, use yet another vacation day to attend the arbitration in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned.

Ho! Ho! Ho!
 
Mark your calendars: The Guild Holiday Party will start to rock at 8 p.m. Dec. 8 at The Hilton. Our handwriting analyst Michelle Dresbold will be back by popular demand, while Pittsburgh's own Wil E. Tri and The Bluescasters will have us on our feet - and, maybe out of our shoes - until 1 a.m.

"Off the Record"

The reviews for the Guild-AFTRA presentation of the inaugural "Off the Record" on Oct. 10 - at least the review in the always-objective PG Seen column - suggest it was a smashing success. Guild members Sally Kalson, Johnna Pro, Samantha Bennett and Jim Heinrich lent their singing and acting talent on stage, in addition to many more who helped in writing, planning and behind the scenes.

Another major contribution: More than 100 of the 600 tickets sold were purchased by Guild members. Once deductions were made from the gross revenues to cover expenses/amusement tax/seed money to keep the checking account active for next show, it left $14,000 in charitable proceeds.

Roughly $10,000 of that amount will go to our primary beneficiary -- the food banks of Pittsburgh and New York -- with the remainder serving as donations to the AFTRA scholarship fund and the CWA's support of pediatric AIDS research.

The steering committee that will be planning the next show now needs your input on how to proceed with "Off the Record" in the future and what to change about it. What would you suggest altering about the format, humor, location, timing, cast, cost, charities, food and drink, printed program, publicity or anything else that comes to mind?

And what do you think is the proper interval before the next show: a year, 18 months, two years? Please e-mail advice to coordinator Gary Rotstein.

Membership meeting - November 14

The last quarterly membership meeting of 2001 will be at the Steelworkers Building first floor meeting room on Nov. 14.

As usual, we'll have sessions at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to accommodate all members. On the agenda will be a negotiations update and the election of delegates to the TNG Sector Conference in February and the CWA Convention in June.