Guild Proud: A Farewell from Grant Glickson

12/19/2019

To my friends, supporters and Guild colleagues: After a few weeks of deep reflection and soul-searching, I’m left feeling grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to work with and represent our members at The New York Times for nearly three decades as well as the rank-and-file throughout our local for the past three years as president.

The tremendous support and kind words that I’ve received through three elections has been humbling and is the polar opposite of the words told to me by a former Guild President more than a quarter century ago, when I first stepped into the business of helping to run a union.

“Becoming a union official is a thankless job,” I was told. “If you’re in this for the accolades, you should find another profession.”

While there have certainly been times when I may have felt a bit under-appreciated throughout my career in the union, I must say that representing our union members has been the most rewarding experience of my life.

As I prepare to vacate office on January 1, I am extremely proud to be leaving the Guild in much better shape than it was three years ago, when I took office. By investing significant financial resources in our union, we are now in a perfect position to grow in strength and numbers.

  • We now have a database to track our members' dues/contact information.
  • We’ve increased staff by 30 percent to allow us to provide support to our units.
  • We’ve redesigned our website, logo, and member portal and have grown our social media presence, so we can communicate better with our members.
  • Our local organized 10 new shops and have an additional 1,000 members since 2016.
  • We are fighting and mobilizing harder than ever before to win strong contracts for our members.
  • We have a real presence in the labor movement and our members are turning out to events, including the Labor Day parade and our membership meetings.

While I’m disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to continue what I’ve started, I take pride in the fact that our union is also more democratic than it has been in decades. Before I challenged the establishment in 2013, our local had not had a contested presidential election in 31 years. Since then, we’ve had two contested presidential elections along with challenges for Local Chair, First Vice President and an open Executive Board seat.

I wish Susan DeCarava the best of luck in moving our union forward. I’m hopeful that she and her team will continue to invest in all of you by growing the size of your membership and winning strong contracts by mobilizing members around issues most important to them.

Thanks again for the ride of a lifetime.

In Unity,

Grant Glickson

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