Opposing nominations made for Guild leadership positions

At a meeting of the local’s Representative Assembly on Tuesday, two opposing slates of candidates were nominated, one headed by the incumbent leaders, Guild President Bill O’Meara and Secretary-Treasurer Peter Szekely, and the other led by Grant Glickson of The New York Times, who is running for president, and Tony Barone of Reuters, who is running for secretary-treasurer. The three-year term begins Jan. 2, 2014.

RA delegates and alternates from units throughout the local voted to give the slate headed by O’Meara and Szekely, known as the Proven Guild Leaders slate, the right to call itself the RA slate and to list it on the left side of the ballot. The slate headed by Glickson and Barone is known as the Members First slate.

Any other Guild member wishing to run for the offices of president, secretary-treasurer, local chairperson, first vice president, second vice president, third vice president, RA chairperson, RA vice chairperson or any of the 16 other positions on the Executive Committee may do so by filing a petition as provided in the nomination and election rules, which were adopted by the RA in June. Among other things, petitions must be signed by at least 5 percent of members in good standing as of Oct. 1, which is equal to 143 members, must include at least 15 members from each of three different units and must be submitted to the secretary-treasurer by 6 p.m. EDT on Oct. 23.

Ballots will be mailed on Oct. 29 to all Guild members and must be returned to the post office box listed on the enclosed pre-paid envelopes by shortly before 5 p.m. EST on Nov. 13. Overseeing the process is a Local Elections Committee composed of members not affiliated with either campaign who were appointed on Tuesday by the local’s Executive Committee.

This is the first time in 31 years that the leadership of the Newspaper Guild of New York will be determined by a contested election.

The last time there was a contest for both of the local’s top two officers was in 1982, when Executive Vice President Ed Egan (whose position then was the equivalent of the local’s current president) defeated Betsy Wade of The Times, and Secretary-Treasurer Barry Lipton defeated Joy Cook of the New York Post. Earlier that year, there also was a contested election for the other positions on the Executive Council.

The entire Proven Guild Leaders and Members First slates are as follows:

PROVEN GUILD LEADERS SLATE     

MEMBERS FIRST SLATE