Washington-Baltimore Guild Considers York Merger

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG) Local 32035’s reach may soon extend to York, PA. The WBNG Executive Council voted at its January 13 meeting to explore the possibility of merger with the local, which represents two dozen workers at the York Dispatch, and more than 50 at the York Daily Record/Sunday News, reports Local 32035 President Mark Pattison. An exploratory committee is looking at “how the local structure can work with a relatively farflung pair of bargaining units a one-hour leapfrog from our Baltimore Sun unit, which itself is nearly 30 miles from the National Labor College, currently WBNG’s second-most northerly unit,” says Pattison. While a merger would add upward of 80 York members to the WBNG membership rolls, Pattison notes that “the better way to grow is through organizing. Think of the thousands of unorganized workers in the news and information industry in D.C., Baltimore and points around and between. If we’re really on our game as a local, we’d be growing not just by merger, but through organizing.”
– photo: staff at the National Association of Social Workers – who recently merged with the Washington Baltimore Newspaper Guild – walked the picket line for fair wages and working conditions in September, 2010; photo by Adam Wright