Newspaper Guild Loses 3000 Members -- Foley and Lunzer Discuss It

It has been some 18 months since Linda Foley left her post as president of the Newspaper Guild after a 12-year reign. And in some ways, she is glad to be out at such a difficult time.

“I am rather relieved that I am not in charge in this really horrible time,” she says of the newspaper industry, which saw some 40,000 job loses in 2009. “I am rather relieved that I don’t have that responsibility during one of the biggest crisis for the guild.”

That responsibility, of course, is now in the hands of Bernie Lunzer, Foley’s longtime secretary-treasurer who challenged her in the 2008 race and won. He has been the one to help guide the union through turbulent waters that included contract fights in several places, Boston among them, and dwindling resources.

He estimates Guild national membership dropped from about 30,000 at the end of 2008 to 27,000 today. (He said the high was in the mid-1980s with 34,000.) But he is positive that efforts to recruit in new areas, such as freelancers and digital outlets, will help. “We are going to have to organize our way out of this,” Lunzer said. “Nobody is winning, everyone is trying to make cuts that make everything solvent.”

Foley effectively retired on her Guild pension in 2008 after a Guild career that stretched back to 1984. “It was enough equal to what I would get for retiring early,” said Foley, 54. “That gave me some flexibility to be able to do what I want to do.”

During the last 18 months, Foley has been involved in a number of CWA projects, among them being part of the team that prosecuted former Union Leader Carla Katz of New Jersey in 2009. Katz, who headed the state government employees union, made news as a former girlfriend of former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. She was removed from office last year for misuse of funds and other violations.

Foley also worked on efforts to help the AFL, in addition to working for the Obama campaign in 2008 in Pittsburgh. “I grew up in Pittsburgh and had never been able to devote that much time to it,” she said.

She declined to criticize Lunzer directly, but did say she felt the Guild leadership had been less communicative with its members. “It is really non-existent,” she said of the communications. “I think it is a shame.” She cited the Guild Reporter newspaper cutting back its frequency.

Foley added that she has not been contacted by Lunzer as much as she should. “When I was president, I always made sure former officers got invited to things and he has not done that,” she claimed. Lunzer noted that he did fail to invite Foley to a major event, but it was an oversight.

Lunzer also said the union is communicating more via a monthly newsletter to activists: “We are trying to have more of a digital presence and a digital face on things.”

Asked if she would run again in 2011 when Lunzer’s term is up, she said, “It is not something I am actively looking at.” For the future of the guild, Lunzer declared, “We are starting to see some stability.” -- Joe Strupp