Local makes big BANG at CWA convention

Our local, the Northern California Media Workers Guild, is a small piece of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America. But Local 39521 (that's us) played a big role in last week's 70th annual CWA convention in Las Vegas -- from start to finish (literally).

Local vice president Silvia Barden (president of our court interpreters unit)opened the convention by singing the national anthem. And, yes, she hit all the high notes and remembered all the words).

During the convention, our local received awards for best local Web site (the judges liked the RSS feeds and blogs as well as the clean, crisp design)and an organizing award for the One Big BANG campaign. The YouTube video of the victory party was shown on two big video screens to kick off the awards.

But the best part of the convention came near the end, when I had the opportunity to bring the BANG-East Bay organizing committee co-chairs Sara Steffens, Karl Fischer and Michael Manekin onto the convention floor and introduce them. They were greeted with a standing ovation and raucous applause.

After the convention, they met with local leaders from throughout The Newspaper Guild to share the details of their campaign. The heroes' welcome continued through the evening with people welcoming them to the union and, rumor has it, buying them a few congratulatory beverages.

The bad news of the BANG layoffs came two days later, but I hope the warm embrace from the Guild and CWA will provide comfort and support, and remind the BANG-EB folks that they're part of the union family now.