We’ll be there at Thurgood Marshall High School, 4447 Hoover Ave., where local community activists will be gathering. The Dayton Newspaper Guild will have a table set up at the Community Block Party, which starts at 8 p.m. in the school’s gymnasium parking lot.
At 9 p.m., the party will move indoors, as the crowd will watch Barack Obama accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. Obama’s speech will be on a big screen television in the gymnasium.
All Dayton Newspaper Guild members are invited to stop by. That’s why we put the leaflets in your mailboxes.
Some people who support the Guild remain skeptical of whether they should attend political rallies. The Guild Executive Board’s answer remains the same:
We understand that some people have ethical concerns about these types of events, given their particular work assignments.
We also know that it would be illegal for the Company to retaliate against members who participate in union activities — which this is.
We don’t expect our individual members to take actions they’re not comfortable with. However, please understand that Guild leadership is working with labor’s friends, and will continue to do so, just as unions have done for decades — including this one.
There are certainly some people who should avoid political entanglements — for example, political reporters. Their ethical dilemma is clear, and their colleagues understand.
Guild leaders have met with local Obama campaign coordinators and have discussed ways to work together. We make no apologies for this. We’re not just journalists. We’re taxpayers and citizens who deserve equal protection under the law.
The time to be apolitical is long over. As a union we have to look out for our interests. One candidate supports the continuation of polices that allows union busting to continue. The other thinks it needs to stop now. You know which one is which.
If you look at it from the standpoint of labor, the choice is clear. At the CWA convention in July, convention delegates voted to endorse Obama. They did not do so because he was the Democrat. The decision was made based on evaluation of the candidates, including their responses to a survey sent last spring to all candidates in both major parties.
