No constitutional crisis
tradition, someone threw a pie in your face depending on who won. I was a glutton for punishment,” he said. “I got hit with a lot of pies.”
While putting that fighting spirit into his war against the fake news narrative, Glickson is also investing in beefing up Local 31003’s internal operations — which had fallen a bit behind the times, he said.
“We didn’t have a database of all members when I got here, no easy way to email or text people. The members hardly ever heard from the union, there wasn’t a lot of outreach. All that is changing. We’re here, we’re going to fight for them — they’re going to see that they don’t have to face their workplace challenges alone.”
He’s also working with the NewsGuild to challenge pay parity and lack of diversity in newsrooms across the country — something he championed as well at The Times.
Glickson, who spent decades at the paper as a paginator and freelance sports writer, doesn’t try to hide his affection or appreciation for his former employer — even though he now considers it his job to hold The Times to its own best standards.
As NewsGuild president, his job is to protect his members, and he did that for one of them earlier this year by taking a buyout from the Times himself.
He didn’t have to do that. A long-standing union president privilege would have let him keep his spot, but “I’m not going back,” he said, “so I thought that if I could save even just one person from getting laid off, why not do it?” NEW YORKERS aren’t convinced about the need for a constitutional convention.
A poll taken late last week found that support for such a gathering had dropped significantly over the last month.
Likely voters on Tuesday oppose the idea by a 2-1 margin, according to a survey from Siena College released Wednesday.
Fifty-seven percent of those who participated in the poll said they plan to vote no on the referendum for a constitutional convention.
Voters get to decide every 20 years if the state should hold such a gathering. Delegates appointed to attend consider changes to the state’s main political document.
Any proposed revisions would have to be approved by voters in a subsequent election.
Opponents of the idea this year say it would be costly and messy.
While a majority of those in the Siena College poll agreed with the state’s unions — which are uniform in opposing a “Con-Con” — another 25% said they will vote yes.
Some voters are apparently willing to support it, even though 60% said they believed it would be a waste of time.
The constitutional convention proposal had enjoyed slightly more support last month.
A similar Siena poll found 44% of respondents were for a gathering while 39% opposed it.
But after a vocal and determined “no” campaign from labor unions and other organizations who feared key laws might be changed or tinkered with — such as Planned Parenthood, antiabortion groups and gun rights supporters — the public support waned.
Many top politicians — from both parties — have also expressed their opposition to the costly undertaking.
The “no” campaign used yard signs and social media to argue that a constitutional convention is too risky and could put the existing constitution’s many protections in jeopardy.
The New York City Central Labor Council planned its third round of labor walks for the weekend.
It sent affiliates into diverse neighborhoods to speak to other union members about why it was important to vote no.
Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said there was a lack of support for the convention across party lines.
“Upstaters, downstaters and voters from all parties also strongly agree that concon (a constitutional convention) is more likely to be an expensive waste of time where nothing good gets done than it is to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives and safeguard the rights of New Yorkers,” he said.
But those are campaigning for a “yes” vote launched a television campaign last week in a lastminute effort to sway voters.
“The constitutional convention is the best opportunity for the people of New York to end the corruption and dysfunction that have been hurting us for far too long,” Bill Samuels, a pro-convention advocate, told the Associated Press.