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Newspaper Guild, CWA Urge Harvard to Drop Robert Giles as Candidate to Head Nieman Foundation: 'Appo

Leaders of the Communications Workers of America and its affiliate, The Newspaper Guild, which represents 35,000 news media workers, applauded reports that Harvard University is having second thoughts about appointing Robert Giles to head the Nieman Foundation.

"Giles' role both in firing and replacing hundreds of fine journalists and production workers at the Detroit News in order to break their unions, as well as his admitted distortion of news coverage while he was executive editor of that paper, clearly disqualifies him from such a prestigious position in our profession," said Guild President Linda Foley.

Giles played a key role in the lockout of some 2,500 at the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press in 1995 - a dispute that is still going on as the newspapers appeal two guilty verdicts for their actions in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. More than 600 of the workers remain locked out today.

"To workers throughout North America and as far away as Solidarity in Poland, Robert Giles is a leading player in one of the most outrageous cases of workplace abuse that we've seen in many years," said CWA President Morton Bahr.

The Guild's Foley noted that Giles has even admitted to slanting news reports on the Detroit News strike/lockout to counter coverage in other media, even trying to influence coverage by the Associated Press while serving on the AP's board of directors.

"His appointment would diminish the luster of one of our most respected journalistic institutions, and would be an affront not only to the Detroit strikers but to working journalists everywhere," Foley said.

CWA is the leading media and information union, representing over 60,000 print, broadcast, publishing and Internet employees, and over 630,000 members in total.



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