Retired International Representative James “Jim” Griffin died on October 19 from a heart attack at his home in Gambrills, Md. at the age of 69.
Griffin was born in 1957 in Chicago to Barbara Johnson Griffin and Hazen J. Griffin, the president of the Service Employees International Union Local 372. His obituary with Donaldson Funeral Homes says celebrations of life are being organized at a later date.
He worked as a news assistant at the Lexington Herald and was the vice president of the Lexington Guild before landing a job as a collective bargaining and research assistant at the Guild’s headquarters in 1982. Nineteen months later he was promoted to international representative.
Griffin helped workers across North America bargain contracts including in Lexington, Norfolk, Buffalo, York, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Griffin helped create an arbitration index and led the convention workshop on personal computers in 1985 with Guild staffer Eric Geist.
Griffin worked for the Guild until 1994.
“Jim was all about empowering members and mobilizing and building contract campaigns,” said NewsGuild-CWA Executive Vice President Marian Needham. “He encouraged leaders to work on all those components during a time when the Guild wasn’t focused on empowering members to take collective action and challenge the boss, or their own union.”
“Employers who found themselves across the bargaining table from Jim Griffin didn’t stand a chance,” said Linda Foley, former president of the Guild. “He was a force of nature who dominated contract negotiations with the biggest voice at the table and the smartest mind in the room.
“He inspired Guild members, first where I met him, at the Lexington Herald-Leader, and then at workplaces across North American,” Foley said. “Eventually he went on to shape the digital music and entertainment world with his out-of-the-box ideas, but his heart remained with working people and the labor movement.”
“Griffin had great success signing up coworkers to be Guild members in a right-to-work state because of his commitment to worker power,” said Eric Geist, a staff representative at the Washington-Baltimore News Guild who worked at the international with Griffin. “He brought that same energy to his union staff work and challenged unit leaders and even co-workers to do the same. No one could hide from his quest to empower all workers to enable them to negotiate better contracts and organize new workers.”
Griffin took a leave of absence from the Guild in 1993 and officially left a year later to work for Geffen Records where he became their Chief Technology Officer. There he led the team that executed the first commercial digital download of a song over the internet. Over the last several decades, Griffin was an expert witness at several Congressional hearings involving digital music licensing and downloads.
When Griffin left the Guild in 1994 he sent a letter to the International Executive Board.
“The Guild gave me more than I could possibly repay,” he wrote.
“I hope our paths cross again and that once more I can be of service to The Newspaper Guild, the finest people I’ve had the pleasure to know and love.”