Feds to Prosecute News-Press: The National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel announced Monday, July 28, that the agency will prosecute the Santa Barbara News-Press for failure to bargain in good faith with the Teamsters Union, which is representing newsroom employees. No hearing date was set.

Negotiations began in November but have seen little progress. The union filed a complaint in May accusing the News-Press of stalling in violation of the law.

The NLRB also announced that it would prosecute the News-Press for failing to provide annual evaluations to a substantial number of employees for last year, and the board continues to deliberate on several other charges filed by the union, including the hiring of "temporary" employees to undermine the bargaining unit, and the hiring of an investigative reporter outside of the unit, said Teamster attorney Ira Gottlieb.

“We would much prefer that the News-Press bargain in good faith and reach a satisfactory agreement than have to go to the NLRB to once again force the newspaper to adhere to basic labor law requirements,” said Teamster negotiator Nick Caruso.

“Once we have a good agreement in place, the union will be happy to help the News-Press gain back lost readership and advertising revenue,” Caruso said. “We recognize these are tough times for newspapers, but the News-Press in turn has to recognize that the union is here to stay, that the employees need and deserve some basic protection and stability, and that the best way to improve the paper and the atmosphere in the newsroom is to reach a fair employment contract,” added Caruso.

In a secret ballot election in the newsroom in September, 2006, the Teamsters won the right to bargain collectively over terms and conditions of employment for news department employees. “Since then the News-Press has committed and been found guilty by an administrative law judge of no less than 15 labor law violations, including the unlawful firings of eight reporters,” Gottlieb said. The News-Press has appealed that decision to the NLRB in Washington, D.C.

“This is not the first time that the NLRB has found the News-Press' lead negotiator, Nashville, Tenn., union buster Michael Zinser, to be worthy of prosecution for bad faith bargaining,” Gottlieb said. “In at least two other recent cases in Pennsylvania and Hawaii, the NLRB's general counsel issued complaints against Zinser newspaper clients for bargaining in bad faith in violation of federal labor law. Both of those cases settled before trial.

“After the News-Press stalled the first day of bargaining for over a year through legal maneuvering, the parties first met to negotiate in November, 2007,” Gottlieb said. “The News-Press conducted itself at the table as if the union had not won the right to bargain, seeking to maintain the pre-union status quo in its bargaining positions and to avoid agreement, while doing what it could, lawfully or otherwise, to frustrate the newsroom employees hoping for workplace improvement through negotiation of a contract.

“That misconduct and disinterest in bargaining was manifested . . . in its outrageous and absurd proposals that, if agreed upon, would maintain its discretion to change economic terms even after an agreement was reached, provide for a grievance process ending with (owner) Wendy McCaw deciding whether her own management had violated the contract, perpetuate the arbitrary ‘at will’ lack of employee protection that the News-Press has used to intimidate and coerce its employees over the last two years. That News-Press bad faith and disdain for the bargaining process was further demonstrated in the unprecedented hiring of employees it labeled ‘temporary’ --- though some have remained employed for over a year --- to perform newsroom work, failing and refusing to provide information requested by the union, its filing of bogus unfair labor practice charges against the union (none of which have been found to have merit), agreeing to meet only sporadically, its publishing of scurrilous editorials about the bargaining sessions, its misrepresentation of the nature of accepted editorial practices that have been customary at the SBNP for years, and its circulation of employee communiqués rife with misinformation and vitriol.”

The newspaper could not immediately be reached for comment. It recently filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB, contending that the Teamsters had indulged in an illegal secondary boycott by urging shoppers not to patronize businesses that advertise in the paper.

Related Links

• Previous columns by Barney Brantingham
• News-Press mess from 2006 to the present.

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