Santa Barbara News-Press
Two years ago December, a federal administrative law judge ruled the Santa Barbara News-Press illegally fired eight reporters for union organizing and ordered their immediate reinstatement but political wrangling in Washington, D.C. has kept the journalists from winning back their jobs.
Within weeks of the judge’s ruling and the company’s subsequent appeal, the National Labor Relations Board lost three of its five-member panel indefinitely putting on hold a number of labor disputes, including the one in Santa Barbara.
The reporters, who were fired shortly after they voted overwhelmingly in September 2006 to be represented by the GCC/IBT, have effectively become the collateral damage of a political tug of war. After nearly 25 months of contract negotiations with the company, there has been no progress.
“We know we will win this fight,” said Melinda Burns, a senior staff writer who had worked at the News-Press for 21 years when she was fired. “But we never could have imagined that it would take this long.”
In late October, the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee approved President Obama’s three NLRB nominees. Two easily garnered endorsement: Mark Pearce, a union attorney and former member of the New York State Industrial Board of Appeal, and Brian Hayes, the HELP Committee Republican Labor Policy Director.
However, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has objected to approval of Craig Becker, associate general counsel to the SEIU and AFL-CIO. McCain rejects Becker because the union lawyer insists any Employee Free Choice Act legislation include majority card sign-up privileges – a provision that would have significantly aided News-Press editorial workers during their organizing drive.
In the meantime, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appears to be caught in a quagmire of its own.
Nine months after a hearing was held on the matter, the court has yet to issue a ruling regarding the “emergency” reinstatement of the Santa Barbara reporters. Ninth Circuit justices questioned why the NLRB in Washington, D.C. was taking so long to resolve the issue on its own. Still, the reporters wait.
“The law has failed these reporters,” said Teamster attorney Ira Gottlieb. “We’re disappointed, to say the least, that these decisions have taken so long.”
While the journalists await resolution of these cases, the union has continued to stand its ground. A local boycott campaign was launched to support fired workers and the GCC/IBT filed unfair labor practice charges against Wendy McCaw, the multi-millionaire owner and co-publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press.
“We will continue this fight for as long as it takes Wendy McCaw to sign a fair employment contract with her newsroom employees and to start treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said Marty Keegan, the GCC/IBT International Organizer who headed the Santa Barbara campaign.
For the second time in three years, the company went on trial last summer on charges related to unfair labor practices.
The first trial focused on the firing, coercive interrogation and surveillance of union supporters. The second, which lasted from May through August, involved allegations of bad-faith bargaining and the firing of yet another reporter.
In October, the News-Press again found itself in court when it faced charges of serving illegal subpoenas in preparation for the bad-faith bargaining trial.
“We’re optimistic about the outcome of this latest trial based upon the elaborate record presented by the General Counsel,” Gottlieb said, “and the weakness of the defenses offered by the company.”
How long the process will take is uncertain, union officials say. But, fired workers and GCC/IBT representatives insist they will continue the struggle for resinstatement and workplace justice.
By Dawn Hobbs
Hobbs worked as the crime and courts reporter for nine years before she was illegally fired in February 2007.
This article was originally printed in the Graphic Communicator, the publication of the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.