Editor and Publisher: Bay Area Guild Unit Files NLRB Charge Over Layoffs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003827765

By Joe Strupp

Published: July 15, 2008 4:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Less than a week after 29 members of the new Newspaper Guild unit at the Bay Area Newspaper Group-East Bay outside San Francisco were laid off, the union has filed an unfair labor charge claiming they were dismissed for union activities.

The Northern California Media Workers Guild, which represents about 230 workers at the nine-paper BANG-EB, filed the unfair labor practice charge Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board, the union said in a statement. The charge is in protest of "last Friday's retaliatory firings of organizers and other anti-union actions against the newly formed … unit of the Guild."

Among those who lost their jobs in the layoff was unit chair and co-organizer of the unit, Sara Steffens, a reporter at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek.

"I think they wanted me out of the newsroom," Steffens said in a statement. "They wanted to keep me from continuing to engage co-workers as we push for our first contract and they hoped this would send a message to scare people away from further union activity. But they made a big mistake -- so far it's only made our newsroom understand why it's important to have a contract to protect us."

John Armstrong, BANG-EB publisher and president, was unavailable for comment because he is out this week, but Marshall Anstandig, Senior Vice President-General Counsel for the chain, said in a statement: "We will aggressively defend it. We did nothing illegal, inappropriate or wrong. We have already met with the Guild and their bargaining team four times. Hardly an effort to scare or frighten anyone."

BANG-EB Executive Editor Kevin Keane could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Late last week, when word of Steffens' layoff was first reported by E&P, Keane said in a statement: "These layoffs were driven by the economy and nothing else. Instead of relying on job performance, we eliminated positions that we felt we could no longer afford in this economic environment or in those areas where we felt the work could be absorbed by others. Sara’s beat was poverty and social issues. ((


FULL story at link.