NLRB OKs News-Press union

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Nearly a year after newsroom employees at the Santa Barbara News-Press voted to unionize, a federal panel overruled objections by News-Press management and certified the election.
The Graphic Communications Conference, a division of the Teamsters, is now the exclusive bargaining unit for all newsroom employees. A three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board considered objections by the News-Press that the secret ballot vote of 33 to 6 in favor of unionization in September had been illegally influenced and decided Thursday to rule against those allegations.

"The union and the employees are pleased that the board has made this decision, and we look forward to sitting down and bargaining with the company,” lead union representative Marty Keegan said in a statement. "We hope and expect that now that the board has ruled that the election was valid and properly conducted, that we can change from battle mode to negotiation mode."
The News-Press is currently involved in a separate NLRB hearing, facing allegations by the union that management illegally fired eight reporters, among other charges.
"The decision of the board has absolutely nothing to do with the hearings currently ongoing,” News-Press attorney Barry Cappello said in a statement. “The News-Press is vigorously defending those charges. As to the decision of the NLRB on the earlier opinion of a different Administrative Law Judge, we are reviewing the board's decision and our options carefully. The company will make a public announcement on how it intends to proceed within a week."
Union attorney Ira Gottlieb said he expects a formal bargaining demand to be sent to the News-Press within a few days and maintains optimism that the two parties will be able to work together.
“I’m going to assume the best for the time being,” Gottlieb said. “We have concerns about how this could play out, but we expect they’ll comply with the law.”
Gottlieb said the union has already discussed several items they might focus on if a bargaining demand begins. He said he is not aware of any specific requests that might be made, adding that the union might want to discuss issues with the News-Press before making anything public.
“We’re hoping that we can move forward with collective bargaining,” Gottlieb said. “We think that’ll lead — if both sides are in good faith — it will lead to improvements for everybody, even the management. Talking is better than litigating, usually.”
In October 2006, Ampersand Publishing — which owns the News-Press — filed four objections alleging illegal conduct had affected the union election, including one that referred to comments on local websites as criminal threats directed at News-Press property.
That objection focused on an anonymous comment found on BlogaBarbara, a local commentary site, that encouraged sabotage of News-Press computers, emptying of newspaper stands and threats against the newspaper’s printing press.
In Thursday’s ruling, the NLRB panel wrote, “In its exceptions, the Employer reiterates its argument that certain ‘blog comments’ rose to the level of ‘inflammatory attacks on management’ warranting the setting aside of the election. The judge found, and we agree, that this contention was not timely raised. ... we note that the judge also addressed whether the ‘blog comments’ were objectionable and properly concluded that they did not upset the laboratory conditions necessary for a fair election.”
Administrative Law Judge William L. Schmidt ruled in favor of the union following a hearing in March, also overturning objections that union representatives encouraged false and misleading propaganda and coerced employee sentiment, and that several editors participated in pro-union activities.
In reference to misleading propaganda, News-Press management objected to the display of the newspaper’s masthead next to pro-union bumper stickers and a banner promoting www.savethenewspress.com on the window of reporter Tom Schultz’s Volvo. Schultz removed the logo after requested to do so by management.
Schmidt ruled against objections that the window display suggested News-Press sponsorship of the union and that voters would be confused by the similarity between the News-Press website and www.savethenewspress.com.
“As is evident, I would find both arguments lack merit,” Schmidt wrote.
News-Press attorneys also argued that attempts by groups of newsroom employees to deliver letters to News-Press owner and copublisher Wendy McCaw and editorial page editor Travis Armstrong were intimidation attempts designed to sway employee sentiment in the union’s favor.
Schmidt also ruled against those claims, stating “no basis exists to set aside this lopsided election result because of the brief work interruption that occurred on August 24” and “I find Armstrong’s effort to depict the July 13 visit by employees to his office as threatening or intimidating to be entirely manufactured.”
In their final objection, News-Press management argued that assistant city editor Dan Myers wore a pro-union button and attended a union rally, and that life editor Andrea Huebner attended a union rally, thus influencing newsroom employees from a supervisory position.
“I find that the Employer failed to meet its burden of proving that Myers was a supervisor, as claimed,” Schmidt wrote in his decision. “But even if Myers possessed supervisory authority while employed at the News-Press, I find no basis to recommend that the election be overturned by anything he was shown to have done.”
He also wrote, “Huebner’s [sic] attended the rallies in July largely as a spectator and to mentor intern [Bethany] Hopkins. Her mere presence in the audience represented no definitive statement of any kind about her sympathies.”
NLRB Chairman Robert J. Battista, along with board members Peter N. Kirsanow and Dennis P. Walsh, reviewed the record of the hearing and Schmidt’s decision before ruling against the News-Press.