The Hawaii Tribune-Herald violated federal labour laws when it fired two reporters and suspended another for engaging in union activities, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The daily paper in Hilo, Hawaii fired the two reporters in 2005 and 2006.

Administrative Judge John McCarrick stated in a ruling that the newspaper's managers illegally suspended and fired reporters Hunter Bishop and Dave Smith for union activism, and illegally suspended another reporter, Peter Sur, E&P reported. Union participation is a federally protected right in the United States.

Bishop was chairman of the Hawaii Newspaper Guild's Halo unit from 2000 to 2004, and a member of the bargaining committee and shop steward until he was fired in 2005.

Smith was a steward from 2004 to 2006, and also a bargaining committee member until his 2006 dismissal, according to E&P.

The Tribune-Herald claimed to have fired Bishop for “insubordination and low productivity while Smith was fired for secretly tape-recording a meeting with the newspaper's editor, David Bock.” However, McCarrick rejected the claims and said “the newspaper was guilty of a number of unfair labour practices including interfering with employees' collective bargaining rights by interrogating workers about their union-related activities and discriminating against employees and banning them from wearing armbands or buttons in support of the two fired reporters,” according to the article.