Newspaper illegally fired reporters for union activities
By Leah McBride Mensching, Wednesday 2 January 2008 at 23:34 :: Labor & Employment :: #1039 :: rss
The Santa Barbara News-Press and its owner violated federal labour laws when it fired eight reporters for taking part in union activities, an administrative law judge has ruled, ordering the newspaper to rehire the former staffers.
The California newspaper's actions showed a “widespread, general disregard for the fundamental rights of the employees,” Judge William G. Kocol ruled last week, according to a Tuesday report by the Los Angeles Times. Kocol also ruled that the reporters are entitled to return to their positions with back pay.
The case was brought by the National Labor Relations Board, which accused the paper and its owner, Wendy McCaw, of seeking revenge against employees who planned to join a division of the Teamsters union, the Times reported. The board's complaint listed 15 counts of unfair labour practices for firing the eight employees, none of whom had a history of disciplinary actions.
“This decision really is all-encompassing; it's everything we wanted it to be,” Melinda Burns, the first reporter to be fired, told the Times.
McCaw and the newspaper's attorneys said they were “extremely disappointed” with the ruling, adding that the News-Press will “exhaust all possible appeals and fully expects to achieve justice through that appelate process. The matter as a whole is in its infancy.”
News-Press managers testified in the hearing before Kocol that Burns and another reporter, Anna Davison (fired in early 2007), were dismissed for writing biased stories. Six more reporters were fired in February after protesting the previous two firings by hanging a sign over a freeway pedestrian bridge that stated “Cancel Your Newspaper Today!” Kocol ruled hanging the banner was a protected activity, and all eight staffers were fired for union activities, according to a Wednesday report by the Associated Press.
Problems between McCaw and the newsroom became news in July 2006 when five of the paper's top editors resigned, announcing that McCaw was censoring local news. Since then, dozens of other staffers have left the paper, and circulation has dropped to 33,755 as of Sept. 30, 2007, a 10 percent drop since March 2007, according to the Times.
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