Members of The NewsGuild of Philadelphia from across the country have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year agreement with Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Continue reading “Philly Guild ratifies three-year agreement with Restaurant Opportunities Center”
By Caroline Grannan, Guild unit chair, San Francisco Chronicle
Feb. 28, 2019 – Managers at the San Francisco Chronicle illegally restricted union representatives from visiting the workplace and talking with members of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled.
The NLRB ordered the Chronicle, a Hearst newspaper, not only to post an announcement about the union victory but also to read an announcement aloud. As of late February, the company hasn’t done as it was told, unit members said.
Since the administrative law judge entered the order in December, the Chronicle and the company have agreed on an access policy that’s now part of the bargaining agreement. The union represents 160 Chronicle employees.
In the Dec. 13 ruling, Administrative Law Judge Gerald M. Etchingham found the company’s actions restricting union representatives’ access were an unfair labor practice that amounted to retaliation against the union representatives.
Etchingham’s ruling said that during her testimony, Hearst Human Relations Vice President Renee Peterson admitted that the management’s limited access policy of December 2017 imposed false and harsh access restrictions on only the union “contrary to its longstanding policy of continuous free access regarding other visitors.”
The case grew out of a Dec. 6, 2017, incident in which a representative of the Chronicle human relations department ordered Guild staff Carl Hall, executive officer, and Kat Anderson, administrative officer and business agent, to leave.
The two were speaking with Guild members in the Chronicle newsroom after signing in with a security guard and receiving visitor badges.
On Dec. 21, 2017, the Guild received a letter from Chronicle attorney Mark Batten saying that Guild staff was allowed to speak to Chronicle employees only “while they are on break or in non-work settings. … “
The letter said the policy “requires all visitors to sign in with security and be escorted by a member of Human Resources or by an employee to a designated non-work area. Non-work areas include: cafeterias, break rooms, common areas, and lobbies.” The Chronicle doesn’t have a cafeteria or any spaces designated break rooms.
“These same restrictions apply to all visitors,” Batten’s letter said, claiming that the policy had existed since 2014. Actually, no such policy had ever been announced, applied or enforced.
The Guild filed an unfair labor practice charge, leading to the eventual decision in favor of the union.
In the ruling, Etchingham said Peterson’s own testimony at the trial refuted the statement in the Dec. 21, 2017, letter, which Peterson herself had distributed to Guild representatives.
Etchingham ordered the company to rescind the access ban (which it has done) and post a notice announcing the ruling, physically and electronically, for 60 days.
By Martha Waggoner, International Chair
Feb. 26, 2019 – Women who work at Dow Jones media companies, including the Wall Street Journal, on average missed out on $2,000 in annual salary last year, compared to men, according to a new study that the union that represents the workers. Continue reading “‘Gender penalty’ an issue at Dow Jones companies, union study finds”
By Martha Waggoner, International Chair
A number of members of The NewsGuild-CWA at the San Francisco Chronicle have filed discrimination complaints with California officials after the unit’s pay equity study found disparities that favored white men over people of color and women. Continue reading “Guild members at San Francisco Chronicle file pay equity complaints”
Feb. 11, 2019 – Demands for accountability for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi have
intensified as the Trump administration declined to release a report on the columnist’s death
by a congressionally mandated deadline.
Bernie Lunzer, president of The NewsGuild-CWA, attended a news conference last week
organized by the Committee to Protect Journalists in Washington, D.C., held on what was
supposed to be the eve of the Trump administration’s report on the assassination of Khashoggi,
an American citizen. Continue reading “NewsGuild joins forces seeking accountability for Khashoggi murder”
By Martha Waggoner, TNG international chair
Organizing will be a main focus of national and local leaders when they gather for the 80th convening of The NewsGuild-CWA.
That’s because TNG saw an unprecedented year of organizing in 2018. We organized more than 20 workplaces in 2018, which means more than 1,400 people, mostly media workers, have or will have the protections of union contracts. Continue reading “TNG sector conference to focus on organizing”
The Buffalo Newspaper Guild has honored one its members with its first Citizens Award for his heroic actions in saving the life of the county sheriff. Continue reading “Buffalo local honors member who saved sheriff’s life”
Nov. 28, 2018 – Workers at the Center for Public Integrity joined the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, Local 32035, this week, after management agreed to voluntarily recognize the union. Established in 1989, the Center is one of the nation’s oldest nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organizations in the country. Its mission is to reveal abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of the public trust by powerful public and private institutions. Continue reading “Workers at Center for Public Integrity Win Voluntary Union Recognition”
By Martha Waggoner, Guild International Chair
It’s a big accomplishment to get a first contract, as four recently organized units within The NewsGuild-CWA have done.
But to get contract language that’s rare, if not unprecedented within TNG, well, that’s cause for even more of a reason for celebration.
The contracts for units at Gatehouse newspapers in Springfield and Rockford in Illinois, and at Lakeland and Sarasota in Florida, include language that protect the beats of female reporters when they return from maternity leave. The language says not only do the women return to work, but they also return to their same beats.
The language came from bargaining at Springfield, where the local’s bargaining team noticed that some women were assigned less prestigious beats when they returned from maternity leave. One reporter had burst into tears in the newsroom when she learned she was pregnant because she had seen a colleague lose her beat after her pregnancy.
Continue reading “4 new TNG contracts include rare maternity leave language”
Nov. 10, 2018 – A small boutique software company got a tough lesson about union-busting on Nov. 9, when it agreed to shell out $775,000 to 15 programmers the logistics company fired after its developers announced plans to form a union. The 15 former employees of Lanetix comprised the firm’s entire non-management programming staff. Continue reading “Software Company Learns a Tough Lesson About Union-Busting; Fired Workers Win Big Back-Pay Settlement”
