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Monday, April 02, 2007

Burns Covers NP for LA Times

I couldn't find the link on the LA Times website but here is the article former News-Press reporter melinda Burns wrote for the LA Times....sorry for the length but it is an interesting read.....
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Unionizing to save the Santa Barbara News-Press
How the proposed Employee Free Choice Act could have rescued the newsroom from its owner.

By Melinda Burns, MELINDA BURNS was a regional reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press. She and her fired colleagues plan to launch a local news site, SantaBarbaraNewsroom.com, today. April 2, 2007

Santa Barbara — At the Santa Barbara News-Press, where the newsroom has unraveled under attack from a wealthy owner, a law like the proposed Employee Free Choice Act could have made all the difference.

Reporters, copy editors and photographers voted 33 to 6 in September to join the Graphic Communications Conference, a union that is an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. But six months later, contract negotiations have yet to begin. Wendy P. McCaw, the News-Press' owner and co-publisher, filed a challenge to the union vote with the National Labor Relations Board and then fired eight reporters — all union activists, including me, a senior writer with 21 years at the paper.

The conflict began last summer when six top editors, a columnist and a reporter resigned to protest McCaw's interference in news coverage. A raft of other journalists, most of them union supporters, have quit since then. Now, because of the union-related firings, those left in the newsroom won't join our protests for fear of losing their jobs.

It's illegal in this country to fire workers for participating in a union campaign, but an employer can delay justice for years by filing legal challenges. The Employee Free Choice Act cuts out this tactic by streamlining the process of unionizing. From bitter experience, we'd advise every worker in America to demand a "yes" vote on the bill from Congress. Think of it as an insurance policy against a really bad boss.

The Employee Free Choice Act has been approved by the House but faces an uncertain fate in the Senate. It would certify a union as soon as the majority of employees in a bargaining unit signed union cards. Negotiations for the first contract would begin within 10 days. After four months, if the parties were unable to reach an agreement, an arbitrator would intervene.

Contrast that speedy timetable with the excruciating waiting game at the News-Press. Believing that a union contract was the best way to protect our jobs and restore integrity to the paper, most journalists signed cards to join the Teamsters in July. We asked McCaw to recognize our union based on those cards, a step encouraged by the labor relations board, but she refused. So we conducted an election campaign, overcoming an onslaught of propaganda from hired union-busters, and won.

But then McCaw challenged the validity of the vote, claiming without evidence that some of our editors had coerced us into voting for the Teamsters. A judge finally upheld the union victory — but not until early March.

So the union won. But what does winning mean if many of your supporters quit before negotiations even start? Or if you still don't have your job back after months and months? In all, 40 people have left the newsroom since early July. The News-Press has only three news reporters today, down from 15 in June.

I was escorted out of the building in late October, a month after the union vote. I had been hired in 1985 by the New York Times Co., the previous News-Press owner. My colleague John Zant, a senior sportswriter, was fired two months ago by McCaw after 38 years at the paper.

The National Labor Relations Board's general counsel has announced it will prosecute the News-Press for firing us and six others. We will be represented by federal lawyers at a hearing this spring. But when will we get our jobs back, with back pay? Next year?

Under the Bush administration, the labor relations board has rarely sought injunctions ordering employers to immediately reinstate workers who were fired for organizing. The Employee Free Choice Act would require the board to do so. And it would assess fines of up to $20,000 every time a company violated a worker's rights during a campaign to start a union or negotiate an initial contract.

Those of us who were fired don't know how long we can hold out in Santa Barbara, one of the most expensive cities in America. I'm putting my house up for rent. Others are borrowing money to pay their bills. You can lose a lot of sleep when you lose your job, and we're a pretty exhausted bunch. That's what McCaw is counting on.

McCaw, a multimillionaire, has hired seven law firms and a public relations firm to defeat our union drive. Our legal costs, well into six figures, are coming out of the union dues of Teamster truck drivers, warehouse employees, construction workers and pressmen.

We've told our colleagues inside the newsroom that it's OK not to join our picket lines in front of the News-Press. The union can't afford to lose another person to the black hole of litigation. This is a fight for the soul of our newspaper. We just wish the law could have saved us from the worst of it.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The link to the Cabalista L.A. Times also contains this free plug for the newest newspaper in town --SantaBarbaraNewsroom.com.


"By Melinda Burns, MELINDA BURNS was a regional reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press. She and her fired colleagues plan to launch a local news site, SantaBarbaraNewsroom.com, today.
April 2, 2007"

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-burns2apr02,0,6039691.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

It's doubtful that Sam Zell, who is buying the Tribune Company (parent of the L.A. Times), will be coming up the coast to take newspapering lessons from Wendy McCaw and her hunk the Nipper.

4/02/2007 9:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How are these sbnewsroom employees going to afford continuation of the well-designed site? Sounds like they are all hurting for money. As I said previously, a pissing war between Craig Smith (craigsmithsblog.com) and Santa Barbara's Blog (www.santabarbarasblog.com) doesn't cut it for me on the news front. I'd hate to go against Wendy, and her deep pockets in court.

4/02/2007 9:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Janice,

In court, where the playing field can be levelled by such devices as anti-SLAPP motions, discovery that can't be avoided and testimony under oath (a convention that Armstrong and Steepleton have demonstrably failed to master), Wendy is not on home turf. She can send her lawyers out to bluster and intimidate with threat letters, but once actually in the litigation, she has not fared well. NLRB Judge Schmidt totally ridiculed her positions, her lawyers and her witnesses, in the Parker arbitration former Cal Supreme Court Justice Eagleson (now retired and an arbitrator) called Wendy herself a liar (with somewhat less direct words, but not much), and she is going to get a further ass-whipping before the Orange County Superior Court, and the NLRB again, pretty soon. And with some of those losses she will have to pay the other side's lawyers, and before the NLRB, she will eventually have to pay her once and future employees. So, as unpleasant as litigating with Wendy may be, her positions are so untenable that if one has the fortitude, all's well that ends well.

4/03/2007 1:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

NP needs editors.

Website has headline:
6-year-old Santa Barbara woman lucky to have escaped serious injury

article says: Everything was normal until the 26-year-old got about two miles past the Lake Cachuma entrance.

PDF of front page says 36-year-old
Santa Barbara
woman lucky to
have escaped
serious injury

4/03/2007 8:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just received a postcard from the NewsPress (for the previous owner of my business)...

"We're Sorry to see you go.

We noticed that your subscription has recently stopped and we miss you. You are very important to us and we hope that you will give us another try.

The SB News-Press keeps you informed and up-to-date on all that is going on in our unique community. We want to remain your main source for Central Coast news and information.

Because we value you as a customer, we have created a special VIP comeback offer just for you. Please call our customer service department WITHIN THIRTY DAYS to redeem:

805-966-7171
toll free 800-654-3292
Your VIP Code: XXXXXXXXXX
We hope to hear from you soon."

Why would I with all the free news outlets online? Why would I kill a tree a week to get day old news? Give me a break.. save the postage... save the newspress.

4/03/2007 11:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For anonymous former subscriber receiving junk mail (comment 4/03 at 11:24):

Only "day old news" is a good day for them. Sometimes it is weeks-old news, if ever news at all there.

4/03/2007 5:30 PM  

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