Journal Newspapers Settles With Guild

By: Lucia Moses Alexandria, Va.-based Journal Newspapers, while admitting no wrongdoing, agreed to pay $71,500 in lost pay and benefits to eight former reporters and editorial assistants who were fired in December, 10 days before they were scheduled to vote on whether to unionize, the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild announced Monday.

Journal Newspapers reached the pretrial settlement with the Guild, which had filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board following the cutbacks. Journal Newspapers, which publishes three suburban Washington, D.C., dailies, had scaled back its Prince George and Montgomery offices and fired most of those papers' news staffs. The union had accused the company of trying to disrupt the vote, while the company maintained it was acting to offset weak ad revenue.

The sum represents the compensation the eight Guild-eligible staffers would have received if they had been working at the company since their December termination date. Journal Newspapers also agreed to post and mail to employees notices stating it would not interfere with their right to unionize, the Guild said.