NLRB Dismisses Santa Barbara Paper's Claim Against Union

By: Joe Strupp The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed an unfair labor charge filed by the Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press against its newsroom union, which had claimed the union's boycott of the paper represented an improper action.

In a letter to attorneys representing the newspaper, NLRB Regional Director James J. McDermott stated: "the evidence failed to establish that the union engaged in bad-faith bargaining at the table," and later added, "the union's advertiser boycott and related hand-billing did not violate" the National Labor Relations Act.

The letter was sent to the law firm of Cappello & Noel, which represents the paper and did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The News-Press has been at odds with the Graphics Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters since it was voted in by newsroom employees in 2006. That vote occurred just months after a group of editors, led by former Editor Jerry Roberts, quit in protest of what they alleged were interfering tactics by the paper's owner, Wendy McCaw.

Since then, dozens of employees have either been fired or quit, while both the union and the newspaper have filed various unfair labor claims against each other.

"The union has been engaging in lawful peaceful boycott activity consisting of handbilling, advertising and contacting advertisers and customers of the News-Press, asking that they refrain from doing business with the newspaper until it ceases bargaining in bad faith and reaches a fair employment agreement with the Union that represents its newsroom employees," the union said in a statement about the dismissal. "As has been proven to be a typical reaction by the paper's management, in reaction to the Union's lawful boycott, the News-Press filed spurious charges against the Union including wild and baseless allegations of picketing and unlawful threats (which never occurred)."

Marty Keegan, lead organizer for the Union and a participant in the boycott, added: "The Union was gratified to learn of the full vindication of the wholesale dismissals. It is unfortunate when a newspaper that is supposed to be in the business of searching for truth is willing to engage in a blatant smear campaign that only succeeds in diminishing itself."