S.F. Bay Area MediaNews Group Employees File to Unionize

By: Joe Strupp Nine months after MediaNews Group withdrew recognition of the Newspaper Guild unit at its Alameda Newspaper Group outside San Francisco, employees there and at five sister newspapers have petitioned for a new union vote.

Organizers of the union effort at the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB) papers, which represent nine MediaNews Group dailies in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday for a vote to certify the new combined union.

Sara Steffens, a reporter with the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., said more than half of the 250 newsroom employees at the BANG-EB papers signed guild authorization cards stating they wish to have guild representation. NLRB rules require that 30% of eligible union employees sign such cards before a vote can be held.

"I'm incredibly proud to be part of our newsrooms today," said Steffens, a co-chair of the guild campaign. "It's heartening to see so many of us come together, during these turbulent times in our industry, saying 'We deserve a seat at the table.' Tough decisions need to be made, but we want to be part of building our future."

BANG-EB Publisher John Armstrong said he had not seen anything about the NLRB filing, but added, "if it has been filed and if we have an election, I would hope the employees would do what is best for them and best for the company -- to remain union-free."
He declined to comment further on that statement.

Steffens said those signing guild cards seek representation by the Northern California Media Workers Guild, a local of The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. A separate guild local already represents MediaNews employees at the nearby San Jose Mercury News.

MediaNews in August withdrew recognition of the former Alameda Newspaper Guild, which represented some 130 staffers at the six-paper ANG, including the Oakland Tribune.

The union recognition change followed MediaNews' consolidation of ANG's editorial functions with its neighboring five-paper Contra Costa Newspapers, led by the Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek.

The consolidation of editorial operations from the two groups came one year after MediaNews purchased the Contra Costa papers from McClatchy as part of its takeover of 31 daily and community papers in the area, which also included the Mercury News.

Company officials said at the time that the move was proper because the consolidated editorial unit now includes fewer than 50% guild members. Since the ANG unit, which had been under a guild contract since 1998, had only 130 staffers and the Contra Costa staff, which was union-free, included about 170, the guild unit could be removed because it did not represent a majority of the combined workers.

?The union has to represent a majority of a bargaining unit,? MediaNews general counsel Marshall Anstandig said at the time. ?The issue that gets presented in a consolidated group is that it impacts representation rights."

ANG had been represented by the guild since signing its first contract in 1998, but had been seeking a contract since workers voted in the guild in 1987.

"A strong majority has spoken. We must work together more actively to solve the problems facing our company and our industry," said reporter Karl Fischer, a co-chair of the union organizing committee. "We can help to make our papers both excellent and efficient. We know our managers share those goals."

Steffens expects a response from the NLRB in six to eight weeks. She said if a vote is held, only a simple majority of union-eligible employees would need to approve unionization.