UNION EFFORT UNDER WAY AT 'WASHINGTON BLADE'

By: Mark Fitzgerald As Gay Newspaper Chain's Investors Complain


CHICAGO -- A newsroom union-organizing drive that surfaced just
days after Window Media LLC completed its purchase of The
Washington Blade is now drawing attention to another
nettlesome problem for the company as it assembles the first
chain of gay and lesbian newspapers in the United States.

Four dissident investors who say they collectively hold a stake
of about 10% in the Atlanta-based Window Media -- and who sued
last year to get financial information from the company --
inserted themselves into the Blade organizing dispute last
week with a "Dear William" letter to Window Media President
William Waybourn demanding that the company treat its pro-union
employees "fairly."

"Given our prior experience with the Window Media management and
their evident disregard for input from the investors, we feel the
need to express our concern," stated the letter from investors
Michael Aycock, Barry Baker, and Joe Porter, all of Atlanta, and
Gary Little, a software developer in Pensacola, Fla.

Little told E&P in a telephone interview that the
dissident investors are not taking a position on the Washington-
Baltimore Newspaper Guild Local 32035 organizing campaign at
The Washington Blade. "But the thing that's disturbing is
[that the union campaign] indicates a pattern we've seen before,"
Little said. "Something is dramatically wrong at Window."

The investors, who came on board in 1997 as Waybourn and co-
founder Chris Crain began expanding the reach of their Atlanta-
based Southern Voice weekly, "have never received a real
balance sheet" from Window Media, Little said. The investors and
Window Media management swapped and then withdrew lawsuits over
the issue in Georgia state court last year.

Crain did not return phone calls about the investor's letter, but
earlier in the week he said he was "disappointed" and surprised
by the union organizing effort. "They have never to this day told
us what problems they have with us," Crain said.

"There isn't anything the new people did or brought in that was
shocking or horrible," said Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro, a
leader of the organizing drive. "We just want a level playing
field. We will not do anything to hurt [Window Media's] growth."

The organizing drive is off to a contentious start, though: The
Guild has filed an unfair-labor-practice charge alleging Waybourn
threatened to fire two pro-union employees. The union also
publicized the dispute at last week's annual "Capital Pride" gay
festival, circulating petitions and distributing stickers
proclaiming, "I support the Blade workers."



Mark Fitzgerald (mfitzgerald@editorandpublisher.com) is editor at large for E&P.



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.