Union-Tribune local airs boycott ad

By: Joe Strupp Pressroom workers press case in court of public opinion By Joe Strupp

A long-running battle between San Diego Union-Tribune pressroom employees ? who have been without a new contract or raises since 1992 ? and a management accused of driving out three other unions in five years has grown heated recently as union leaders launched a new TV campaign promoting a newspaper boycott and federal officials prepared to hear allegations of anti-union actions by newspaper supervisors.
The latest round of sparring between the paper and Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) Local 432-M, representing 120 pressroom workers, caps more than seven years of bickering, with no end in sight.
?We have never been able to make progress on key issues,? said Gene Bell, CEO of the Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
The union?s latest tactic has been a boycott of the 381,000-daily-circulation paper that leaders began publicizing about three weeks ago with a TV commercial. Local 432-M President Jack Finneran said the 60-second spot has cost the union about $20,000 to produce and run on local cable.
The spot uses union members and their families to urge a boycott and pressure for a new contract and raises. ?We believe we can reach a lot of people,? Finneran said.
He claimed the boycott caused a circulation drop for the Union-Tribune, which suffered a reduction of about 2,000 in Sunday circulation over the past 12 months. But CEO Bell contended that the slide is due to an overall decline in Sunday readership at most large dailies.
GCIU members also implemented an on-the-job protest known as ?Black T-shirt Fridays,? which has them sport T-shirts proclaiming, ?Something Stinks at the Union-Tribune.?
The TV blitz and other union activities come shortly before an administrative law judge reviews 17 complaints of unfair labor practices filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by Local 432-M. A Feb. 28 hearing will determine if any of the allegations ? ranging from on-the-job threats against union activists to the improper hiring of apprentices ? are valid.
?We continue to have more charges filed, and they are all being investigated,? said Steven Sorensen, resident officer of the NLRB?s San Diego office. ?The paper could be given a cease-and-desist order and be ordered to provide back pay where appropriate.?
Jeffrey Alger, a 12-year employee, claimed he?d been suspended 10 times in 1999 because of his pro-GCIU activities. ?They are trying to intimidate me and scare me,? said Alger, who appeared in the union?s TV commercial. Union-Tribune Human Resources Director Bobbie Espinosa would not confirm or deny that Alger had been suspended, saying such personnel information was confidential.
The fight between GCIU and newspaper executives reached a stalemate last March when the newspaper declared a negotiations impasse and unilaterally implemented new working conditions. Among the new rules was a policy to pay overtime only after a 35-hour week.
Since 1994, members of three other Union-Tribune bargaining units have voted to decertify, leaving only Local 432-M and Teamsters Local 542, which represents about 50 truck drivers. That means only 170 out of the newspaper?s 1,700 employees are unionized. The decertification wave began in 1994 when a 60-member unit of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) that represented composing-room employees voted to terminate CWA?s representation. Three years later, 230 packaging employees, also represented by CWA, voted to decertify.
The biggest labor hit came last year when The Newspaper Guild?s local chapter lost a close 406-378 vote that ended more than 60 years of guild representation.

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(copyright: Editor & Publisher December 18, 1999) [Caption]