'Wash Post' Facing NLRB Hearing Over Radio Work -- And 'Onion' Ad Sales

By: Joe Strupp Although Washington Post Radio was dropped last month after an unsuccessful 18-month run, the paper is still dealing with the fallout. A Newspaper Guild complaint that newsroom staffers had to perform extra work on the broadcast outlet has sparked a National Labor Relations Board hearing set for next week.

On Tuesday, an administrative law judge will consider the guild complaint that Post employees were required to perform work on the radio station without the additional work being negotiated through the collective bargaining agreement.

In a related complaint involving the humor newspaper, The Onion, the union contends that Post advertising department employees were required to sell ads for The Onion as part of a new agreement between the two papers to share advertising.

Both complaints will be heard in a combined hearing set for Oct. 23.

"They imposed changes to work duties on employees without bargaining and failed to provide information regarding it," said Wayne Gold, a regional NLRB director who reviewed the union's charges and issued the complaints last summer. "It comes down to imposing additional duties without bargaining with the unit."

The complaints seek unspecified back pay and interest related to the additional work.

The Post launched Washington Post Radio in March 2006 on the existing local 820 am and 107.7 fm frequencies. The station included original programming that used Post staffers and other employees. The station format was dropped in September after management determined it was not successful.

Rick Weiss, co-chair of the Post unit of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, said newsroom staffers are not against doing additional work, but only if it is properly negotiated with the union.

"In this era when we in the newsroom are being asked to do more and more and more different kinds of work, it is increasingly important that the management here keep the guild in the loop and, when appropriate, negotiate with the guild over the duties," Weiss said. "This is a case where we were told to get involved in an entirely new medium, radio. We feel the federal labor law is quite clear on this."

Weiss said newsroom workers were not directly ordered to work on the radio. But he said, "they were quite clear to say that our participation in radio would be a factor in raises."

In a statement to E&P, Post officials denied any wrongdoing: "The Guild?s challenges to The Post?s multimedia efforts are without merit. These efforts are fully consistent with The Post?s labor contract with the Guild, which allows The Post to involve employees in multimedia work ? just as we have done for many years."