'WASHINGTON BLADE' SETS UNION VOTE

By: Mark Fitzgerald Owners Dispute Remarks By Dissident Investors


By agreeing that two employees were not managers, the new owners
of The Washington Blade last week cleared the way for a
July 20 union-representation vote at the gay-oriented weekly.

For its part, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Local 32035
withdrew its unfair-labor-practice complaint alleging that
William Waybourn, co-founder of the paper's parent, Window Media
LLC, had threatened to fire the two employees.

"This is an important victory for Blade employees," Guild
staff representative Calvin G. Zon said.

"We're happy the date is set because we know it gives adequate
time for staffers to examine all sides of the story on how
unionization will affect our paper's environment," said Chris
Crain, the other Window Media founder and the Blade's
executive editor.

While the rhetoric over union representation was cooling, Window
Media management went on a counterattack against a group of four
dissident investors who have used the labor issue to draw
attention to their dispute with the company, the first to
assemble a chain of gay and lesbian newspapers with anything
approaching a national reach.

Crain said allegations made by Pensacola, Fla., software engineer
Gary Little that dissident investors had never received a proper
accounting of their investment were "absolutely outrageous." The
group has always received "enough documents to fairly and
accurately reflect" the company's financial state, Crain said,
adding, "Basically, they asked to see a broad array of documents
as if they were conducting an audit."

Crain also said Little, in an interview with E&P, had
exaggerated the group's holdings, which he said amounted to
approximately 5%, not the 10% Little estimated. Little did not
return a phone message for comment.



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



Related story:
UNION EFFORT UNDER WAY AT 'WASHINGTON BLADE' (06/19/01)



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