Media: Decertification of Workers’ Union Uncertain
Because of recent federal court decisions, the pressroom workers’ union at the San Diego Union-Tribune is unlikely to be decertified in the immediate future.
This comes after two federal judges in San Francisco, Michael D. Stevenson and Jay R. Pollack, handed down decisions in late July.
The decisions involved 29 complaints from the pressroom workers’ union, formally known as Graphic Communications Union Local 432M.
The complaints alleged the Union-Tribune Publishing Co., owned by La Jolla-based The Copley Press Inc., had violated the National Labor Relations Act.
In 19 of the complaints, the Union-Tribune was not found to have violated labor laws.
However, the judges ruled the company did violate the law in the remaining 10 complaints.
Among the violations, the judges ruled, were: threatening a press room employee with being fired and false accusations of misconduct; not giving an employee union representation when the employee believed he would be disciplined and had requested representation; and making changes in their employment-related terms and conditions that should have been negotiated with the union.
The court also found the Union-Tribune violated labor laws when it suspended Jeffrey Alger, the union’s secretary-treasurer, in January, and when it removed union president Jack Finneran from a maintenance crew project. Other disciplinary actions against Alger were found to be violations.
However, the Union-Tribune was found to not have violated the law in six of Alger’s seven suspensions.
Other dismissed complaints, all of which were alleged by the union to be “unlawful,” included: the interrogation of an employee by a supervisor; the implementation of rules prohibiting pressroom employees from entering another department’s breakroom; assigning employees to a training session on new equipment without adhering to a pre-set priority system; and other situations in which an employee requested union representation.
The newspaper commented on the decisions by issuing prepared statements through its public relations agency.
The statements pointed out that the majority of the claims were dismissed and that many of the violations were for technical issues or “concerned incidents that now have little consequence.”
On the other side, the pressroom workers’ union is declaring the court decisions somewhat of a victory.
“It’s clear from these decisions that it’s not just the employees’ imagination that the company is doing things wrong,” said Richard Prochazka, a local attorney who is representing the group.
It’s the first time that this many decisions have been handed down against the Union-Tribune, Prochazka said.
He expects the pressroom workers’ union will appeal some of the claims they lost.
In addition, the newspaper has already asked for an extension of the time in which claims they lost can be appealed, he said.
As of press time, the paper’s representatives had not commented on their plans to appeal.
The appeals, plus some requirements the Union-Tribune has had to comply with because of its violations, will push back any opportunity to decertify the press workers’ union , possibly for several years, Prochazka said.
The National Labor Relations Board will not conduct a vote about discontinuing a union in what could be considered a tainted environment, he said.
Any work environment in which an employer is found to have violated labor laws would not be a fair situation in which to hold any such election, he said.
Also, Prochazka said, another group of complaints from his clients will likely be heading to trial early next year.
“We’ll start the process with another batch, which would have the same effect of delaying it even further,” he said.
The local union’s charges have already been investigated and authorized by NLRB, and consolidated into a single complaint, he said.
For the most part, the complaints accuse the paper of discriminating against employees for union activities, Prochazka said.
