For activities prior to and surrounding this topic, see Santa Barbara News-Press controversy.
Organized labor relations at the Santa Barbara News-Press were highlighted by a 33–6 vote of editorial department employees at the Santa Barbara, California, newspaper on September 27, 2006, to join the Graphic Communications Conference (GCC) of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In August, 2007, the labor board certified the union as the exclusive bargaining representative of the news department employees.
The tactics of the newsroom staff included a pledge drive encouraging subscribers to cancel the paper if demands were not met by September 5, 2006, as detailed on their website. A branch of the Teamsters has filed many unfair labor practice charges on behalf of the remaining staffers, which have been contested by the News-Press management. On August 31, 2006 eleven of the remaining News-Press newsroom staff received two-day suspension notices from management for allegedly participating in improper union organizing activity; some have claimed, and two NLRB Administrative Law Judges have found, that the activity was protected by labor law, innocuous and consisted only of attempting to deliver a letter to McCaw during a break. The suspended staff were: Al Bonowitz, Melissa Evans, Kim Favors, Dawn Hobbs, Karna Hughes, George Hutti, Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Lara Milton, and Tom Schultz; Mike Traphagen chose to resign earlier than announced rather than accept the suspension. Editor and Publisher, September 6, 2006 Ventura County Star, December 29, 2006 The Sep. 5 deadline set by the employees passed, and the staff through their Teamsters representative Marty Keegan called for subscribers to cancel their subscriptions to the paper.San Jose Mercury News, Sep. 5, 2006San Francisco Chronicle, Sep. 6, 2006 McCaw refused offers from local political leaders, religious leaders, and prominent journalists such as Sander Vanocur and Lou Cannon to help resolve the conflict.Pacific Coast Business Times, Oct. 6, 2006 A vote by newsroom staff on unionizing under the Teamsters took place on September 27, 2006.Editor and Publisher, Sep. 12, 2006 The vote was 33 to 6 in favor of the union.Editor and Publisher, Sep. 27, 2006 Daily Nexus, Sep. 28, 2006 Santa Maria Times, Sep. 28, 2006 Santa Barbara Independent, Sep. 27, 2006
The News-Press first questioned the validity of the election, and then formally contested the validity of the election. On October 30, 2006, the Teamsters filed an unfair-labor-practice charge over the Oct. 27 firing of veteran reporter and labor leader Melinda Burns. On November 13, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided to file a complaint charging the News-Press management with violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The causes for the complaint include the cancellation of Starshine Roshell's column and the two-day suspensions for improper labor organizing activity.Editor and Publisher, Nov. 14, 2006 On December 7, 2006, the NLRB denied News-Press appeals concerning the newsroom staff behavior and vote to unionize.Santa Barbara Independent, Dec. 11, 2006 , Teamsters Press Release On December 11, 2006, the NLRB dismissed one charge brought by the Teamsters against the News-Press, and the Teamsters themselves withdrew three charges., , On December 28, 2006, the NLRB filed a complaint concerning alleged News-Press retribution against employees who supported unionization.,
NLRB hearings
The NLRB hearing to address the complaint by the News-Press concerning the September 27, 2006 election took place in Santa Barbara on Jan. 9–10, 2007. Four specific points were raised by the News-Press: 1) that supervisors were involved in the election; 2) the Save the News-Press Website confused voters into believing the News-Press itself supported unionization; 3) an anonymous threat on blogabarbara intimidated voters into supporting unionization and 4) newsroom staff engaged in threatening behavior. Many of the principals in the News-Press controversy testified during the two-day hearing., , Santa Barbara Independent, Jan. 10, 2007, On March 12, 2007, the NLRB judge issued his decision in favor of the unionization vote on September 27., In that ruling, eventually upheld by the NLRB in Washington, D.C., the ALJ found the key witnesses for the News-Press, Travis Armstrong and Scott Steepleton, to be not credible witnesses, who "prevaricated", "embellished" and "exaggerated" their testimony in an unsuccessful effort to obtain their desired result of thwarting the employees' desire to have union representation.
A second NLRB hearing, focused on the propriety of the News-Press firing of reporter Melinda Burns and other issues, originally scheduled for Mar. 12, 2007 was delayed. On March 13, 2007, the NLRB announced that the News-Press would be prosecuted over the firing of Burns, various other issues, and the firing of seven other reporters and one editor. An NLRB attorney wrote that the General Counsel believed the News-Press had violated labor law in its firings of reporters. A News-Press attorney responded, "We're watching the end of the industry. Journalists think they can write what they want when they want. I don't know if that can survive in this age." Attorneys for the News-Press filed their "exceptions," a form of appeal, to the NLRB judge's rulings in early April, 2007.Santa Barbara Independent, Apr. 6, 2007 The Teamsters filed their response in mid-April, 2007. On August 11, 2011, the NLRB, in a 3–0 decision including two Democratic NLRB members and one Republican, voted to uphold Judge Kocol's decision in its entirety, and ordered the News-Press to reinstate all eight unlawfully fired reporters and pay them backpay, and have a Notice read aloud to the employees in the presence of management, which is, for the NLRB, an extraordinary remedy.NLRB Decision, August 11, 2011
Later actions
A News-Press attorney and accountant entered a meeting between ex-News-Press staff, Teamster officials, and local business people on February 14, 2007. The purpose of the meeting was to encourage advertisers to withhold advertisements from the News-Press. The News-Press attorney accused the ex-News-Press staff of mendacity, was invited to leave by a union representative, and only left when the Teamster representative sarcastically invited him to bargain. The Teamsters have filed a complaint with the NLRB over the incident, asserting that management may not force themselves into labor meetings without an invitation; the News-Press asserts that because the meeting was held in a public building, they were entitled to attend. The Teamsters had paid a fee to use the room where the meeting occurred. The General Counsel of the NLRB prosecuted the News-Press for this among many other violations of federal labor law.
The actions of the News-Press attorney and accountant were added as an unfair labor practice charge by the NLRB against the News-Press in early April, 2007. As of April 9, 2007, the NLRB has decided to bring 19 unfair labor practice charges against the News-Press. A hearing on many of these charges is scheduled for August 14, 2007 in Santa Barbara.; ; In June, 2007, the NLRB announced that two charges against the News-Press, concerning statements made by their attorney and a restatement of their conflict-of-interest policy, had been dropped,Santa Barbara News-Press, June 9, 2007, Page A4. and that they would not require the immediate reinstatement of fired reporters to their jobs.
The unfair labor practice hearing lasted 17 days in August and September, 2007, and in December, 2007, the ALJ ruled in favor of the General Counsel and against the News-Press on each of the charges brought against the newspaper, including nine discharges, the cancellation of Starshine Roshell's column, discriminatory evaluations of four reporters, interrogation, surveillance and a demand that employees remove "McCaw, Obey the Law" signs from their cars and buttons from their clothing. The ALJ again found both Steepleton—who claimed responsibility for all 9 firings held to be unlawful—and Armstrong to be not credible witnesses. The ALJ also found McCaw's testimony not credible. The News-Press maintained throughout the administrative hearing that the union campaign had nothing to do with working conditions but was rather an attempt by a few disgruntled reporters to wrest editorial control of the paper from its management; that the actions of the paper and its owner were wholly within the law; and that the reporters' actions violated the First Amendment freedom of the press. The ALJ rejected all of those contentions. The News-Press did not invoke its First Amendment rights in firing any of the nine people who the ALJ found to have been unlawfully terminated. The News-Press filed exceptions to the ALJ's ruling, which is pending before the NLRB in Washington.
In May 2008, a Federal district court denied injunctive relief sought by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles, who had asked for the reinstatement of eight reporters who had been discharged. The court ruled that the newspaper's First Amendment rights to control content were threatened by the reporters' unionization campaign and thus were sufficient to immunize the otherwise possibly unlawful retaliatory firings.
On May 22, 2008, Federal Judge Stephen Wilson issued an Order which the newspaper has claimed vindicates the News-Press. The court refused to issue an injunction that would have provided for immediate enforcement of the ALJ's ruling against the News-Press, criticizing some of its reasoning as "clearly erroneous." (The ruling does not affect the NLRB's consideration of the ALJ's decision) The Judge found that a theme of the union campaign was to influence editorial control of the paper, and that the ALJ's recommended ruling posed a significant risk of violating the First Amendment rights of the paper. It was the court's unprecedented view that the First Amendment may license the newspaper's management to violate the NLRA in these circumstances. The NLRB has appealed that ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 2008, the Teamsters began a campaign to handbill local business owners who advertise in the News-Press. The News-Press filed charges alleging an illegal secondary boycott and acts of intimidation and coercion against local business owners, which the General Counsel referred to the NLRB's Office of Advice for consideration, and after lengthy deliberation, has now dismissed.Santa Barbara News-Press, August 26, 2008, p. A10, "Teamsters' actions hurt local workers"; Santa Barbara News-Press, August 27, 2008, p. A1, "Targets of union boycott fight back"; September 11, 2008, p. A6, "Police called to scene of Teamsters action against News-Press advertiser" The General Counsel's office in Washington, D.C. has rejected the News-Press' appeal of that dismissal. The only allegation of violence occurred when a Teamster representative was struck by an enraged customer who did not agree with the Teamsters' activities. The United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court have upheld handbilling of customers of businesses that do business with the employer involved in a labor dispute, citing constitutional concerns if such activity were to be regulated or restricted.
The News-Press has filed over 20 unfair labor practice charges against the union, all of which have been dismissed. Bargaining between the union and the News-Press began in November, 2007. The General Counsel of the NLRB has concluded after investigation that the News-Press has bargained in bad faith in violation of federal labor law, and announced in July, 2008 that he will prosecute the News-Press for that refusal to bargain in good faith.