Over a year ago, the National Labor Relations Board ruled the publisher fired News-Press Teamster journalists because of their union activity. The NLRB ordered the News-Press to offer eight employees their jobs back, rescind poor evaluations of four union supporters and revoke suspension notices for 11 others. The publisher was also ordered to give back pay to all the employees it had harmed.
That didn't stop union busting at the News-Press. And once again, the News-Press publisher -- Ampersand Publishing, LLC -- didn't get away with it.
The NLRB on Sept. 27 found that the publisher did all of these things:
- Submitted contract proposals that would have let the employer unilaterally set wages, discipline employees and hire and fire employees;
- Unlawfully fired and suspended an employee for union and concerted activities;
- Laid off an employee without telling the union or giving it an opportunity to bargain;
- Transferred bargaining unit work to non-union freelance journalists, and
- Offered employees the services of its attorneys if contacted by an NLRB agent investigating unfair labor practice charges.
George Tedeschi, president of the Teamsters Graphic Communications Conference, said in a statement,
This development is one more positive step towards rectifying the unfair treatment that reporters and other staffers received from News-Press management when they first organized their unit several years ago.No justice, no peace.
