In a complaint filed on Tuesday, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board announced the newspaper faces prosecution for allegedly bargaining in bad faith, hiring temporary employees and discontinuing annual raises, among other charges.
Union attorneys allege the newspaper hired temporary employees to siphon power from the union and perform work that would normally be done by union members.
“With the curtain finally raised, exposing this longstanding cynical maneuver by the News-Press, perhaps the newspaper will decide it must obey the law,” union attorney Ira Gottlieb said in a news release. “We hope that management will treat all employees who work in the newsroom fairly and equitably, and will no longer use this artifice to decimate the union-represented group for obvious and illegal anti-union reasons.”
A request for comment from News-Press attorney Barry Cappello was not returned yesterday afternoon.
Gottlieb said the newspaper refused to bargain over the terms and conditions of temporary employees and paid them less than union members — despite keeping some on staff for up to 16 months.
In addition to the aforementioned charges, the newspaper will be prosecuted for firing an alleged temporary employee, assigning a non-union employee to performing bargaining unit work as an investigative reporter, and discontinuing annual employee evaluations.
Federal labor attorneys are still considering the union’s charge that the newspaper violated labor law by suspending and firing Dennis Moran, a reporter and copy editor, without bargaining, Gottlieb said.
Several charges, including those involving temporary employees and annual raises, could result in compensation for union members if successful, he said.
Union attorneys are asking that the newspaper restore work to the unionized newsroom employees and pay annual raises with interest, among other remedies.
The newspaper has been embroiled in a labor dispute since July 2006, when a group of top editors and writers quit over what they viewed as inappropriate influence in the newsroom by News-Press owner and co-publisher Wendy McCaw.
An administrative law judge found the paper guilty of 15 labor law violations following a lengthy hearing late last year. That decision has been appealed and is awaiting a ruling by the full National Labor Relations Board.
Union officials have said that appeal likely won’t be settled until president-elect Barack Obama appoints a new member to the three-seat board, which currently has two members.
However, in response to lengthy litigation, union attorneys sought a temporary injunction to reinstate eight reporters fired by the newspaper. A district judge ruled against that injunction earlier this year, a decision that has been appealed by union officials.
The latest round of unfair labor practice charges against the News-Press will be heard during a hearing tentatively scheduled for Feb. 23, 2009. The hearing will take place before an administrative law judge in the same courtroom as the previous hearing — the Bankruptcy Court Building at 1415 State St.