News

Workers eager for a union at the San Francisco Bay Area's largest newspaper chain will cast ballots June 13 under an agreement reached with MediaNews Group management.

The Newspaper Guild-CWA celebrated the best in journalism Wednesday night at the annual Freedom Fund Award banquet, whose honorees included a BBC journalist who was held hostage in the Gaza Strip for four months and Washington Post reporters who exposed abusive conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center.

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara J. Easterling was honored recently by two major organizations for her support for community organizations and causes.

So far, 327 CWA locals representing 350,000 members have signed on to recruit at least 15 percent of their members to sign cards and add their photos as part of the Million Member Mobilization to restore workers' rights in America.

CWA and its media sectors are cheering the U.S. Senate for dealing a bipartisan blow to Big Media last week, voting unanimously to reverse a 2007 FCC decision that lets one owner control both a newspaper and TV stations in the same market.