East Bay Area MediaNews Workers Seek Guild Representation

Journalists leading a Newspaper Guild-CWA organizing drive at the Bay Area's largest newspaper chain have collected a "strong majority" of signed cards from would-be members and are petitioning the National Labor Relations Board for a union election.

The journalists, who work for six newspapers operated by the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB), want to join the Northern California Media Workers Guild-CWA.

"I'm incredibly proud to be part of our newsrooms today," said Contra Costa Times reporter and campaign co-chair Sara Steffens after the organizing committee submitted the NLRB paperwork May 2. "It's heartening to see so many of us come together, during these turbulent times in our industry, saying 'We deserve a seat at the table.' Tough decisions need to be made, but we want to be part of building our future."

About 250 Guild-eligible employees work at the chain's publications, which include nearly every daily newspaper that circulates in the San Francisco Bay Area. The chain is owned by Denver–based MediaNews Group, which last summer merged newsroom operations at the Oakland Tribune and four smaller newspapers with the non-union Contra Costa Times.

Following the merger, which put Guild membership overall in the new entity at less than half, MediaNews withdrew recognition of the Guild units at the five papers, dissolving a 20-year bargaining unit. Rather than play defense, the Guild treated the merger as a new opportunity to organize the Contra Costa paper.

Since then workers across the newly consolidated East Bay chain have formed a new union, dubbing their campaign "One Big BANG: One Guild Universe."

Despite a majority of its newsroom workers having signed union cards, East Bay management has told the Guild it won't recognize the bargaining unit based on a card-check count. As a result, an NLRB election is likely to be held this summer.

The union has taken a positive tone in dealing with company management and is urging executives to see the organizing drive as a win-win situation.

"Our reason for joining the Guild is not about how you run BANG. It's about how the world is changing around us," the organizing committee said in a letter to the publisher. "We all know that the industry is shifting quickly and dramatically, and at the moment it's not a particularly hospitable place for journalists. We strongly believe that journalists facing such conditions must become more active participants in shaping their publications, and above all they must stand together."

More details about the campaign are online at: http://onebigbang.org.