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Free Speech a Casualty at York, Pa., Newspaper
In its union-busting war waged against members of its TNG-CWA local, executives at the York Daily Record in Pennsylvania have taken aim at the one thing that should be sacred in the media business: freedom of speech.
Management this week shut down discussion threads on its online message board that were started by community members concerned about the paper's vigorous anti-union campaign. Further, it has electronically barred the participants from any of the board's many other online discussions.
The paper has also refused to publish any of what the Guild believes to be at least 50 letters to editor submitted in support of Local 38218. And when contract negotiations began last summer, among management's demands was an "anti-disparagement" clause to bar workers from speaking out about the paper among themselves or to anyone else.
"We're in the business of free speech," reporter and negotiating team member Lauri Lebo said. "They tried to restrict our speech and now they're restricting the public's speech and I find that terribly frightening."
The local represents 55 workers in the Daily Record's newsroom. Their last contract expired Sept. 30, at which point the company had already hired the notorious union-busting law firm King & Ballow.
Lebo said union negotiators have barely addressed core issues of wages and benefits as the company has tied them up with demands for harsh management rights provisions, subcontracting and work hour issues that would avoid overtime and give employees no say over their schedules. The demands are so extreme that Lebo said a reporter could wind up working 15 hours one day and be told to come in for one hour the next.
Management this week shut down discussion threads on its online message board that were started by community members concerned about the paper's vigorous anti-union campaign. Further, it has electronically barred the participants from any of the board's many other online discussions.
The paper has also refused to publish any of what the Guild believes to be at least 50 letters to editor submitted in support of Local 38218. And when contract negotiations began last summer, among management's demands was an "anti-disparagement" clause to bar workers from speaking out about the paper among themselves or to anyone else.
"We're in the business of free speech," reporter and negotiating team member Lauri Lebo said. "They tried to restrict our speech and now they're restricting the public's speech and I find that terribly frightening."
The local represents 55 workers in the Daily Record's newsroom. Their last contract expired Sept. 30, at which point the company had already hired the notorious union-busting law firm King & Ballow.
Lebo said union negotiators have barely addressed core issues of wages and benefits as the company has tied them up with demands for harsh management rights provisions, subcontracting and work hour issues that would avoid overtime and give employees no say over their schedules. The demands are so extreme that Lebo said a reporter could wind up working 15 hours one day and be told to come in for one hour the next.