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Guild Election Set for June for Bay Area Newspaper Workers

 
San Francisco Bay Area staffers working for MediaNews-owned papers chat after a Northern California Newspaper Guild mobilizers meeting at CWA offices. Workers will vote on TNG-CWA representation on June 13. (Photo by D. Ross Cameron)

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.

Earlier this month, a solid majority of 250 eligible workers at Bay Area papers in six communities signed cards seeking representation by TNG-CWA's Northern California Media Guild. Management refused to recognize the card-check vote but agreed to an election date after the union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board.

"So many of us have been working for months to get to this moment," said reporter and organizing campaign co-chair Sara Steffens. "We're eager for the opportunity to have a union that works productively with management like our colleagues at The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and news outlets across the Bay Area and across the country. We have a lot of practical, solution-oriented contributions to make during this challenging time for our profession."

The would-be Guild members have put on an energetic and positive campaign dubbed "One Big BANG: One Guild Universe," which is online at www.onebigbang.org. Their newspapers are operated by the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB), owned by Denver-based MediaNews.

Last summer, MediaNews merged newsroom operations at the Oakland Tribune and four smaller newspapers with the non-union Contra Costa Times. As a result, overall Guild membership in the new entity stood at less than half, which allowed MediaNews to withdraw recognition of the Guild units at the five unionized papers, dissolving a 20-year bargaining relationship.

The Guild saw an opportunity of its own, and began to organize the Contra Costa paper and re-organize the other papers. Throughout, they have tried to maintain a positive relationship with MediaNews.

"We're looking forward to continuing the productive working dynamic with management that allowed us to quickly nail down this election date and related issues," said another reporter and campaign co-chair,  Michael Manekin. "We're focused on working together to ensure our papers and Web sites are as efficient and high-quality as possible."