Newspaper Workers Win Multi-Million-Dollar Judgment from Chinese Daily News for Wage and Hour Violat

For More Information: Jeff Miller or Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, jmiller@cwa-union.org and cjohnson@cwa-union.org

Los Angeles -- Workers at the Chinese Daily News in Monterey Park, Calif., won a big victory as a federal jury awarded them a multi-million dollar judgment for the newspaper's willful violations of federal and state wage and hour laws.

The jury verdict in the class action lawsuit found that the Chinese Daily News violated California provisions on overtime pay and meal and rest periods, as well as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The jury award – a minimum of $2.5 million – will result in a multi-million dollar award to the newspaper workers, with the final amount depending on damages assessed by the court because the violations were found to be willful, along with additional damages for the state violations.   

Employees at the Chinese Daily News have been fighting for fairness and a union voice since 2001 but had been blocked by a long management campaign of intimidation, illegal firings and other fear tactics. During this long process of delay and denial of workers' rights, the Chinese Daily News employees remained determined to win workplace justice and filed wage and hour lawsuits which were certified as in a class action last year.

TNG-CWA Local 39521 worked with the Chinese Daily News workers from the beginning, helping them build their organization and take on a vicious anti-union management determined to fight them at every turn. "This decision brings some justice for workers who have been intimidated and abused by management just because they wanted to exercise their workplace rights," said Doug Cuthbertson, executive officer of the local.

TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said the fact that the jury recognized the unfair treatment and shoddy behavior of the Chinese Daily News management was a sweet victory for workers after years of taking their charges and complaints to the National Labor Relations Board and getting no redress, despite findings of illegal actions by their employer.  

"Management had too many years to harass and intimidate workers who should have long ago had their union," Foley said. "This is a key example of why our labor election system is broken and why we need to make company neutrality and card-check recognition the law of the land through the Employee Free Choice Act."