NLRB Sees through El Vocero's Union-Busting Bankruptcy Scheme

Like many other U.S. corporations, the owners of El Vocero newspaper in Puerto Rico were using bankruptcy to try to shed its obligations, including to its union employees. But the National Labor Relations Board has slammed on the brakes.

NLRB Regional Director Margaret Diaz agreed with UPAGRA, the NewsGuild's local in Puerto Rico, that El Vocero's 2013 bankruptcy and asset sale didn't create a new company. It simply reorganized the old one. Diaz ordered El Vocero management to appear at a Jan. 26 hearing in San Juan, unless the company offers UPAGRA an acceptable deal before then.

Members of UPAGRA, TNG-CWA Local 33225, protest the lack of good-faith bargaining by their employer.

"This is a huge victory for our members at El Vocero and should send a message to every CEO thinking about abusing the bankruptcy process," TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said. "Corporations have been gaming the system for far too long, with workers paying the price for it. Now we've got an NLRB complaint that says, 'Enough!'"

Under previous ownership, El Vocero laid off more than 100 circulation employees in 2009. In late 2011, the NLRB ordered the workers to be rehired and compensated. The company dragged its feet, then declared bankruptcy. Ever since the bankruptcy and supposed "sale," the company has been refusing to bargain collectively, and in good faith," the complaint states.

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