NLRB Settlement a Sweeping Win for York Guild

Bylines have returned to York, Pennsylvania's, newspapers, workers can wear union shirts and buttons again and the company has sworn to bargain in good faith from now on under a sweeping agreement settling a long list of National Labor Relations Board charges against MediaNews Group.

The settlement averted a trial scheduled for Oct. 31 on two NLRB complaints that consolidated the many charges filed by The Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 38218. The Guild, which represents about 55 workers at the York Daily Record and another nine at the York Sunday News, has been fighting for a fair contract for more than a year. Their last contract expired Sept. 30, 2005.

Wayne Gold, the NLRB regional director handling the case, told the Daily Record in its own story covering the settlement that, "The union got everything they would have gotten if they would have won in a trial."

Tactics employed by Denver-based MediaNews and its anti-union lawyers included withholding bylines and photo credits of union members to try to force them to accept the company's terms. Management also barred workers from wearing or displaying any union insignias and declared that employees couldn't talk about the union at work.

Under the settlement, the company didn't admit guilt but agreed to change its behavior with regard to every charge filed. For instance, MediaNews said it "will not refuse to bargain in good faith," "will not fail to arbitrate grievances," and "will rescind all rules and policies that prohibit employees from discussing matters related to the union" during work hours.

Additionally, the company had tried to make contract talks especially difficult by scheduling them during work hours, then refusing to allow union members on the bargaining team to take unpaid leave to attend. The company has agreed to unpaid leave or more convenient scheduling for the ongoing talks and will restore all of the vacation or personal days that union members were forced to take to participate in earlier bargaining sessions.

"In this settlement, the NLRB came down squarely on the side of working people and collective bargaining, TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. "The NLRB regional office in Baltimore issued two strong complaints and then got MediaNews to understand it needed to reach a settlement. Now it's time for MediaNews to bargain in good faith and reach a contract."