Organizing Leader among Layoff Victims after Guild Victory in Bay Area

Sara Steffens is shown addressing an organizing rally.

Just two weeks after a huge organizing victory in June, workers at MediaNews-owned newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area were notified of the company's plans to lay off 29 new members of TNG-CWA's Northern California Media Guild including one of the most visible union organizers – campaign co-chair Sara Steffens.

CWA President Larry Cohen said the layoffs of union activists are an "outrageous assault" on the workers' organizing and bargaining rights and called it "no better example of what happens to union organizing leaders today and why we must pass the Employee Free Choice Act." TNG-CWA is exploring its options for a response, including the possibility of filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

Steffens, an award-winning reporter at the Contra Costa Times, was among the organizers who were introduced and cheered at the CWA convention in Las Vegas last month, appearing right after their election victory on behalf of 225 workers at nine Bay Area newspapers.  The campaign is part of a Strategic Industries Fund initiative at Denver-based MediaNews.

The Guild local this week posted a moving letter from Steffens to her colleagues, excerpted below, beginning with a question from her husband.

" 'If you lose your job,' he asked, 'was the union stuff still worth it?' I didn't even have to think about my answer. I just said, 'Yes. Of course.'

"I won't lie: The last week has been hard on me. I've lost sleep. My emotions have swung wildly: Shock. Anger. Sadness. Disbelief. And anger all over again. After all my years here, the hard work, the big stories, the little stories, the side projects, the things I didn't have to do but did anyway --- after all that, this is what I get?

"Right now, 28 coworkers throughout the Bay Area News Group-East Bay know just how I feel. So it's fair to ask again: With my own job on the chopping block, was the union stuff still worth it?

"Yes. Yes. A hundred times yes. And I'd do it again, every bit of it. What we accomplished has not been undone. Our union isn't going anywhere.

"As those of us on the organizing committee have so often said: The Guild is not one person. It's all of us, working together, to advance our shared interests. Our managers can't take that away. (MediaNews owner) Dean Singleton can't take it away. Even the ever-worsening finances of the newspaper industry can't take that away.

"So here is my plea to all of you: Don't give it away in fear. Stand up. Work together. Build our union. Stay engaged as those you choose struggle to win a contract. Help them along, and vote on the proposal they bring back to you. A contract matters.

This single powerful document will protect all of us the next time hard times roll around, guard each of us against arbitrary choices, unfair decisions, the chance of being retaliated or discriminated against.

"Months ago, a fellow organizer described a union as a family. Today I see more than ever how that's true. Family makes us stronger, shapes who we are, provides a fall-back in the toughest of times.

"I may be packing up my desk, but I am sticking with the Guild."