[NYTr] Denver Media Chain Yanks Recognition of Newspaper Guild Union

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

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San Francisco Chronicle - Aug 14, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/14/BU2MRHRSJ.DTL

MediaNews yanks recognition of Newspaper Guild

by Bernadette Tansey, Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle

The Denver media chain that controls most major daily newspapers in the
Bay Area withdrew recognition of the labor union representing reporters
and editors at the Oakland Tribune and four other papers on Monday.

MediaNews Group said the five publications belonging to the Alameda
Newspaper Group are being consolidated with some of its other holdings,
the nonunion Contra Costa Times and the Hills Newspapers.

As a result, members of the Alameda newspapers' bargaining unit of the
Northern California Media Guild now make up significantly less than a
majority of the consolidated staff of an umbrella division called Bay
Area News Group-East Bay, the company said.

"We have carefully considered the impact of the consolidation on your
bargaining unit," company attorney Marshall Anstandig said in a letter
to the union. "We can no longer recognize the Guild as the
representative" of all the company's editorial employees working in the
East Bay and San Mateo.

Union local representative Carl Hall, a reporter at The Chronicle, said
the labor organization filed a protest with the National Labor
Relations Board after MediaNews indicated last week it might withdraw
recognition of the bargaining unit. The union is taking further action
to stop the company, he said.

"This is a grave error," Hall said in a written response to Anstandig's
letter. "Your citing of numbers and percentages doesn't mask what I
consider to be a blatant attempt to destroy a 20-year tradition of
progressive labor relations in the East Bay news industry."

MediaNews president Joseph Lodovic did not return a call seeking further
comment. The company's action did not affect its workers at the San Jose
Mercury News, which is covered by a separate union organization, Hall
said.

Hall said the Alameda newspapers unit covers about 125 workers, and
almost 80 of those are dues-paying members. Aside from the Tribune, the
unit includes the Hayward Daily Review, the Fremont Argus, the
Tri-Valley Herald and the San Mateo County Times. All told, the
Northern California Media Guild represents about 1,500 newspaper
workers in the Bay Area. The largest contingent of about 620 are
employees of The Chronicle.

Editorial workers at the Alameda Newspaper Group voted for union
representation in 1987, but it took until 1998 to negotiate their first
union contract. Their latest contract expired in July, Hall said.
MediaNews has made no immediate move to change wages or depart from
other terms of the contract, he said, but the union anticipates such
actions.

The labor conflict comes amid a major shakeout among Northern California
newspapers. A year ago, the Alameda chain headed by MediaNews chief
executive Dean Singleton purchased the Contra Costa Times and the
Mercury News from McClatchy, which had acquired them from Knight
Ridder. The Hearst Corp., the parent company of The Chronicle,
contributed to the transaction by investing $300 million in MediaNews
in exchange for 30 percent of its non-Bay Area holdings.

That deal between the two remaining major newspaper organizations in
the Bay Area spurred an antitrust suit, which was settled in April when
Hearst and MediaNews agreed to limit future collaboration in Bay Area
business operations.