Santa Barbara Paper Illegally Fired Union Backers, Judge Says
A judge has ruled that the Santa Barbara News-Press committed flagrant violations of federal labor laws when it fired eight journalists for engaging in union activities, and he ordered that the newspaper rehire the former employees.
Evidence presented during a 17-day hearing last summer shows "the News-Press' widespread, general disregard for the fundamental rights of the employees," Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol wrote in a 75-page decision issued last week.
Kocol ruled in a case brought by the National Labor Relations Board, which accused the paper of retaliating against employees who planned to join a division of the Teamsters union.
"This decision really is all-encompassing; it's everything we wanted it to be," said Melinda Burns, who worked for the paper for 21 years before she was fired in October 2006.
"It's a clean sweep," union attorney Ira L. Gottlieb said.
Attorneys for the News-Press and its publisher, Wendy McCaw, said Monday that they were "extremely disappointed" with the ruling and that the paper "will exhaust all possible appeals and fully expects to achieve justice through that appellate process. The matter as a whole is in its infancy." McCaw referred requests for an interview to her attorneys.
Nonetheless, some observers who have objected to McCaw's handling of the newspaper she bought in 2000 were quick to applaud Kocol's ruling.
"I don't know whether there's going to be an immediate practical effect, but the psychic impact of this and the symbolic impact is enormous," said Lou Cannon, the longtime Washington political columnist and Reagan biographer who lives outside Santa Barbara.
"You had all of these people who were really fine journalists and they were just thrown out in the street for no reason."
Happy New Year to unions and journalists everywhere! Details here from the Los Angeles Times. My earlier posts about this dispute are here and here.