U.S. Government Accuses The Washington Post of Violating Federal Labor Laws

U.S. Government Accuses The Washington Post of Violating Federal Labor Laws

Post Charged with Failing to Negotiate with The Newspaper Guild - CWA Over Work for Washington Post Radio and 'The Onion'

WASHINGTON, July 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After an extensive investigation, the National Labor Relations Board's General Counsel has filed a formal complaint against the Washington Post for failing to bargain with the Guild over extra duties imposed on newsroom and commercial employees. The decision marks a significant legal victory for Post employees and the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 1,200 Post workers.

In a June 30 decision released last week, the General Counsel concluded that The Post repeatedly violated established federal labor law over "mandatory" subjects of bargaining beginning in 2006 in connection with Washington Post Radio (WTWP). The decision charges the Post with failing to bargain with the Guild about employees' work on Washington Post radio; dealing directly with employees over these issues, rather than the Guild; and unilaterally implementing a system of unfair payments -- and for the most part, non-payments -- to Post employees who contribute to Washington Post Radio.

The General Counsel also came down against The Post for failing to negotiate in good faith with the Guild earlier this year over extra work recently demanded of employees, who were told a few months ago to perform work not only for The Post, but also for The Onion. The Onion is an independent weekly newspaper that The Post publishes in Washington under a contract with the Wisconsin-based entertainment publication.

In both cases, the General Counsel concluded, The Post not only failed to negotiate but also wrongly withheld information that it should have shared with the Guild to enable the Guild to do its job of representing Post employees.

The decision affirms the Guild's longstanding opinion that Post management must negotiate with the Guild when new kinds of work are added to employee responsibilities.

"Under established federal labor law, the Guild is the bargaining agent for Post newsroom and commercial employees and is entitled to a meaningful role in determining the employees' terms of employment. In these cases, the Post unfortunately adopted an unlawful and misguided strategy to carve the Guild out of that equation, one that excluded the Guild from serving as a partner with the Post to fashion solutions in this changing landscape of journalism," said Robert E. Paul, counsel to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.

The decision reinforces the important principle that The Post must deal with the Guild to set minimums that all employees can be assured of getting -- minimums that most individual employees would not have the clout to negotiate on their own.

"We are extremely pleased with the decision of the General Counsel to issue a complaint in these important cases. This victory is a measure of the egregiousness of Post management's disregard for employee rights," said Rick Ehrmann, Guild representative for the Washington Post unit of the Guild. The Guild filed the radio-related labor charge in the spring of 2006 and the Onion charge this spring.

The Post has offered some newsroom employees varying amounts of money to appear on Washington Post Radio at various times, while offering nothing to others. Post management also let it be known that although participation was technically "voluntary," decisions about merit pay would be based in part on employees' willingness to participate, calling into question the meaning of the word "voluntary."

Similarly, Post managers made unilateral decisions about whether and how to compensate advertising employees for the extra work they are doing for The Onion, including ad sales, processing, production, and accounting duties.

Under the terms of the NLRB's formal complaint, the federal government now effectively becomes the prosecutor in a legal case that will proceed against The Post. As currently scheduled, the case will go to trial before an administrative law judge in late September unless the parties resolve their differences before then. The Guild has repeatedly said it believes that the best way to resolve issues of added work in the age of new media is to negotiate fair and reasonable terms at the bargaining table.

The General Counsel is seeking back pay, with interest, for employees who were not compensated fairly for their work at The Post, along with other relief as may be appropriate. It also wants The Post to inform employees of the situation through its internal "intranet" and by e-mail.

The path to victory was rocky. In December 2006, when The Post learned the General Counsel was poised to issue a complaint in the radio case, The Post pulled out a wild card: It filed a last-minute addendum with the government that revealed the contents of off-the-record talks it had engaged in with the Guild in 2004 and 2005. The Post claimed that those discussions had focused on radio work and so constituted bargaining on that issue -- a patently false claim, which the General Counsel appropriately rejected after interviewing witnesses and reviewing notes taken at those meetings. But The Post's disclosure of those off-the-record talks (which had to do with other labor issues) was both a violation of collective bargaining rules and a surprisingly cavalier renunciation of the core journalistic principle of respecting a promise of confidentiality. It also was a disappointing revelation of Post management's willingness to stretch the boundaries of business ethics.

"Unfortunately, The Post has sent a chilling signal that it will violate a confidentiality pledge when it suits the newspaper's business purposes," Linda Foley, President of The Newspaper Guild, said in April, when the Guild learned of The Post's unsavory effort.

Source: The Newspaper Guild - CWA

CONTACT: Rick Ehrmann of The Newspaper Guild - CWA, +1-202-785-3650
ext 14

Web site:

http://www.cwa-union.org/

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