This article is bad news for the strikers in the Detroit Newspaper fight, since it means they lose their right to their jobs back and millions of dollars in back pay.
The only saving grace is that the three-judge panel majority was made up of Judge Sentelle and Judge Silberman, two of the most rightwing Appeals Court judges and in fact the folks who brought us Ken Starr.
So there is a reasonable chance of their decision being overturned on appeal to the full panel of the DC Circuit and a small chance of an appeal making it if the Supreme Court takes the case.
-- Nathan Newman
Court overturns labor finding against Detroit papers By JIM SUHR
July 7, 2000 | DETROIT (AP) -->
A federal appeals court in Washington ruled Friday that Detroit's daily newspapers did not commit unfair labor practices leading to the 19-month strike that began in 1995.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a 1998 National Labor Relations Board finding against the newspapers.
A finding that the strike resulted from unfair labor practices could have required The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press and their joint business agency, Detroit Newspapers Inc., to pay millions in wages and benefits to striking workers retroactive to the day in 1997 when they agreed to return to work.
The unions will appeal to the full appeals court and then to the Supreme Court if necessary, said Lou Mleczko, president of the Newspaper Guild of Detroit, Local 22.
"The ruling today does not resolve anything," he said. The court, he said, "is sending a signal across this country that by relying on the legal system, there's not a guarantee of your rights under collective bargaining."
Detroit Newspapers executive hailed the ruling and encouraged union negotiators to continue bargaining.
"We've felt all along that we bargained in good faith, leading up to the walkout, and we're pleased that the court upheld our belief," Frank Vega, Detroit Newspapers' president and chief executive, said in a statement.
"We're ready to move forward and hope the unions are, too, by ending the legal proceedings and getting back to the bargaining table."
Tim Kelleher, Detroit Newspapers' senior vice president of labor relations, said the ruling "will allow us to stop focusing on legal procedures and focus on the bargaining process."
"We'll also continue to call back the 250 or so employees who remain on the preferential hire list."
Six union locals representing about 2,500 workers walked out in 1995. The unions offered to return to their jobs and end the walkout in 1997. The newspapers accepted the offer five days later.
But the newspapers insisted on retaining their 1,200 replacement workers, and called the striking employees back to work only as jobs became available.
In its 1998 ruling, the NLRB said the News violated federal law when it imposed its proposals on merit pay and television assignments, and by refusing to give the union requested information about the proposals.
The NLRB found that the News bargained in bad faith about its merit pay proposal in part by not making some parts clear or detailed, and therefore never reached a valid impasse that would justify its putting the plan into effect.
But the appeals court said the Guild hadn't done its part in bringing counter-proposals and bargaining on the issue. Under the circumstances, the court said, the News was justified in putting the proposal into effect.
"The truth of the matter, which the record clearly reveals, is that the Guild's unit was unalterably opposed to the merit pay proposal from the outset and continuing up to the employer's implementation -- not to the details but to the very concept," the court said.
"There was no evidence that the Guild was prepared to engage in real negotiations on the employer's proposals."
The court also said the News' proposal to leave management some discretion in awarding merit pay was legitimate.
"Any merit pay system inherently carries much employer discretion which, of course, is why unions resist them," the court said.
The court called the NLRB's finding of unfair labor practices leading to the strike "legally erroneous and unsupported by substantial evidence."
The News is owned by Gannett Co., the Free Press by Knight Ridder.
Associated Press | July 7, 2000