Bernadette Tansey, Staff Writer San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, August 14, 2007
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.
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