City-Wide Guild News

June 6 , 2001

For immediate release:

Guild Files Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against Blade:

Washington Blade Employees Petition for Union Representation Election

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6: Acting on behalf of a majority of non-managerial employees of the Washington Blade -- the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG) has petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to conduct a union representation election.

The union sought the secret-ballot election after Blade management refused to either voluntarily recognize the Guild as the employees' bargaining representative or else agree to a neutral third party determination whether a majority of union-eligible employees had signed cards seeking Guild representation.

The NLRB has scheduled a June 15 hearing on the election petition.

A substantial majority of some 18 eligible Blade staffers -- those who are not managers or confidential employees -- had signed Guild cards.

The union seeks to represent the newspaper's reporters, copy editors, photographers, graphic artists, ad sales, circulation and administrative employees.

The gay-oriented weekly, published here since 1969, was purchased on May 25 by Window Media, LLC. The Blade's new owners also own gay and lesbian-oriented publications in New York, Atlanta, New Orleans and Houston.

In addition to seeking a representation election, Guild attorneys filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Blade. The union charged Window Media President William Waybourn with threatening to fire two Guild sympathizers at the newspaper if they engaged in pro-union activities.

The threats followed an encounter in which about a dozen Blade staffers, who had been unable to schedule a meeting with Waybourn, went to his office to read a statement seeking union recognition. As the statement was being read, Waybourn ended the session, saying, "You've made your statement and I don't want to hear it." The statement ended by saying, "Our decision to unionize should not be viewed as a vote of 'no confidence' in the new owners. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship."

In a press release issued June 1, Waybourn said the employees' move to unionize "comes as a disappointment, having assumed ownership of the Washington Blade only a few days ago."

The employees said last week in a press release that they believed "Guild representation will help ensure workplace fairness at a time of sweeping changes brought about by corporate buyouts and 'information age' technological advances." They called their decision to unionize a "groundbreaking development in the evolution of the gay press." Currently, the only known gay publication in the United States that has unionized is Lavender, a news magazine in Minneapolis, Minn. Lavender employees, who recently voted for Guild representation, are now bargaining their first contract.

For more information, contact:
Calvin Zon at czon@wbng.org or 202-785-3650, ext. 17
Cet Parks at cparks@wbng.org or 202-785-3650, ext. 11

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Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, Local 32035 TNG-CWA, AFL-CIO/ 1100 15th St., NW, Suite 350 Washington, DC 20005/ 202-785-3650 /Fax: 202-7859

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