The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild

TNG-CWA, Local 32035

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Fired Journal Newspaper Writers Win Lost Pay, Notice From Publisher

Nine months after they were fired while attempting to form a union, Journal Newspapers Publisher Ryan Phillips agreed to pay a total of $71,500 in lost pay and benefits to eight former Prince George’s Journal and Montgomery Journal employees.

In a pre-trial settlement with the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG), the Alexandria-based newspaper agreed to pay the fired reporters and editorial assistants 80% of the back pay--plus interest, 401(k) contributions and health insurance reimbursements--that they would have received had they remained at the newspaper since their December 2nd firing. Back pay is reduced by earnings received by those employees who were able to find other jobs since their dismissal from the Journal.

In addition, the settlement includes payment of 4% raises received last August by employees of the Northern Virginia Journal, but not by employees of the two Maryland Journals. The Newspaper Guild and the National Labor Relations Board had charged that the raises illegally discriminated against employees whom the employer believed were trying to form a union.

Phillips also agreed to post notices at the Journal, and to mail the same notices to current and former employees, stating that management will not interfere with employees’ rights under federal law to form a union.

The union, later joined by the federal labor board in an unfair labor practice complaint it filed May 29, charged that the firings and the closing of Journal newsrooms in Lanham and Rockville, Md., were motivated by the employer’s determination to thwart his employees’ effort to unionize.

The workers were fired, without any notice or severance, 10 days before a scheduled union representation election, which the labor board called off at the union’s request. The Guild argued that management had rendered a fair election impossible because of the unfair labor practices committed and the fear spread among employees of the Northern Virginia Journal by the firings of union supporters at the two Maryland Journals.

The union last August asked the labor board to conduct an election for the editorial employees at the two Maryland Journals. But after Phillips announced in early November that he was closing the two Maryland newsrooms, allegedly to cut costs, the union agreed to an election that would include at least 35 editorial employees in Northern Virginia.

The labor board’s May 29 complaint, issued by its Region 5 Director Wayne R. Gold, proposed a remedy that included Journal reinstatement of the fired workers with back pay and reopening of their closed offices in Lanham and Rockville. The case had been set for a July 21st hearing before a labor board administrative law judge. In lieu of reinstatement, fired workers who had not found other jobs and were willing to return to the newspaper received from the Journal a payment of $1,000 on top of their back pay award.

The notice the Journal agreed to post and mail to employees states that “without admitting that it committed any unfair labor practices in violation of the Act…the Journal recognizes that the National Labor Relations Act gives employees these rights: to organize; to form, join or assist any union; to bargain collectively through representation of their own choice, and to act together for other mutual aid or protection.”

Reciting a list of unfair labor practices that the Guild and the labor board had accused it of committing, the notice states that Journal management “will not interrogate, discourage or coerce employees by soliciting grievances from employees; will not create the impression that employees’ union activities are under surveillance; will not close and/or consolidate offices to discourage employees from organizing; will not terminate employment of employees because of their support of and activities on behalf of the Guild; will not fail to provide raises to employees because of their support of the Guild.”

Fired Prince George’s Journal reporter Susan Gervasi, commenting on the settlement, said, “Rather than go through months and even years of legal wrangling, we felt our interests and the union’s interests were best served by the settlement we reached with the Journal. We think it sends a message to local journalists and publishers that editorial workers have the legally-protected right to organize and that the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild stands up 100% for workers who seek to do so.”

In addition to the legal fight before the federal labor board, the Guild waged a strong public campaign aimed at achieving justice for the fired-while-organizing writers. In January, members of the Montgomery County Council, County Executive Doug Duncan, and members of the Prince George’s County Council appeared at widely-reported Guild press conferences where they denounced the firings, the office closings and the resulting lack of local news in the two Maryland Journals.

The county officials unanimously pledged to review whether to cease running county legal notices, a lucrative source of newspaper revenue, in the Journal. In May, the Montgomery County Council stopped running most of its notices in the Journal. The Prince George’s County Council put similar action on hold when it received news that a settlement was near.

The Jewish Labor Committee, noting that Jewish Week is owned by the Journal, condemned the firings in a strongly worded letter to Publisher Phillips and to Jewish Week advertisers. Jews United For Justice also assisted in this effort to apply pressure on Phillips.

Picketing of Journal headquarters in Alexandria, led by the fired Journal workers, was bolstered by leaders of the Northern Virginia Central Labor Council and its member unions, Virginia State Senator Leslie Byrne, and Northern Virginia Jobs With Justice. The public campaign was assisted from beginning to end by the Metropolitan Washington AFL-CIO.

“Without the support of community allies and elected officials, we could not have moved a stubborn and virulently anti-union employer to accept a decent settlement agreement,” said WBNG Organizer Calvin G. Zon.

To help spread the word, the fired writers who had not found other jobs were assisted by the Guild in producing a newsletter called The Journal Voice. Beginning in March, ten issues of the publication were distributed at government offices in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties and to all the public libraries in the two counties. The attractively-designed Journal Voice included local news no longer covered by the Prince George’s Journal and Montgomery Journal as well as information about the Guild’s campaign to win justice for the fired workers.

Although the settlement did not include an offer of reinstatement that had been sought by the Guild and recommended by the labor board, it was at least a partial victory that was most welcome in the context of an extremely flawed system of federal labor law that is marked by lengthy procedure, weak penalties, and legal interpretations that often tilt in favor of employers.

That is why the Guild and the fired workers agreed to a settlement that set aside what promised to be a long and treacherous legal process.

As the struggle at the Journal proved, the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild stands ready to fight alongside workers seeking to exercise their right to a voice on the job.