Guild Opens Signature Drive Among 1,200 Register Employees

The Los Angeles Newspaper Guild has launched a signature drive among the 1,200 non-management employees at the Orange County Register, calling for a vote on union representation throughout the newspaper.

James Smith, administrative officer for the Los Angeles Guild, said Thursday that the yearlong organizing campaign for Register employees has become more intense in recent weeks.

“The frustration level has reached a point where people are willing to take the chance of their employers’ finding out they’re with the union,” Smith said.

Register employees are concerned about salaries, benefits and job security, he said.

Register Publisher R. David Threshie Jr. and Editor N. Christian Anderson were out of town and could not be reached. Dick Wallace, general manager of the Santa Ana-based paper, declined to comment on the guild’s activity.

‘You Do Not Need a Union’

However, a July 22 memo from Threshie to the Register staff strongly discouraged union affiliation.

“We’ve heard that a union is trying to organize our employees,” Threshie wrote. “We firmly believe that you do not need a union.”

The Newspaper Guild also is attempting to organize employees at the Daily News in the San Fernando Valley, a campaign that Smith characterized as “farther along” than the Register effort.

Smith said the guild plans to petition the National Labor Relations Board for a union representation vote at the Daily News within two months.

Daily News Publisher R. Steve Morris said he is not concerned about union activity at the newspaper.

The guild is “making a strong effort across the country to preserve their survival,” Morris said. “Traditionally, I’ve only seen them do well with declining and stagnating papers. Other papers would be riper than a growing organization like us.”

Other Efforts Failed

D. Robert Segal, president and chief operating officer of Freedom Newspapers, the Register’s parent company, said that a number of unions have tried unsuccessfully to organize at the Register since the 1930s.

“At one time the CWA (Communications Workers of America) tried,” Segal said, “and somebody made a run at us a couple of years ago. I don’t remember who. I guess the people who work here simply didn’t want to join, that the union didn’t make a sell.”

This most recent push, Smith said, began about a year ago when several Register employees contacted the guild for assistance in organizing. Even before the guild was approached by Register staff members, Smith said, the union had targeted the paper.

“The Register has been pulling down the pay scales at other papers in the area,” Smith said. “They are always brought up in bargaining sessions at other papers.”

Register Managing Editor Tim Kelly declined to divulge the newspaper’s pay scales.

In Southern California, the Newspaper Guild represents employees at the San Diego Union and Tribune, the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the Daily Racing Form in Los Angeles.

‘Personal Decision’

The most recent meeting with Register employees was Saturday, the day after Threshie distributed his anti-union memo.

The memo tells employees that a union is unnecessary and that Register management has “worked very hard to provide you with good wages and good working conditions without the need to pay union dues or the need to expose yourself to fines, special assessments or strike threats.”

The memo also states that choosing union representation is, by law, an employee’s personal decision.

“But you must carefully consider the risks that may occur, that may affect the future and well-being not only of all of us personally but those of our families as well,” Threshie wrote. “No matter what those outside union organizers say, we do not believe that signing a union authorizing card is in your best interests.”

According to the NLRB, 30% of the employees in a bargaining unit considering union representation must sign a card expressing their interest before the union can petition the board for an election. A majority is necessary to install a union.