Judge Sides With Workers at Long Beach Paper

An administrative law judge ruled that the corporate owner of the Long Beach Press-Telegram lied to its employees, failed to bargain in good faith with its union and owes 21 fired workers wages going back to April 1998.

The June 30 ruling in the National Labor Relations Board case was disclosed late last week by Local 39069 of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, which brought the complaint against the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, owner of the Long Beach paper, the Los Angeles Daily News and several other Southern California newspapers.

Judge Gerald Wacknov ruled that the Newspaper Group unilaterally changed working conditions, claiming that it had reached an impasse with the union even as the workers were still inquiring about what the proposed changes entailed.

Wacknov said that Jim Janiga, vice president of human resources for L.A. Newspaper Group, “was intentionally deceptive and untruthful” in his dealings with the union.

Janiga declined to comment on the ruling, saying only, “We strongly disagree.” Janiga said his company will appeal the decision to the five-member National Labor Relations Board in Washington.

According to Ami Silverman, an NLRB attorney who prosecuted the case, the Los Angeles Newspaper Group terminated all workers in its Long Beach transportation department, changed duties of distribution workers to include unloading trucks, and sought to collect money for lost or damaged pagers out of the reporters’ paychecks, all without bargaining with the union.

“You can’t make unilateral changes in the conditions of employment without bargaining with the union,” Silverman said.

Back wages of the fired workers could total several hundred thousand dollars, said Natalie Shore, a former reporter who was involved in the case. The transportation workers lost their jobs because the company decided to shift printing of the newspaper from Long Beach to Valencia.

Denver-based MediaNews Group purchased the Long Beach paper in late 1997 and folded it into its Los Angeles Newspaper Group subsidiary. The paper has a daily circulation of about 104,000.

The purchase of the former Knight Ridder Inc. newspaper was controversial because of layoffs and salary cuts MediaNews Chief Executive William Singleton made to improve its financial performance. Salaries were cut by nearly 50% in some departments, according to Shore.