LabourStart: TNG-CWA on the Future of Journalism
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At today’s LabourStart conference, the writers and union communicators present got to hear from The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) about how the union is responding to the crisis facing the newspaper industry.
In the lunchtime discussion, TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said the union is working hard to try and protect the journalism that’s critical to America and reach out to blogs and new media. Lunzer said the challenge is not to try and preserve print as a format in and of itself, but to preserve the craft of journalism and the vital function of newspapers in society:
If you don’t have an informed society, you can’t have a functioning democracy.
Welcome LabourStart
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LabourStart, the global online labor news service, for the first time is holding its annual conference in the United States. The conference, which begins today at AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., provides a unique opportunity for union members, staff and leaders to discuss key worker issues with hundreds of LabourStart’s volunteer correspondents around the world.
The Aug. 17-19 conference will be filled with briefings on U.S. labor issues as well as discussions of the latest strategies and technologies to better communicate online with workers worldwide.
AFL-CIO Now will provide coverage of the conference over the next three days.
Court Backs Workers in E-Mail Case, Slams Union Buster
It took nine years, but workers at the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard newspaper finally won the right to use company e-mail to discuss union business.
In a sharply worded ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company did not break federal labor laws in 2000, when management disciplined the president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA (TNG-CWA) Local 37194 for using the company’s e-mail system to send three e-mail messages about Guild business. The messages were sent after work hours.
The Guild filed unfair labor practice charges, but the then Bush-dominated NLRB sided with the company regarding two of the e-mail messages. The appeals court overturned that ruling.
CWA Delegates Back Employee Free Choice, Health Care and Unity
More than 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) delivered a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill yesterday: It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform.
The Capitol Hill lobby day is part of the union’s four-day convention in Washington, D.C., which ends today. Delegates will go back to the Capitol today to join thousands of workers in the mass rally in support of health care reform.
Tribune Bankruptcy Targets Workers
Workers will take a big brunt of the fallout from the bankruptcy of the Tribune Co., with the company seeking to cut costs on the backs of workers. At court hearings Wednesday, the media conglomerate asked permission to cut employee severance payments and health care benefits.
The Chicago-based Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, claiming it is $13 billion in debt, and experts say this is just the first of what could be many more filings by newspaper companies, many of which are saddled with huge debts and declining revenues. The chain includes such well-known newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel and the Hartford Courant, 23 TV stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The Cubs are not part of the bankruptcy.
