The tactics of the newsroom staff included a pledge drive encouraging subscribers to cancel the paper if demands were not met by September 5, 2006, as detailed on their website.
[3][4] On August 31, 2006 eleven of the remaining News-Press newsroom staff received two-day suspension notices from management for allegedly participating in improper union organizing activity; some have claimed, and two NLRB Administrative Law Judges have found, that the activity was protected by labor law, innocuous and consisted only of attempting to deliver a letter to McCaw during a break.
The suspended staff were: Al Bonowitz, Melissa Evans, Kim Favors, Dawn Hobbs, Karna Hughes, George Hutti, Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Lara Milton, and Tom Schultz; Mike Traphagen chose to resign earlier than announced rather than accept the suspension.
[5] [6][7][8] The Sep. 5 deadline set by the employees passed, and the staff through their Teamsters representative Marty Keegan called for subscribers to cancel their subscriptions to the paper.
I don’t know if that can survive in this age.”[30] Attorneys for the News-Press filed their "exceptions," a form of appeal, to the NLRB judge's rulings in early April, 2007.
[36] In June, 2007, the NLRB announced that two charges against the News-Press, concerning statements made by their attorney and a restatement of their conflict-of-interest policy, had been dropped,[37] and that they would not require the immediate reinstatement of fired reporters to their jobs.
[38] The unfair labor practice hearing lasted 17 days in August and September, 2007, and in December, 2007, the ALJ ruled in favor of the General Counsel and against the News-Press on each of the charges brought against the newspaper, including nine discharges, the cancellation of Starshine Roshell's column, discriminatory evaluations of four reporters, interrogation, surveillance and a demand that employees remove "McCaw, Obey the Law" signs from their cars and buttons from their clothing.
In May 2008, a Federal district court denied injunctive relief sought by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles, who had asked for the reinstatement of eight reporters who had been discharged.
The court ruled that the newspaper's First Amendment rights to control content were threatened by the reporters' unionization campaign and thus were sufficient to immunize the otherwise possibly unlawful retaliatory firings.
The News-Press filed charges alleging an illegal secondary boycott and acts of intimidation and coercion against local business owners, which the General Counsel referred to the NLRB's Office of Advice for consideration, and after lengthy deliberation, has now dismissed.
In addition, the General Counsel alleged that the News-Press violated federal labor law by: hiring temporary employees to perform bargaining unit work; hiring an independent contractor to do investigative reporting; bargaining in bad faith by making predictably unacceptable proposals and seeking to maintain unilateral control over terms and conditions of employment; and by discontinuing pre-union practices such as granting annual raises and providing annual evaluations.
The General Counsel has also announced he will prosecute the News-Press for illegally firing Dennis Moran, a copy editor and sports writer, who served on the union's bargaining committee, and for interfering with the NLRB's investigative process.
On May 28, 2010, ALJ Clifford Anderson found against the News-Press and in favor of the General Counsel, determining that the News-Press violated federal labor law by: bargaining in bad faith without genuine intent to reach agreement; using temporary employees to undermine the bargaining unit; firing a bargaining committee member for illegal reasons based on pretext; discontinuing its longstanding practice of giving annual merit raises; terminating another unit member without notice to the Union; ordering a unilateral change in productivity standards; instructing employees not to discuss terms and conditions of employment discussed at a meeting; discouraging cooperation with NLRB investigations; and changing the employee evaluations procedures.
Steepleton then wrote an inaccurate and biased article in the News-Press purporting to describe the ALJ's decision, which did not mention his role in the proceeding, or seek the position of the NLRB or Union.
In February, 2010, ALJ Lana Parke found that the News-Press' attorneys did in fact violate federal labor law by issuing the improper subpoenas.