BANG-EB UNIT BULLETIN

East Bay approves first contract by near unanimous vote

Fifty-seven in favor, two opposed in ratification meetings

02 Jun 2009

Media Workers Guild

Members of the Bay Area News Group-East Bay Unit of the California Media Workers Guild voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to approve their first Guild contract since organizing last June.

The vote was 57 in favor, 2 opposed, in ballots cast during ratification meetings held in Walnut Creek and in Oakland. The tally did not include absentee ballots, which were too few to have affected the outcome.

The contract runs 18 months, expiring in Nov. 30, 2010, along with a separate new contract approved on Monday by Guild members at the San Jose Mercury News.

Both the BANG-East Bay and the Merc are owned by MediaNews Group, a Denver chain that ranks among the top news organizations in the country. Guild leaders in both units spoke of starting a productive new relationship with the company, as workers and management collaborate on surviving the recession and helping their newspapers and Web sites retool for the Internet era.

“This is a really happy conclusion to  a long struggle on the part of a lot of people," said Sara Steffens, unit chair of the BANG-East Bay. "It's clear that our union's here to stay. We want to continue building a new relationship with the company."

Eric Louie, a reporter and member of the bargaining team, said, “We now have a framework for employment conditions that workers had a say in. It’s now up to us to enforce those, and build our unit’s strength for when contract negotiations reopen next year.”

The votes were counted before a dozen Guild members gathered at the end of the second voting period, held at the Communications Workers of America Local 9415 hall in Oakland. The CWA local was a staunch supporter of the fledgling East Bay Guild unit, contributing office space and other help since the organizing began in late 2007, when the former ANG Newspapers and Contra Costa Times organization merged.

Guild locals throughout the country took heart from the East Bay drive, nicknamed “One Big BANG: One Guild Universe,” one of the few bright spots in newspaper newsrooms wracked by layoffs.

"This is an historic moment,” Michael Cabanatuan, president of the California Media Workers, said Tuesday night when the votes had been tallied.

The contract includes strong grievance and arbitration provisions, just-cause discipline standards, guarantees severance and requires management to keep basic terms and benefits intact for the most part – despite the intense pressure to cut costs. A wage reopener still looms this summer, however, but Guild Unit members are protected by terms requiring no worse terms than are imposed on management.

Other details can be found at the Guild Unit Web site, onebigbang.org.