A month after a collective bargaining election at The Virgin Islands Daily News, there is still no official word as to whether the territory’s largest news organization is unionized.
The results have not been certified yet by the National Labor Relations Board because of unresolved challenges and charges of unfair labor practices.
Those issues must be decided by the end of February, according to William J. Rivera, the NLRB representative in Puerto Rico who is assigned to the case. But he said Wednesday he has been too busy with another case even to begin the investigation into the challenges and charges.
Daily News employees were divided into two units for the vote – basically, production/operations (Unit A) and news (Unit B).
The vote in Unit A was 30-1 in favor of joining the United Steelworkers of America, Rivera said. Just 31 of 52 people who were eligible to vote cast ballots. Eight ballots were challenged, but because of the numbers, they did not affect the outcome.
Nevertheless, even the results of the Unit A vote have not been certified, Rivera said, because the NLRB must first rule on the challenges and charges stemming from the vote in the news department. There, 24 people were eligible to vote. Nine voted for the union and 11 voted against it.
The NLRB is challenging three ballots which, Rivera said, were cast by individuals whose names were not on the list of eligible employees provided by Daily News management.
In addition, the Steelworkers leveled two charges of unfair labor practices against management.
One involves a photographer, Gary McCracken, who, as the vote neared, had handed in notice of his resignation, to be effective in 30 days. The Daily News stepped up the time to approximately two weeks, Rivera said, meaning the photographer was out before the election.
Rivera acknowledged it is generally an employer’s right to shorten a resignation notice, but said that in this instance the question was one of motivation – did management get rid of McCracken before the election because they knew he supported unionization?
The other charge involves a former reporter, Will Jones, who was discharged four days before the election. Again, said Rivera, the question is one of motivation – was Jones fired because he supported the union?
