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Yahoo!The decision comes much earlier than some had predicted, but it confirms what many have been alleging for months now: the Santa Barbara News-Press violated multiple federal labor laws over the past year, and the paper’s management will have to re-hire illegally fired employees and pay back wages, among other required remedies.
So decreed Judge William Kocol (pictured above) on Wednesday, December 26, in a sweeping decision that found News-Press management — including owner/publisher Wendy McCaw, co-publisher Arthur Von Wiesenberger, associate editor Scott Steepleton, and human relations director Yolanda Apodaca — at fault for the treatment and intimidation of the paper’s newsroom, which voted to unionize in September 2006. Basing his decision largely on the credibility of witnesses presented by the federal prosecutors and the News-Press’ defense attorney Barry Cappello during the NLRB hearings held from August through September 2007 in Santa Barbara, Kocol determined that all of the unfair labor practices filed by the NLRB were indeed violations and ordered immediate actions to right the wrongs.
Paul Wellman (file)
Melinda Burns, outside the NLRB hearing.
According to the order, in the next two weeks, the News-Press must re-hire Melinda Burns, Anna Davison, Dawn Hobbs, Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Tom Schultz, John Zant, and Melissa Evans, must back-pay those fired employees as well as fired editor Bob Guiliano, and must retract any related negative performance reviews or letters of reprimand. The judge also issued a wide-ranging cease-and-desist order against management, protecting current and future employees against surveillance, threats, interrogation, firings, or any other actions related to their union involvement. And this order must be posted in the newsroom.
To see the 78-page decision yourself, go here.
And for a more detailed explanation of Kocol’s decision, plus some deeper analysis, check Independent.com later this afternoon.
Double-clicking on any word or phrase in this story will open a reference window with definitions and links to other reference material.
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I perused the full decision by the Judge.
Again, this is all why this issue will not go away and why this pretend newspaper has zero credibility.
The only question remaining is how quickly this judicial decision can be reformatted into a screenplay and if Judge Kocol will get a residual royalty payment if he is not a member of Writers Guild of America.
Also, will the undoubted appeal to the full NLRB be decided by appointees of the next President, or just a few months from now?
David_Pritchett (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2007 at 1:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Here's my parody of how the News-Press might cover this news.
http://imnotonetoblogbut.blogspot.com/20...
George (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2007 at 7:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let us not forget that for the second time in two cases, Scott Steepleton and Travis Armstrong have been found to be lying liars. Two judges, two SBNP sets of lawyers, two cases, same result. According to some of Cappello's ham-handed horse puckey at the hearing, if a SBNP employee is found to have perjured himself, that employee stands to be disciplined. Now that Trav and Scott have been found to be two-time fabricating prevaricating embellishing falsifying deceiving mendacious contriving smirky exaggerating too-eager-to-please-Wendy dissemblers, surely otter-loving employee-hating McCaw will hang them both from the nearest yardarm! And put the story on the front page!!!!
JoeHill (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2007 at 10:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I just the read the whole thing (no partying for me, alas) and it's a complete and nasty repudiation of the News-Press management. Judge Kokol repeatedly called Steepleton a liar and said Travis, Wendy and Von Weaselburger were, ahem, less than credible.
God, I wish I could've been there when Wendy got the news.
Congratulations to my friends in the newsroom! Happy New Year!
MrMoreno (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2007 at 11:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It would be nice if Wendy were to refuse to honor the order, be found in contempt of court, and thrown in a cell.
truth_machine (anonymous profile)
January 1, 2008 at 3:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Now the obvious question--to subscribe again or not?
sbdeb (anonymous profile)
January 1, 2008 at 9:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What obvious question?
People who subscribe therefore support and condone what The Wendy and her henchmen are doing.
Until that is fixed, there is no there there.
FirstDistrictStreetfighter (anonymous profile)
January 1, 2008 at 9:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
However, if and when the employees who were fired come back it will be different--or will they still be supporting cancellation of subscriptions? I guess I can just go to the rally tomorrow and see what they suggest to ex-readers, as this really is their struggle, and I merely want to support them.... as opposed to merely sticking it to Wendy (though that is the proverbial tasty icing on the cake).
sbdeb (anonymous profile)
January 1, 2008 at 2:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Bravo, Judge Kacol! Thank you for your attention to this case, for seeing through Cappello's smokescreen, and for rendering the correct decision.
Thank you as well for having the brass to tell the world what most of us already knew: that Armstrong, Steepleton, Von Wiesenberger, and Apodaca are shameless, black-hearted weasels whose allegiance to McCaw is far more important to them than the Santa Barbara community.
niceFLguy (anonymous profile)
January 2, 2008 at 7:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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