Stephens Media, the union-busting owner of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, is back at it again. In the latest chapter of a long running saga of labor law violations, the Tribune-Herald is stalling payments to two journalists previously ordered by the National Labor Relations Board, according to a release from the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which now includes Newspaper Guild members in Hawaii.
Hawaii paper seeks to stiff wronged reporters
By Carl Hall
April 26, 2013
HONOLULU — More than seven years after illegally firing two reporters for union activity, management of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald is seeking to reduce the amount of back pay it owes the wronged journalists.
Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey D.Wedekind conducted a two-day compliance hearing at the Honolulu offices of the National Labor Relations Board in March – the last phase of a legal marathon that started when the Hilo daily suspended, and then fired, reporter Hunter Bishop in 2005, and David Smith in 2006.
Lawyers at the hearing slogged through a mountain of paystubs, overtime logs and unemployment records. The company faces a bill of about a quarter of a million dollars, including back wages, expenses and interest.
The Tribune-Herald, the Big Island’s leading daily, also had to offer Bishop and Smith their jobs back. Bishop returned to work last year. Smith declined to come back, saying he didn’t want to subject himself to any further harassment.
The company now claims that Smith – who is owed the bulk of the back pay — took himself out of the job market in 2007 when he was forced to file for his Guild pension.
Evidence shows Smith mounted a diligent search for work, however, but was unable to find steady employment. Smith was named full-time news editor for the Hilo-based online news site, BigIslandNow.com, about 10 months ago.
He and Bishop will have to wait at least another six weeks before the case is ripe for decision – barring a settlement. Once the NLRB finishes checking its arithmetic one more time, the company lawyers get a week to double-check the figures, and then all the lawyers will take up to another 35 days to submit legal briefs.
The administrative law judge’s ruling can be appealed to the courts.
Over at West Hawaii Today, also owned by Stephens Media, editor Reed Flickinger apparently got the heave-ho from the paper on Thursday. Word is that David Bock, editor of the Tribune-Herald, will be running WHT, apparently from his office in Hilo.
Bock was in the middle of the firings of Smith and Bishop back in 2006, according to the March 2008 findings of an NLRB administrative law judge.
And just last month, a news item from the Pacific Media Workers Guild repoted:
In two days of talks last week, management of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald not only refused any pay raises, it “cautioned that a pay cut is possible if negotiations take too long and the economy worsens.” The company also seeks to delete a provision in the contract prohibiting the company from interfering with the operation of the Guild, leading the union to file an unfair labor practice charge during a caucus.
For some of the history, check out previous posts here:
DC court slaps Tribune-Herald for numerous labor law violations
April 23rd, 2012National Labor Relations Board says Tribune-Herald owner violated labor laws
February 19th, 2011Union busting in Hilo
April 28, 2006