'Wash Post' Facing NLRB Hearing Over Radio Work -- And 'Onion' Ad Sales

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003660691

By Joe Strupp

Published: October 19, 2007 10:10 AM ET

NEW YORK Although Washington Post Radio was dropped last month after an unsuccessful 18-month run, the paper is still dealing with the fallout. A Newspaper Guild complaint that newsroom staffers had to perform extra work on the broadcast outlet has sparked a National Labor Relations Board hearing set for next week.

On Tuesday, an administrative law judge will consider the guild complaint that Post employees were required to perform work on the radio station without the additional work being negotiated through the collective bargaining agreement.

In a related complaint involving the humor newspaper, The Onion, the union contends that Post advertising department employees were required to sell ads for The Onion as part of a new agreement between the two papers to share advertising.

Both complaints will be heard in a combined hearing set for Oct. 23.

"They imposed changes to work duties on employees without bargaining and failed to provide information regarding it," said Wayne Gold, a regional NLRB director who reviewed the union's charges and issued the complaints last summer. "It comes down to imposing additional duties without bargaining with the unit."

The complaints seek unspecified back pay and interest related to the additional work.

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