SPECIAL BANG UPDATE

A great moment

Employees file petition for BANG-EB unit

02 May 2008

Media Workers Guild

(The following bulletin was issued inside the BANG-EB newsrooms on Fri. May 2. Unit leaders also sent a letter to BANG news executives. And we issued a Press Release.)

Hello there:

A commanding majority of us, the newsroom employees of Bay Area News Group-East Bay, have signed authorization cards to form a guild. So today we took these cards to the National Labor Relations Board and formally petitioned for recognition as a union.

It's a great moment.

Today we declare our bold choice -- to believe in a better future for ourselves, for our newspapers and for journalism as a whole.

Today we are standing up for our profession. We are saying that what we do matters. It still matters. It will always matter. Our craft deserves to be treated with respect. And we ourselves deserve to be treated with respect.

Filing our cards is the first step toward taking our seat at the table, where decisions are made that affect our lives and our careers.

We understand that these are tough times for the newspaper business, times that call for new and innovative solutions. But these solutions need not cost us our livelihoods nor our dignity.

And these solutions must not erase the values we hold dear: The important work of chronicling the daily lives of our communities, of keeping a public record, of safeguarding the common interest and watching out for society's most vulnerable.

Together, we stand in the belief that things don't have to keep getting worse for our newspapers. They can get better. As long as we stand together and work hard, change is possible. We hope all of our colleagues will eventually join us. Each individual makes us stronger collectively.

Most likely, what comes next is a secret-ballot election in our workplace. Each of us will have the chance to record our wishes in privacy. Together, we will win this election. Together, we will celebrate.

And then our real work will begin, putting our beliefs and values into action at the bargaining table.

Thank you for your support,

Sara Steffens
Karl Fischer
Josh Richman

BANG-EB Organizing Committee