Teamsters File Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against San Diego Union-Tribune Owner

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International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Feb 26, 2010, 07:34 ET

Newspaper Pressmen Working without Contract for Nine Months

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Teamsters' Graphic Communications Conference (GCC) filed an unfair labor practice charge against the owner of the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper this week, detailing how Teamster members were threatened and photographed while handing out leaflets in front of the Beverly Hills headquarters of the firm, Platinum Equity.

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The paper's management, including Tom Gores, Platinum Equity's chief executive, have refused to bargain fairly with the workers and their union to achieve a collective bargaining agreement. Workers have already been forced to take a 12 percent pay cut and an additional 4 percent in other monetary items.

"Management at the Union-Tribune wants to have the right to outsource good, middle-class jobs," said George Tedeschi, GCC President and a Teamsters Vice President. "We don't think that's fair. Our members want to earn the good wages and benefits they need to provide for their families. Mr. Gores and his team at Platinum Equity need to understand that workers matter too."

The Teamsters filed the unfair labor practice charge on February 23 against Platinum Equity with the National Labor Relations Board.

The GCC represents more than 70,000 press operators and pre-press and bindery workers at printing facilities throughout the United States. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters