Joining CWA: AFSCME Organizers, Journalists and Dispatchers

Reporters and photographers at Los Angeles-based La Opinion, the nation's oldest and largest Spanish-language newspaper, voted last week to join TNG-CWA.

Reporters and photographers are now union at La Opinion, America's oldest and largest Spanish-language daily newspaper. The workers held fast against management's fierce anti-union effort, voting 14-5 for TNG-CWA representation in the NLRB-supervised election held last week at the paper's Los Angeles office.

"They want respect and a voice in their workplace so they can deal with their increasingly heavy workload as well as other issues," District 9-TNG Staff Representative Sara Steffans said.

Everyone in the bargaining unit voted, and the number of union "Yes" votes increased as the workers' campaign progressed, Steffans said. Meanwhile, management hired an outside anti-union consultant to lead its campaign against them, holding one-on-one and larger captive-audience meetings.

Steffans credits CWA Local 9400 organizers Jeff Finley and Marco Ramirez for assisting the workers and helping them remain strong.

In other election reports, 27 staff employees working for AFSCME Local 3299 in Oakland, Calif., voted to affiliate their independent union, the United Organizers Union, with TNG-CWA's Media Workers Guild. Their employer represents workers at the University of California.

In Monroe, Ohio, 911 dispatchers working for the city voted 5-1 for representation with CWA Local 4322. Local organizer Tomeka Cooley assisted the workers.