Tronc’s anti-union strategy

By the Los Angeles Times Guild organizing committee

Tronc has launched its anti-union campaign and, so far, it’s rather primitive stuff.

Tronc has no argument for why Los Angeles Times journalists should not enjoy the same guild representation – the same voice in our futures – as our peers at other major news organizations. So Tronc is instructing newsroom managers to tell us scary stories about pay cuts, layoffs, strikes, dues and that old standby, that the union is an outsider.

The union is, in fact, the creation of a grassroots committee of journalists from the newsroom determined to address years of mistreatment by an out-of-touch corporation. Tronc, the true outsider, knows its arguments are based on fallacies or outright falsehoods.

The real truth is that, for many years now, we have fallen farther and farther behind our guild-represented peers in pay and benefits, and we have none of their job security. At the same time, Tronc executives get fat compensation packages and lavish perks. They get raises and bonuses. We don’t. They continue to hire at substandard wages, then do nothing as those hires leave for better-paying jobs. We deal with the fallout.

The National Labor Relations Board provides a guide to the tactics employers can and cannot legally use. Please check it out. And if you suspect Tronc is requiring your manager to engage in an unlawful labor practice, please take careful notes and talk to a member of the organizing committee.

We hope Tronc will not embarrass The Times by presenting dishonest arguments aimed at denying us a voice. Here, we address in detail the Tronc anti-union playbook and the truth: The Tronc Playbook