The Guild has filed grievances with the National Labor Relations Board against MediaNews that purport to show how the newspaper company is attempting to bust their union. Robert Gammons of the East Bay Express (a former Guild leader at the Trib) says the union’s greievances claim MediaNews:

• refused to hire union workers in violation of federal law and then transferred jobs to non-union employees, thereby making it easier for the company to break the union.

• did not replace at least eight reporters who resigned in the past year. Instead, the company left the positions vacant and then assigned most of the work to non-union reporters at its other East Bay newspapers including the Contra Costa Times.

• purposely downsized the Trib and four other unionized papers (the Daily Review, the Argus, the Alameda Times-Star, the Tri-Valley Herald, and the San Mateo County Times) so that there would be fewer union than non-union workers when the company officially combined its union and non-union newsrooms on Aug. 13.