The Guild’s Northern California chapter will appeal the National Labor Relations Board’s decision to throw out its complaint about the firing of three union members at the Contra Costa Times. The NLRB’s regional director in Oakland, Alan B. Reichard, ruled Nov. 28 that the union had not proven its claim that the newspaper had fired the three because of their union activities. The union reported on its Web site Dec. 24 that it was authorizing its lawyers to take the case to the NLRB in Washington, D.C.

The Guild also said that it hopes to keep some of the information in the case from becoming public.

“Much of the information in the complaint is sensitive,” the Guild stated. “The filing is confidential, except to the parties involved. We hope to avoid a public vetting of the details both because it’s inappropriate to disclose much about a matter under investigation by the NLRB, and because the material involves personal details.”

The three fired employees are Sara Steffens, who is union chair for the East Bay Bay Area Newspaper Group, Rebecca Rosen-Lum and Geoff Lepper.