CWA Newsletter: TNG-CWA Wins Landmark E-Mail Case After 9-Year Battle

[Omaha Steve]

http://broadcastunionnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/cwa-newsletter-tng-cwa-wins-landmark-e.html

Thursday, August 6, 2009
CWA Newsletter: TNG-CWA Wins Landmark E-Mail Case After 9-Year Battle
"CWA Communications Department" [e-mail]

In a big victory for TNG-CWA members in Oregon, the U.S. Court of Appeals not only upheld their appeal over union use of company e-mail, it also slammed the infamous union-busting lawyer who told managers to pursue the case.

The Washington D.C. Court's sharply worded July decision characterized lawyer Michael Zinser's arguments as "simply more distortion than the words can bear." Zinser is known for trying to break newspaper unions.
The case began at the Eugene Register-Guard in 2000, when managers disciplined the president of TNG-CWA Local 37194 for using the company's e-mail system to send three e-mails about Guild business.

The e-mails were sent after work hours.

The Guild filed unfair labor practice charges, but the then Bush-dominated NLRB vote sided with the company over two of the mailings.

The company claimed that e-mail could only be used for business purposes, but the Guild was able to present abundant evidence that the company's e-mail system was used by both employees and managers for a wide assortment of news – from baby shower invitations to requests for United Way volunteers.

The evidence proved the union was the only exception, and the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed. Its decision showed irritation not only with Zinser but with the NLRB, saying the board's rationale smacked of "a post hoc invention."

"The court's decision made it clear that the company had discriminated based on union activity," TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said. "I was at the Court of Appeals when Michael Zinser presented his case, and a jury of kindergarteners could have seen through it. He tried to argue that the union was a special case and could be barred from communicating by company e-mail, even though everyone else was allowed to use it freely."