You come around this Big Bang universe often, sweetheart?

The new One Big Bang Web site is looking good, judging from a preview I got to see over the weekend. There's a regularly updated and expanding section with people's pics and tales, and much more. Anyway, chime in if you want to make suggestions about the Web site (or that I should never be allowed near the English language when innocent people are exposed).

For now here's a link to California Media Workers Guild President Michael Cabanatuan's recent blog post - New Year, New Guild - as food for thought (he's a super nice guy -- just thought I'd throw that in there. But, really, just read his post and you'll see what I'm talking about).

I'm gonna have to get a job as a carnaval barker soon if I don't stop.

SF Weekly cover story on One Big BANG campaign!

What do you think of this article? The comments are starting to flow over at the SF Weekly ...

Leave a comment below for the ol' water cooler...

Ask what your union can do for you

From the SF Weekly cover story about the One Big BANG campaign:

"Veteran Hayward Daily Review reporter Karen Holzmeister became an ANG union devotee in 2002. Editors asked Holzmeister, who had worked for the newspaper since 1973, to write an increasing amount of stories, following budget cuts. In addition to her normal Hayward beat, she was asked to report on two unincorporated areas and regional elections. Finally, Holzmeister says, she collapsed in her doctor's office from work fatigue. She took two weeks of accumulated sick leave; when she returned, her editor had demoted her to the Castro Valley beat, which was typically reserved for rookie reporters.

Holzmeister, who describes herself as a "happy employee" for most of her career, was shocked. She was considering hiring a lawyer when Tribune reporters and union officers Josh Richman and Robert Gammon (the latter of whom is now with the East Bay Express) showed up at her door to offer the guild's help. "I couldn't understand why I was being treated this way after I had dedicated my professional life to the company," she says. "Frankly, had the guild not offered to help me, I would have no recourse whatsoever."

New campaign website launch...January!

Stay tuned here for the new One Big BANG website launch in just a couple weeks.

Got suggestions for features to include?

Knowing your rights, Part 1 of 3

Here's a little quiz. Rate yourself on how much you know about your right to organize a union in your workplace.

You have the legal right to:

1. Attend meetings to discuss forming a union with co-workers. T/F?

2. Read, distribute and discuss union literature, as long as you do this in non-work areas and during non-work times—such as in the break room at lunch. T/F?

3. Wear union items on the job, such as buttons, stickers, t-shirts. T/F?

4. Sign a card asking your employer to recognize and bargain with your union. T/F?

5. Sign petitions or file grievances related to job issues. T/F?

6. Ask other employees to support the union, to sign union cards or petitions, or to file grievances. T/F?

Editor’s Note: The above info is based on a summary of your union organizing rights prepared by the St. Louis Newspaper Guild.

ANSWERS: 1-6 are all TRUE. Any retribution by your employer for the above activities are grounds for legal action.

What good is that ole' union, anyway?

Some of our management friends at The Creek seem to be spreading a little dish about the Guild - after always first acknowledging that, of course, we have a right to organize and unionize. (They most assuredly know that our growing organizing drive is bolstered by both the law and the stats: MediaNews employs more Guild-represented workers than any other U.S. publisher.)

But apparently their PR consultant's talking points encourage them to say that in all their years they haven't seen a union that did a bit of good. Then it comes - wait for it - "you know, like the old ANG union."

Uh huh. Just tell that to everyone of us who finally gained regular pay raises and grievance procedures after years under MNG, solely because of the perseverance of the ANG union.

And how many non-Guild newsworkers got the kind of package Jonathan Jones did when layoffs came? An ANG reporter with The Argus, he took a Guild-negotiated deal during the first round of post-consolidation layoffs (btw, layoffs that MNG management assured us wouldn't happen). Jonathan was finally able to take off for the foreign correspondent career he'd always wanted and was in Uganda last I heard. The ANG union cushioned the blow for a bunch of us. It would have been a lot uglier otherwise, a full hatchet job.

Look, we know firsthand you're on your own at MNG without a contract: they'll pay you what they want and fire you when they want - no if's, and's or but's.

And if we're so useless, why is management going out of their way to do all sorts of (costly) things they never bothered with before? You notice all the attention we're getting since they started feeling the heat of the union drive. Can you just imagine what it will be like once we have a BANG union in place? Holy Moly. No wonder management is fighting us.

Mythbuster #1

Word is that Guild negotiators at our MNG sister paper, The Monterey Herald, are making headway in hammering out a new contract -- one that isn't stripped down like a junkyard car.

Mythbuster #1: MediaNews can be brought to the table and held accountable by organized workers. That's "workers" - plural - as in all of us, and "organized", as in union.

If it can be done in Monterey, St. Paul and Denver, it definitely can be done by the 300 of us here in the East Bay.

That's right: we can stand up for what we believe and negotiate terms of our day-to-day work, instead of just swallowing whatever the company chooses to give us. Don't we deserve a say in our future?

CINO: consolidation in name only

An editor sent a BANG-wide e-mail asking if anyone would be willing to fill in for a reporter during an upcoming Saturday daycops shift. But don't bother to offer if you aren't a Contra Costa Times reporter. Only they can fill in for Contra Costa Times reporters.

Now that's mighty interesting...We're "consolidated" enough so that we get the e-mails soliciting volunteers, but not "consolidated" enough to volunteer... sounds like yet another case of CINO: Consolidation in Name Only.

Vacation freeze?

How difficult is it for you reporters and photogs to get vacation time? Here at the copy desk we're on a vacation freeze in Nov. and Dec. because of the holidays, but now we're also told that we can't take vacation time between January and April because management doesn't yet know when they are going to train us on the new front-end system.

They were gracious enough to tell me I may be able to get a few days at the beginning of January if I want it. But seriously, six months of vacation freeze this year? Some on the copy desk are afraid they are going to hit their vacation cap, but we don't know for sure since it's not printed on our checks (and won't be until Dec. 28).

Edit: I just learned that they can't take away vacation time from employees in California. Nice to know management always tells us they will if we don't use it, and I've also seen them take it away from some (but I think they've given it back after someone complains.) Here's the link and text of Q&A about the state regulation:

From state's Web site:
My employer’s vacation policy provides that if I do not use all of my annual vacation entitlement by the end of the year, that I lose the unused balance. Is this legal?

A. No, such a provision is not legal. In California, vacation pay is another form of wages which vests as it is earned (in this context, "vests" means you are invested or endowed with rights in the wages). Accordingly, a policy that provides for the forfeiture of vacation pay not used by a specified date ("use it or lose it") is an illegal policy under state law and will not be recognized by the Labor Commissioner.

Friday: The E-Bay Press Club's Holiday Party!

Come on down and mix it on up with our colleagues from across the E.B. this Friday night...last year the party was packed and a whole lot of fun, so free up your schedule.

The festivities start "after work and go ‘til late", at the legendary Warehouse, 402 Webster Street at Fourth, in Oakland.

Good times, free food, cash bar. All are welcome; memberships available at the door. See you there!

On the move: We Guildies packed the place

Ah, it was a sight to see: our folks jammed around a banquet-size table for a luncheon yesterday at Francesco’s in Oakland. The place is so cool, looks like something out of The Sopranos..AND it's union.

They didn’t have a table large enough to fit everyone who came out Monday for nourishment of the body and the local – our Guild local that is. Folks turned up who I didn’t even know were behind our push to win union representation (not to mention the benefits that come with it).

One thing crystallized for me: there’s nowhere else in the Bay Area to go now. And the options are shrinking nationally of papers NOT owned by MediaNews - which is in bed with Hearst and who knows how many other media companies.

So, we either put our foot down here or Bay Area reporters – all reporters, not just union – won’t have a ground to stand on when management is done. Pfew. I’m getting carried away with the idea of us having union cards in our pockets (or, um, wherever). I can see the AJR headline now: "BANG, baby, BANG: Bay Area Guild refused to take 'no union' for an answer." Okay, I was never great at headlines but you get the idea.