NLRB Slams Door On Unionizing Carriers

From Editor & Publisher:

By Mark Fitzgerald

Published: September 01, 2005 1:11 PM ET

CHICAGO With its 2-1 decision that newspaper carriers at the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press are independent contractors who do not have the right to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) essentially ruled that carriers at nearly all of America’s daily newspapers cannot unionize either.

According to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), the carriers at 95% of daily newspapers are independent contractors. The News-Press, in this case, was like Every Paper, with a contract at issue that almost any other newspaper would recognize as virtually identical to its own contracts or arrangements with its carriers.

With its decision, the NLRB did much more than simply reverse a September 2001 ruling by an administrative law judge that the nearly 400 carriers at the News-Press were employees under federal law, and could choose to be organized by Teamsters Union Local 460.

It also did more than dismiss the numerous allegations that the newspaper violated labor law by, for instance, firing carriers because of their union activities.

LINK to rest of article

Wonder if this will end up in court and if SEIU will file an amicus brief on it?
RAS