Employees in two key areas of the day-to-day operations of the Virgin Islands Daily News appear headed for unionization.
A vote to organize labor at the paper was held on St. Thomas Tuesday and on St. Croix Thursday. The results suggest that a majority of the daily publication's production staff favors unionization. But things are a bit less clear regarding the news staff.
United Steelworkers President Randolph Allen released the results of the two-day voting Thursday.
In the production department, 39 of 53 eligible ballots were cast. Thirty voted to unionize while one voted no. Another eight votes to unionize were challenged by the company. The next step, according to Allen, will be for the employees to come together to agree on terms of the contracts. After that, formal contract documents will be forwarded to the paper’s management.
In the news department, the outcome remained uncertain after the vote was taken Thursday. Out of 24 eligible employees, 11 voted against the development of a unionized work force, nine were in support of unionization and there were three challenged ballots.
"The three challenged ballots are from those employees who want to be in the union," Allen said.
Two of the challenged votes involve editorial employees Will Jones, a senior writer, and Gary McCracken, a photojournalist. The paper claims neither man now works for the paper and therefore is not qualified to vote.
Jones’ tenure with the Daily News ended on Dec.4 when he was fired. Jones, who has worked at the paper for more than five years, had a discrimination lawsuit pending against the paper. In regard to Jones’ firing, Allen threatened that unfair labor practice charges will be brought against the Daily News.
McCracken submitted his resignation on Nov. 21, effective Dec. 21. McCracken, however, said he was told by Daily News Executive Editor J. Lowe Davis that his last day would be on Dec. 5. After McCracken said that an earlier date would constitute a dismissal, he was ordered to leave the St. Croix bureau an hour after cleaning out his desk on Dec. 2.
Allen accused the paper of terminating Jones as a means of intimidating the workers into voting against the move to unionize.
"(Jones) was terminated without a reason," Allen said. "The only reason we could come to was because of the unionization."
McCracken also questions the timing of what he considers his termination and the union vote.
"It seems highly suspicious," he said. "I was terminated without a valid reason and the day of my termination came just before the vote. And both Will and I are pro-union."
While Davis said she couldn’t comment on personnel matters or lawsuits, she said, "It is untrue that two people were fired."
She dismissed the accusations of firing people before the union vote as "hilarious."
"It bewilders me that this kind of thinking pattern emerges," she said. "There’s no possibility that some kind of personnel action would be decided before a future unionization vote."
As for the atmosphere at the paper, Davis said it was essentially business as usual Thursday despite the unresolved question.
"I think people would really like to see it resolved," she said.
Earlier this week Jones’ attorney, Lee Rohn, said she had filed a subsequent discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over his dismissal. Jones’ original EEOC complaint claimed he was a victim of "demotion, forced relocation, discrimination in job assignments" and reduction in net pay.