Newspaper illegally fires union supporters

Under capitalist dominionism, large businesses actually think of themselves as being above the law. Big Business is a privileged class that no statute seems to control.

The Santa Barbara News-Press has become one of America's more controversial newspapers. This controversy bubbled over when the paper replaced local columnists with the usual national right-wing talking heads.

The declining News-Press also fired 8 journalists because they planned to join a union. Some of the fired reporters had been at the paper for over 20 - even 30 - years. Right away, the firings should have raised a red flag - and they did. Federal law makes it illegal to fire workers because they try to organize.

Often this law is ignored - especially by Bush's so-called Justice Department, which refuses to make sure it's enforced. But this time, a judge quite properly ruled that the paper broke the law when it fired the journalists. He ordered the News-Press to reinstate the fired employees instantly.

Attorneys for the News-Press, however, are now crying that they're going to appeal this ruling.

Um. Read the law. You can't fire someone for joining a union. Period. End of discussion.

The judge also found that the News-Press had, among other things, spied on employees' union activities. There really ought to be heavy punishments against the paper for that.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/work/la-fi-newspress1jan01,1,6985118.story?coll=la-headlines-business-careers)