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The two sides have done their preelection skirmishing in private, the employees refusing to say why they seek a union or who their leaders are. I respect their discretion; things said publicly during labor struggles tend to be the wrong things, not easily walked back after the dust has cleared. A public document filed with the NLRB by Chicago Public Media on December 4 supports this point; it shows management trying to fight off a union with arguments that in the eyes of some employees might make a union seem all the more desirable.
There are four editors in the WBEZ city room who Chicago Public Media maintains do not belong in the union because they’re management. On November 20, after a hearing at which the four editors testified, the NLRB’s regional director, Peter Sung Ohr, ruled against CPM. The four are Derek John, WBEZ’s community bureaus editor, who oversees the four reporters who man bureaus in Chicago and northwest Indiana; Cate Cahan, senior editor of the projects desk, who oversees two reporters and heads special projects; Aurora Aguilar, the metro desk editor, who handles breaking news stories and assignments, with three reporters, two producers, and a reporter/producer under her; and Lynette Kalsnes, the arts and culture desk editor, who has a reporter and a couple of temps working for her.
“What’s on your plate today? I haven’t seen you in, and can’t find a note regarding today.”
“The Editors’ feigned testimony . . . ,” “Kalsnes’ claimed ignorance . . . ,” and “The fact that the four Editors decided to ignore Chicago Public Media’s expectations regarding their role in the evaluation process, a fact that came to light for the first time during the hearing, does not exclude the four Editors from being statutory supervisors.”
