Media Guild of the West files federal petition supporting stronger OSHA vaccine protections

Media Guild of the West, a local union of The NewsGuild-CWA that represents journalists and media workers across the greater Southwest, filed a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday in support of stronger OSHA vaccination standards in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Media Guild of the West members work for large employers such as Gannett, McClatchy, Media News Group and California Times. The local’s Executive Committee previously endorsed vaccination mandates with reasonable religious and medical accommodations as part of any comprehensive COVID-19 workplace safety plan, subject to bargaining with unionized employees. 

The proposed new Emergency Temporary Standard from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration would set minimum standards for vaccination and COVID-19 related workplace safety rules that, if implemented, are not supposed to displace collective-bargaining agreements that might set stronger safety standards.

However, some employers, such as Gannett, already face Unfair Labor Practice charges in front of the National Labor Relations Board from unions such as Media Guild of the West for repeatedly failing to bargain over workers’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other large employers and some state governments have filed legal challenges to undermine or overturn the OSHA rule entirely in other appellate circuits, leaving uncertainty over what kind of protections that workers -- including hundreds of Media Guild of the West members -- should expect in 2022.

“Workers deserve to be safe on the job, and our members have made it clear that they do not want to bring COVID-19 home from work. Enough of our family members and neighbors have died from the virus already,” said Matt Pearce, president of Media Guild of the West.

“While we support vaccination and the general framework of the proposed OSHA rule, it doesn’t address requirements for employees to use accrued sick time to recover from vaccine side effects or any travel costs associated with employer-mandated vaccinations,” Pearce said. “We’re asking for judicial review to assess whether the federal rule can do more for workers, and we will continue to call on employers like Gannett to bargain in good faith over how to best protect the health and safety of our members.” 

The case is Media Guild of the West v. OSHA, 9th Cir., No. 21-71374. The local is being represented in the petition by the law firm Weinberg Roger & Rosenfeld. NABET-CWA Local 51 in San Francisco, which represents radio and television workers, has filed a similar petition for review in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

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Media Guild of the West, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213, was founded in 2019 and represents unionized journalists and media workers at the Los Angeles Times, Arizona Republic, Pop-Up Magazine, Phoenix New Times, Desert Sun, Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Southern California News Group.