CLARIFICATION: From a source at The Capital, they already have 70% of the eligible employees who have signed the card agreeing to unionize. This count will be verified by an independent third party and will be accepted in lieu of a secret ballot vote. Once verified and accepted, the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild will begin negotiations with Tribune Publishing.
The Capital is one step closer to unionizing. The effort which began late last month took a major step yesterday when Tribune Media voluntarily agreed to allow the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Local 32035 to represent the non–unionized Capital employees.
From here, the employees of the Capital and other associated Baltimore Sun Media Group papers will take a vote (card check) if they want to move forward with the union. To move forward, more than 50% of the employees must agree.
Recently, Tribune Media offered buyouts to employees with 10 or more years of service. There has been no official word on who (if anyone) at the Capital agreed to the buyout.
A copy of the Voluntary Recognition Agreement is below and at the link (PDF).
