Philly Guild Blasts Social Networking Policy

Written by Joe Strupp

Published

The Philadelphia Newspaper Guild is opposing a new social networking policy issued earlier this week by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News that it claims interferes with staffers' rights.

A memo to newspaper executives today from Bill Ross, executive director of the Guild Local 38010, says the new policy issued Monday is “overly broad and improperly and illegally interferes with our members lawful right to express their personal views.”

The entire memo is below:

I acknowledge receipt of the Social Networking Policy. To the extent the policy applies to non-work related activities of our members, it is overly broad and improperly and illegally interferes with our members lawful right to express their personal views. To the extent the policy seeks to subject our members to discipline/discharge for work related activities, the employer does not have the unilateral right to impose such terms and conditions of employment without bargaining in good faith with the Guild consistent with its obligations under law. Therefore, the policy if implemented and or relied upon by the employer in any regard prior to good faith bargaining is unlawful.

As always, the Guild is available to meet with you to discuss this, or any other issue affecting the rights of our members. Be advised we will inform our membership of their rights and our position with respect to this matter.

Bill Ross

The social networking policy issued this week is below:

MARCH 2010 PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS, LLC
SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICY
Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC (“PNL”) recognizes the importance of social networks as a means of communication and a part of our everyday lives, and encourages its employees to interact knowledgeably and responsibly socially online where such use supports the goals and objectives of PNL. To assist you, PNL has developed this social networking policy (the “Policy”). This Policy consists of both guidelines and rules, which are to be broadly and liberally construed to cover all forms and manners of online social media and social networking. (For purposes of this Policy, the terms “social media” and “social networking” are synonymous).

Below are just some examples of social networking activities. The lack of explicit reference to a specific category, application or Website does not limit the scope of this Policy.

- Social networking sites - Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster;
- Video and photo sharing Websites - Flickr, YouTube, Indaba;
- Micro-blogging sites - Twitter;
- Weblogs, blogs or forums (“online journals”) including, without limitation, business blogs, personal blogs, or blogs hosted by traditional media publications;
- “Wikis” or other collaborative Websites designed to enable anyone with access to contribute or modify content - Wikipedia, Digg;
- Online forums and discussion boards - Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups; and
- Any other Websites or software applications that allow individual users or entities to publish content on the Internet.

Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC Social Networking General Guidelines
These guidelines are intended to help you make appropriate decisions about work-related blogging, personal Websites, postings on video and picture sharing sites, in the comments or responses you make online on blogs and elsewhere on the public Internet, and other social networking activities in which you may engage. They are also intended to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and interests of our company and our products, employees, customers, partners and competitors. These guidelines will continually change as new social networking tools emerge.