The Pacific Media Workers Guild has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in response to a published correction that identified reporter Hunter Bishop.
The front-page correction published on Aug. 1, highlighted in yellow above the fold, identified Bishop as the alleged source of an error in a July 26 newspaper story about Hawaii County’s distribution of voter information “yellow cards.”
Naming Bishop was a clear deviation from the newspaper’s standard corrections policy, which is to not identify the alleged source of an error. The correction was also a deviation from standard practice at newspapers across the United States.
The Guild, in its filing with the National Labor Relations Board, maintains that the correction was an unfair labor practice because it discriminated and retaliated against Bishop for his federally protected union activities. Bishop returned to work as a reporter at the Tribune-Herald in July after the NLRB and the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that he was unlawfully fired six years ago for exercising his federally protected union rights. The labor board and the court have also ruled that Bishop and colleague David Smith — who was also unlawfully fired and has chosen not to return to work at the newspaper — are entitled to back pay. The labor board has calculated that Bishop is due $65,421, while Smith is due $272,490.
