In a letter to Publisher George Hearst, Guild President Tim O’Brien says the union is willing to negotiate a settlement of the case brought by the National Labor Relations Board but that a settlement of the contract and a long-overdue raise should be part of any deal.

Amid some debate on whether a journalists’ organization should participate in political advocacy, the Pacific Media Workers Guild is backing three California bills aimed at strengthening sunshine laws promoting transparency and accountability in government.

Loel Schrader was an international representative for the Guild before becoming a legendary sports writer at the Press-Telegram. In the early 1980s, he spent two year as a sports editor in St. Paul, where his Guild roots proved especially valuable. As Guild Representative Bruce Nelson remembers:  "The St. Paul sports staff, like most sports staffs, was always in another world.  Apparently, nobody ever told them they were entitled to overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week. The first week Loel was there, he asked one of the sports reporters where they kept the OT slips and the guy had no idea what he was talking about.  Loel was dumfounded that they never heard of overtime and suggested that the reporter should talk to the Guild about it.   We ended up settling a grievance with the payment of $25,000 in back overtime.   It wasn't long after that they sent Loel back to Long Beach to resume his column writing.  He didn't quite fit in that management circle!"