After reading hundreds of National Labor Relations Board decisions, my eyes tend to glaze over at reading the same charges against unionbusting employers again and again.  A recent case involving the Hawaii Tribune-Herald is no different.

An administrative law judge found the employer guilty of firing or discriminating against four union supporters, interrogating employees about their union activities, and prohibiting employees from wearing buttons and armbands in support of their fired colleagues, one of whom was a veteran reporter. 

These are run-of-the-mill anti-union tactics we’d expect from Wal-Mart or Verizon…but from a newspaper?  What happened to the Fourth Estate—the press as guardians of our democracy?  Has our society become so accepting of unionbusting that a newspaper believes it’s suitable to break the law and quash its employees’ freedom of association?