Palm Beach News Guild members will vote by mail, the National Labor Relations Board decided Wednesday. This decision, two months after our in-person election was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, will help us safely and expeditiously bring us one step closer toward reaching our goal to protect local journalism, so we can continue being the voice for our community.
Our members will receive their ballots later this month.
In his decision, National Labor Relations Board Region 12 Director David Cohen wrote Gannett didn’t feel good about in-person or mail-ballot elections, citing concerns about the ability to practice social distancing in person or mailed-in ballots not being sent and counted “in a timely fashion.”
Yet mail-ballot elections are currently the most efficient way for secret ballot elections to be conducted, Cohen wrote, as guidelines for holding such elections have already been established and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted there is no evidence that anyone has been infected by handling mail.
“Although steps could be taken to modify the usual procedures for a manual election to an extent to make it somewhat safer, even with such precautions a manual election appears to present a substantially greater risk of spreading the coronavirus than a mail ballot election,” Cohen said.
Our votes will be counted on June 23, a day we look forward to having our voices heard. In the meantime, Gannett can voluntarily recognize Palm Beach News Guild, a decision we would also welcome.