It's official. The Virgin Islands Daily News is a split shop. Employees in the production/operations area belong to the United Steelworkers of America, but reporters and editors do not.
Employees voted early in December and it was clear immediately that those in Unit A (business office, advertising, printing, circulation and maintenance) favored the union, but the vote in Unit B, the news department, was too close to call given a series of challenges to some of the ballots.
The issue landed in the lap of the National Labor Relations Board, which was to investigate the challenges before certifying the election.
Fred Nieves, a field examiner with the NLRB in Puerto Rico, said Friday that "the case is closed." He could give little details on the investigation; the man in charge of it was not in the office Friday.
However, Nieves said the results for Unit A were certified Feb. 2 and those for Unit B were certified April 6.
Attempts to reach Steelworkers president Luis "Tito" Morales over the weekend were unsuccessful. Earlier, union representatives had said work on a contract for representation could not begin until the vote was certified.
