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🗞️ The Bill Comes Due: NLRB Orders $3.6 Million Judgment Against Santa Barbara News-Press Owner

The NLRB has issued a $3.6M default judgment against Wendy McCaw and her affiliated companies for two decades of labor violations at the Santa Barbara News-Press, piercing the corporate veil to hold her personally liable.

onthelaborfront

onthelaborfront

— 3 min read
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🗞️ The Bill Comes Due: NLRB Orders $3.6 Million Judgment Against Santa Barbara News-Press Owner

The National Labor Relations Board issued a second supplemental decision on June 4, 2026, ordering Wendy McCaw and three of her affiliated companies to pay a combined $3,602,579 to former employees and a union local stemming from a labor dispute that has shadowed the Santa Barbara News-Press for nearly two decades. The judgment, rendered as a default after the respondents failed to answer or appear, represents the latest and most consequential chapter in a protracted legal saga that has outlasted the newspaper itself.

McCaw, who purchased the News-Press from the New York Times Company in 2000, first clashed with her newsroom in 2006 when employees voted 33 to 6 to affiliate with the Graphic Communications Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters. What followed was, in the NLRB's own characterization, a campaign of "flagrant unfair labor practices" and bad-faith bargaining that administrative judges spent years documenting across dozens of proceedings.

The Board's 2021 Corrected Supplemental Order directed Ampersand Publishing to compensate specific employees and the union for losses traceable to those violations, including backpay for Richard Mineards and Dennis Moran, merit pay losses across the bargaining unit, and union negotiating expenses. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals enforced that order in full in August 2022.

When Ampersand filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in July 2023, the NLRB continued to pursue the matter. Federal labor law provides that bankruptcy proceedings do not divest the Board of jurisdiction to bring unfair labor practice cases to completion. The agency turned its attention to whether McCaw and two real estate holding companies she controlled, 715 Anacapa, LLC and 725 Kellogg, LLC, could be held jointly and severally liable as a single integrated enterprise.

The compliance specification issued in March 2025 alleged that between 2017 and 2023, McCaw transferred more than $1.3 million from Ampersand to entities she personally controlled, including aviation companies, a properties firm, and a holdings entity. She also made eleven separate $5,000 transfers of Ampersand funds directly to herself, totaling $55,000. The Board concluded that this pattern of commingling funds, diverting corporate assets, and failing to maintain arm's-length relationships among affiliated entities warranted piercing the corporate veil and imposing personal liability on McCaw.

None of the respondents filed an answer to the compliance specification, responded to reminder letters, or replied to the Board's Notice to Show Cause. Under Board rules, that failure permits the allegations to be deemed admitted as true, and the default judgment followed accordingly.

The total obligation of $3,602,579 carries compounded daily interest accruing from the date of the original order and is subject to applicable federal and state tax withholdings. With interest that has accrued since the 2021 supplemental order, the practical liability is substantially higher.

Key Points

  • The NLRB issued a $3,602,579 default judgment on June 4, 2026, against Ampersand Publishing, two affiliated LLCs, and owner Wendy McCaw personally.
  • The underlying labor dispute began in 2006 when News-Press employees voted 33 to 6 to unionize with the Teamsters; the NLRB subsequently found the company engaged in years of bad-faith bargaining and flagrant unfair labor practices.
  • The Ninth Circuit enforced the Board's prior remedial order in August 2022, but Ampersand filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in July 2023, claiming insolvency.
  • The compliance specification alleged McCaw transferred more than $1.3 million from Ampersand to personally controlled entities and made eleven separate $5,000 transfers directly to herself between 2017 and 2023.
  • The Board pierced the corporate veil, holding McCaw personally liable alongside her affiliated real estate holding companies as part of a single integrated employer.
  • All respondents failed to answer the compliance specification, respond to warning letters, or reply to the Board's Notice to Show Cause, resulting in a default judgment.

Primary Source Author: Chairman James R. Murphy, Member David M. Prouty, and Member Scott A. Mayer

Primary Source: Ampersand Publishing, LLC d/b/a Santa Barbara News-Press, 374 NLRB No. 129 (June 4, 2026)

Primary Source Link: NLRB Decision, 374 NLRB No. 129

Supplemental Sources:

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