Since we created Santa Barbara Newsroom online one month ago, we have received many encouraging messages of goodwill and many queries from you, our readers, as to how you can support our Web site.

We would like you to know that beginning today, we are soliciting donations of any size, large or small, to cover our operating expenses and help us make ends meet.

*** Donate Now ***

Time is not on our side in this lopsided contest in the courts with Wendy McCaw, the owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press. Even though she fired all of us eight reporters illegally, and even though we know the courts will eventually rule in our favor, the truth is that the labor laws of this country give employers a long leash to exercise their abuse of power.

We’ve been out of work and in the job market for months, having committed the “crime” of helping to lead a successful union drive in the News-Press newsroom — and still no trial date has been set.

We are still not at the bargaining table, either, though it’s been seven months since we newsroom employees voted 33-6 to join the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Despite a court ruling in our favor, McCaw continues to bog down the National Labor Relations Board and postpone the day when she will have to negotiate a contract with us.

We created SantaBarbaraNewsroom.com to stand up to McCaw and provide the community with a credible source for daily local news online until we can get our jobs back at the News-Press. Our sponsors, the Teamsters, provided some seed money to hire a Web designer and buy police scanners — but we will need tens of thousands of dollars more to keep our site going for months on end. McCaw may be able to delay justice until next year or beyond.

We are dedicated to reporting the local news on our Web Site for as long as it takes. Jobs in this industry are extremely difficult to find right now. While we look for work and until we find it, we’ll continue writing for Santa Barbara Newsroom, but we have to find a way to pay our rent, our mortgages and our health insurance. Some of us have been borrowing money to make ends meet, and we cannot continue racking up debt.

McCaw, a multi-millionaire, has hired eight law firms to defeat our union, forcing the Teamsters to spend well into six figures on our legal defense. Teamster money for our campaign comes out of the dues of truck drivers and construction workers around the country. They have understood the national importance of our fight.

If you, our readers, want Santa Barbara Newsroom to continue online — if you want to send a message to McCaw that her attacks on journalists and the free press have no place in this community — please send us a generous donation today.

To send us a contribution, you can click on the PayPal button on our Web site and use your credit card. Or you can send a check to the Santa Barbara Union Defense Fund, P.O. Box 30041, Santa Barbara, CA 93130.

Marty Keegan, a lead organizer for the Teamsters, will administer all of the donations to our Web site. At SantaBarbaraNewsroom.com, we maintain a clear separation between the business side and the news side of our operation. To avoid any potential conflict of interest, we reporters will not know who is making contributions.

Please note that your donations are not tax-deductible. Santa Barbara Newsroom is not an official nonprofit organization, though we are exploring the idea of becoming one.

Thank you very much for your help.

The Santa Barbara Newsroom staff