SANTA BARBARA — The labor battle continued Wednesday between the Santa Barbara News-Press and eight former employees, with the newspaper's lawyer dominating the proceedings with long witness examinations and plenty of assistance.

Attorney Barry Cappello came to court for the second day with a six-member legal team, making it clear that News-Press owner Wendy McCaw is not taking the matter lightly. The paper's lawyers had at least three dozen boxes of files stacked against a courtroom wall.

Two witnesses testified Wednesday: News-Press Associate Editor Scott Steepleton and former Managing Editor Linda Strean, who flew in from San Francisco, where she now works as managing editor of GreatSchools.net.

The case pits the prosecutorial arm of the National Labor Relations Board against the newspaper's parent company, Ampersand Publishing LLC. The NLRB alleges that Ampersand violated labor laws by dismissing eight newsroom workers who were organizing a union. McCaw's position is that she had every right to fire the workers, claiming that they were disloyal and exhibited bias in their reporting.

Strean is a veteran journalist who was once deputy city editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. She testified that while she was the News-Press' managing editor from 2003 to 2005, she supervised one of the fired reporters, Melinda Burns, whose termination played a large part in the departure of six others.

The paper argues that Burns was fired for being a biased reporter.

Strean said all reporters have weaknesses, but Burns did not have a consistent problem with bias. Editors were there to spot those things, she said. And when bias was spotted, Burns always cooperated with editors in remedying it.

"She's one of the finest reporters I've ever worked with," she said.

Cappello attacked Strean's credibility on cross-examination, highlighting her friendship with former Editor Jerry Roberts, who is involved in separate litigation with the News-Press.

Cappello asked Strean for her thoughts on that litigation: "If you were voting on it, you'd vote for Jerry, wouldn't you?" That was followed by an objection, which was sustained by the judge.

Much of the day was spent with Cappello directing Steepleton through details about the fired reporters' performance evaluations, highlighting reasons that justified the below-normal grades they were given while they were trying to unionize.

Anna Davison's evaluation was lowered for refusing to work as a night editor without additional financial compensation, Steepleton testified.

"That was an uncooperative person, and I was not going to put an uncooperative person in a night-editing spot," he said.

Melissa Evans had problems after her beat was reassigned from religion to K-12 education.

"She went out in the public and told members of the clergy the News-Press was no longer covering religion," Steepleton said.

The judge also allowed Steepleton to testify that Evans had a substance abuse problem, despite union lawyer Ira Gottlieb's objections. Steepleton said that problem was part of the reason for her dismissal.

Karna Hughes' performance review was lowered, Steepleton said, because she had productivity problems. Hughes is a union supporter who is still on the staff. She wrote a lengthy objection to her review, he added.

Dawn Hobbs was a union leader who was terminated with a group of six others who displayed a banner on a highway bridge urging readers to cancel their subscriptions.

Steepleton said Hobbs had an issue with her temper.

"She let it sometimes get the better of her," he said, adding that she used obscenities in the newsroom and once swore at Editorial Page Editor Travis Armstrong.

A difference in thinking about the way to operate a newspaper has emerged in the ongoing dispute. It is an issue that has drawn national attention to Santa Barbara among people in the newspaper industry.

On one hand, the fired workers are in step with the traditional thinking that American newspapers must maintain a wall between the editorial and business departments to retain independence.

On the flip side is an owner who is intent on running her newspaper as she wants.

The hearing is taking place before Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol. The proceedings, which opened Tuesday and are expected to continue until Sept. 14, have been conducted in the federal bankruptcy court, but will move beginning at 9 a.m. today to a courtroom at the Santa Barbara College of Law.

The other terminated journalists involved in the case are Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Tom Schultz and John Zant. The NLRB wants the eight people reinstated with back pay.