On Monday, every journalist at The Evansville Courier & Press in southwestern Indiana signed a union card and asked parent company Gannett to voluntarily recognize their union.
On Tuesday, workers petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for an election.
“We want to ensure a future for ourselves and news in Evansville,” said Sarah Loesch, a government reporter at the Courier & Press.
Workers wrote to management saying that they prefer to build a bargaining relationship with Gannett as soon as possible.
“Voluntary recognition will save the company time and money that could better be spent elsewhere, knowing that an election will bring about the same result,” workers wrote. “It would show your commitment to a united newsroom and demonstrate that you respect the will of your employees.”
On Tuesday, Jenna Watson, president of the Indianapolis Newspaper Guild, filed union authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board.
In a press release Monday, workers highlighted the loss of journalists over the last several years. “In the current environment, Courier & Press journalists work the hours of three people to cover beats that once had dedicated reporters,” workers said.
“Every member of the Courier & Press newsroom wants to continue to provide the top-notch journalism to which this community has become accustomed,” workers said. “And every member deserves respect and fair wages.”
About 50 newsrooms at Gannett, the largest owner of newspapers in the U.S., are unionized, including the Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press, the Palm Beach Post, the Erie Times-News and many more. More than 600 journalists from 17 Gannett newsrooms have unionized with The NewsGuild-CWA since 2019.
The hundreds of unionizing Gannett journalists joined a wave of journalists organizing since 2019, with more than 5,600 media workers joining The NewsGuild-CWA from more than 100 workplaces.