We’ve got a lot of news to share from across your union from the last few weeks, so let’s dive right in!
Last week more than 460 workers joined our union from the Environmental Defense Fund, voting 81% yes to unionize with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. Workers at the nearly 60-year-old nonprofit support solutions to cut harmful pollution, stabilize the climate and support public health.
“At over 460 eligible employees, this will be the largest environmental nonprofit union in the U.S.,” said Maximilian Schreck, a senior analyst at the Environmental Defense Fund. “When so many of our climate-defending institutions are under attack, seeing a new one get built fills me with tremendous hope.”
Workers launched their campaign with a supermajority of support on December 2 and received more than 2,000 letters from the public. Follow our newest members on Bluesky as they now prepare to bargain their first contract.
This past weekend I was in Austin, Texas, supporting our members fighting to protect journalism in the Lone Star State. The Texas AFL-CIO invited me to deliver a keynote speech to a room of labor leaders from across the state, covering every industry.
The theme of the convention was Workers vs. Billionaires and I laid out our fight at Hearst, which is gobbling up newsrooms across Texas, illegally laying off journalists and obliterating the collective agreements with our members.
The company is also refusing to bargain with our members in Connecticut, challenging an election in which journalists voted 80% to unionize last May.
Just three months after our members at the Austin American-Statesman won their first contract, Hearst swooped in, bought the paper and ignored the collective agreement. A few months later they acquired the Dallas Morning News and then laid off the entire copy desk.
So, at the end of my speech, we launched a letter-writing campaign to support local journalists in Texas. We’ve got three demands of Hearst: 1) ensure humans oversee and produce the news, not AI bots churning out AI slop; 2) keep news local and make sure journalists are paid enough to live in the communities they cover; and 3) respect the agreements made with journalists by following the law.
Support our members in Texas by sending a letter to Hearst management.
Detroit Guild members are calling on USA Today Co. to protect jobs and respect their contract after the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. announced plans to buy the Detroit News from the Alden-controlled Media News Group. In a statement issued today, the Detroit Guild said that the sale of the Detroit News raises questions about the future of two newspapers in Detroit and the future of journalism in Michigan’s largest city.
For decades, both The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press participated in a joint operating agreement that was designed to keep the two competitors in business. The newsrooms were independent, but USA Today Co. oversaw the business operations of both papers. The JOA ended at the end of 2025 and both companies publicly stated they planned to operate separately at the beginning of 2026.
“USA Today must support Detroit News Guild members during this acquisition by agreeing to a fair contract that preserves our rights, pay and benefits,” said Carol Thompson, The Detroit News unit leader and environment reporter. “Our work is essential. We break news, keep our communities informed and keep our leaders accountable. USA Today must support our members so we can continue to do this essential work.”
We won at the U.S. Supreme Court and then Post-Gazette bosses announced plans to shut down, which is yet another retaliatory action by the law-breaking owners. Now the owners face contempt charges and the potential of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
On January 7 the company lost its appeal to stay an injunction at the U.S. Supreme Court. Shortly after they lost, the company called workers into an emergency zoom meeting and played a pre-recorded video where a never-before-seen executive announced that the company was shutting down on May 3. That’s World Press Freedom Day.
Block Communications Inc., the owners, spent millions fighting journalists in court. Allan and John Block are two brothers who own the company and have been running it into the ground for years. Our members have always said they’re ready to bargain in good faith and settle these issues at any time.
“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” said Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh (TNG-CWA Local 38061).
A week after the Supreme Court’s decision, the Post-Gazette lost its appeal to overturn an appellate court order that the company reinstate our healthcare and restore our collective agreement.
And last week the National Labor Relations Board filed contempt charges against the company. Fines for the company start at $100,000 and increase $5,000 a day. Company executives, including the director of human resources, could also personally be fined $10,000 on the first day and $1,000 every day after that.
Our members are focused on the future while holding the boss to account. They’re launching the Pittsburgh Alliance for People-Enhanced Reporting, also known as PAPER. They’re collecting funds to bring together the community to find a new owner or start something new after the Blocks.
Our Minnesota Guild member and steward is still in detention at a federal immigration center in El Paso. He’s a member at a nonprofit unit in the Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild.
Our Philadelphia local released a statement in support of our detained member and emphasized the need to make donations to support the legal fights of union members in ICE custody.
“As proud members of the Philadelphia NewsGuild, we condemn the latest heinous act of violence in a long line of attacks from the Federal government,” they said. “Agents kidnapped and transferred a fellow TNG-CWA member of Local 37002 to El Paso as part of Operation Metro Surge.”
“In all of our organizing, we carry our Union siblings with us.”
Donate to Working Partnerships, a division of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, which is assisting union members with legal fees and other hardships.
“I need my devices back to do my job,” said Washington Post Reporter Hannah Natanson, whose home was raided by the FBI earlier this month. A federal judge ruled that the government may not examine the laptops, phones and other devices it seized from Natanson’s home until a lawsuit is settled.
The ruling came hours after The Post demanded in a court filing that federal agents return the devices seized as part of a search warrant they executed on January 14.
According to The Post’s filing, the newsroom’s attorneys met with federal officials several times and asked to retrieve the devices. The government refused.
The company should have filed in court faster instead of wasting time as federal agents delayed the newsroom’s attorneys.
And throughout all of this billionaire owner Jeff Bezos has been silent, refusing to weigh in and defend journalists at the news outlet he owns.
And this week news broke that The Post is planning yet another round of layoffs. Journalists praised their colleagues on social media using the hashtag #SaveThePost with local journalists sending a letter to Bezos, highlighting the impact their journalism has had and calling on him to stop the cuts.
In a statement on Tuesday, members of the Post Guild opposed the layoffs and said The Post’s mission is to hold power to account without fear or favor and provide critical insight into communities across the region, country and world.
“If Jeff Bezos no longer supports that mission, then The Post and its readers deserve a steward who does.”
The journalists of VTDigger are fighting for critical AI protections, and management wants to implement and experiment with AI as they wish. We, on the other hand, want journalists to have a say over how these new technologies are used in our jobs and in our workplace.
We know that readers also prefer human journalists – not unreliable and biased AI news and we need your help to support VTDigger. Will you sign their petition demanding management work with journalists on AI, and not without them?
Workers at two Prince Edward Island newspapers ratified their first collective agreements this month. Newsroom and finance workers voted unanimously to ratify the agreements at both The Guardian in Charlottetown and the Journal Pioneer in Summerside, Canada. They’re members of the Halifax Typographical union and first won their election in July. The agreement includes wage grids closing the gap with other Postmedia counterparts in Atlantic Canada.
After 625 days of bargaining, Science News Media Guild workers voted to ratify their first collective bargaining agreement. “The road to this first contract was not a short one, but it was incredibly inspiring to see our guild unite in pursuit of a better workplace,” said Nikk Ogasa, a staff writer for Science News. “I’m so grateful to all of my colleagues, especially the negotiations team, and everyone else who has supported us along the way.”
Journalists of the Alden-owned South Florida Sun Sentinel voted unanimously to ratify a historic contract winning better pay and job protections. Sun Sentinel employees won protections related to the growing presence of artificial intelligence. For the life of the two-year contract, no one will lose their job due to AI.
Journalists at The Courier Journal ratified their first-ever union contract and marked a major milestone for newsroom workers at the 157-year-old newspaper. The ratification caps years of organizing by journalists, who voted by a landslide margin to unionize in 2022 and join the Indianapolis NewsGuild, TNG-CWA Local 34070. Members have bargained with parent company USA Today Co., formerly Gannett, amid repeated rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting across the company. The contract represents a critical step toward stability, fairness and a stronger future for local journalism in Louisville.
In Texas, staff at the Fort Worth Report announced a union to strengthen the news organization’s mission of providing free, fair and local journalism. With a team of 25 devoted staffers, the Fort Worth Report is a leading source of news for residents of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, averaging over 150 news articles and over 350,000 unique website visitors per month.
Workers of Chemical & Engineering News, the independent magazine of the American Chemical Society, announced the formation of the Chemical & Engineering News Guild. Chemical & Engineering News, better known as C&EN, is a 102-year-old institution. Since 1923, it has chronicled science, business, and policy developments across the global chemical enterprise. This work is not possible without the collaborative efforts of reporters, copy editors, production and operations staff, web and creative designers, multimedia producers and the audience development team, among others. The Chemical & Engineering News Guild seeks to band these workers together and advocate for their continued well-being and empowerment.
And, in another win at the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, the Alliance for Youth Action won a first contract with 100% of members voting yes after two years at the bargaining table. Workers secured critical workplace protections, including just cause and progressive discipline.
Nonprofit staff at Warehouse Workers for Justice have ratified a first contract, securing raises after four-years at the bargaining table. Workers successfully pushed management to open its books for a transparent review of the organization’s finances. This long-overdue first contract is a testament to their persistence and commitment to justice.
Finally, there are a lot of new local officers across The NewsGuild-CWA! Last week, I swore in the new officers at the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. And new officers at both The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia, The NewsGuild of New York, the Canadian Media Guild and many other locals. Congratulations to all the new officers! I look forward to working with you to continue building our union!
In solidarity,
Jon Schleuss
President
The NewsGuild-CWA