Our Media Community

The NewsGuild-CWA is the premier union representing journalists, interpreters and translators, social justice workers, and nonprofit and public-sector professionals in North America.

The NewsGuild-CWA has evolved quite a bit since it was formed in 1933 as the union for journalists. Since then, our unparalleled expertise in this rapidly changing industry, along with our uncompromising dedication to open and democratic leadership, has augmented our membership with professionals from many new, diverse types of workplaces.

Together, we are building community, and an increasingly powerful union to confront the common challenges that face us.

Our Mission

The NewsGuild-CWA seeks to improve our lives through the building of community, at home and in the workplace. We are our Union. Through commitment to open democratic function we improve not only our own organization and the lives of our members, but fight most effectively for our common interests: sustainable jobs, equality in the workplace, dignified working conditions and the defense of ethical practices in our work.

Our Members

With an uncompromising dedication to open and democratic leadership, members set the agenda for The NewsGuild-CWA, setting standards to create better workplaces. NewsGuild members literally have a seat at the table in negotiations with employers. Members elect leaders and vote directly on negotiated agreements.

THE NEWSGUILD-CWA has its genesis as a print journalists’ union and has grown to become the premier media union in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Journalism is undergoing a rapid change in form, distribution, and financial stability, moving a once steady career path to one of great uncertainty of consistent employment. Through good times and bad, NewsGuild members fight for quality and ethics in media industry.

The NewsGuild represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in news organizations. Members include reporters, columnists, copy editors, photojournalists, graphic designers, editorial cartoonists and others. Additionally, the Guild represents workers in advertising, circulation, business offices and other departments essential to the operations of media enterprises.

With more than 200 agreements negotiated collectively with management, The NewsGuild has grown to represent much more than journalists. The NewsGuild represents media workers in print, online, broadcast; spoken-language and sign-language interpreters and translators; social justice workers; and non profit and public sector professionals.

A vital part of NewsGuild’s mission is as a strong, international voice for freedom of the press, free speech and the freedom and safety of journalists around the world. Members work at newspapers, magazines, news services, digital news and in broadcast.

Electing Union Leaders

The NewsGuild, and our parent union, the Communications Workers of America, value the importance of membership involvement in the union’s operation 365 days a year. Democracy is a key to the functioning of The NewsGuild. The officers of the Guild still are elected directly by the members and The NewsGuild chairperson is an unpaid position eligible to any member who is not an employee of The NewsGuild or works full-time for a local. Continue reading “Electing Union Leaders”

Guild Members a Force to Be Reckoned With on Pulitzer Day

Janelle Hartman
NewsGuild-CWA

THE now world-renowned photojournalists at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the gifted Buffalo News editorial cartoonist Adam Zyglis and a New York Times reporter, Eric Lipton, who would have made Heywood Broun proud, are among the Guild winners who, as of Monday afternoon, are also Pulitzer Prize winners.

They are joined by scores of Guild members whose newsrooms won Pulitzers for their collective work in the areas of breaking news (The Seattle Times staff); investigative reporting (The Wall Street Journal staff); and international reporting (The New York Times staff).  Continue reading “Guild Members a Force to Be Reckoned With on Pulitzer Day”

Editorial Staff of Law360 Votes Overwhelmingly for Guild

Guild ready for ‘constructive dialogue’

Aug. 24, 2016 – A 92 percent majority of the editorial staff of legal news website Law360 voted for Guild representation in a government-run election on Wednesday, despite an intense three-week management anti-union campaign.

The Law360 staff of more than 130 reporters, editors, and news assistants and apprentices across the United States voted 109 to nine in favor of Guild representation in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Law360, a fast-growing publisher of legal news and analysis, is owned by LexisNexis Group, a subsidiary of RELX Group.

Continue reading “Editorial Staff of Law360 Votes Overwhelmingly for Guild”