Bill McLeman passed away on Aug. 18, 2022, after a brief, intense bout of pneumonia.
A gentle soul with a heart of gold, Bill was never known to raise his voice, according to his widow, Bridget. He started life with few assets and created a strong family that will treasure his memory. He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, uncle and a friend, Bridget wrote on Facebook.
Continue reading “Bill McLeman, staffer who helped forge Guild merger with CWA, dies”
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I just came back from Minnesota for Pride at Work, an organization that builds the power of LGBTQ+ members in the labor movement. It was a total blast and the convention honored AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond and me with their Solidarity Awards.
Continue reading “Newsletter: You get a contract! You get a contract! You get a contract!”
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The last two weeks have been absolutely bonkers, so let’s just dive right in!
On August 3, workers at the Dallas Morning News ran an informational picket in 100+ degree weather. They had three shifts and held signs saying, “I cover a community I can’t afford to live in” and “@dallasnews Pay your employees living wages” and “More than praise, journalists need a raise!”
Continue reading “Newsletter: A crazy couple of weeks in Guild land!”
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Did you see the ads and editorials starting last week calling for the passage of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act? The News Media Alliance, which lobbies for news publishers, launched a blitz to pass the bill, which would give news companies collective bargaining rights to negotiate fees from Google and Facebook.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Our companies are lobbying for billions. Journalists deserve a piece.”
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When members of the Washington Post Guild announced last week that they were about to go to the bargaining table, they had an impressive bit of news to share:
“We have been building to this moment for years — nearly doubling membership since the last time we bargained…”
Full stop. That is amazing work by folks at the Post Guild!
Continue reading “Newsletter: WaPo members start bargaining, Gannett still fighting its journalists”
This week NewsGuild locals in Buffalo, Albany and New York City called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to include a local journalism job tax credit in the reconciliation effort currently being negotiated in the Senate.
Continue reading “New York Guild locals call on Schumer to include journalism job tax credit in reconciliation”
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We’ve been off the newsletter for the last couple of weeks because of the holiday, travel and some folks being off. And boy did a lot happen in two weeks since our last newsletter!
We were planning to say that WIRED workers were on strike yesterday and today, but late Monday night they inked a deal with Condé Nast for a three-year contract. They announced it on Twitter just a few minutes before midnight. More details will be out soon, but the group represents more than 55 workers at WIRED who unionized in April 2020. They went public then with 85% support and have run many collective actions increasing pressure on the company to settle.
This is how you do it. BUT—
Continue reading “Newsletter: Guild members are winning so many contracts! “
The WIRED union, a unit of The NewsGuild of New York, which represents more than 55 workers at the technology magazine, reached an agreement on a first contract with management late Monday night. The culmination of nearly 14 months of bargaining, the agreement allows the company to avoid a planned strike on Amazon Prime Days, July 12th and 13th, two of the most lucrative traffic days of the year for WIRED Magazine. More than 95% of the unit had signed on to walk off the job this morning.
Workers took the WIRED Union public with 85% support in April of 2020, joining media workers at The New Yorker, Ars Technica and Pitchfork in the ranks of unionized Condé Nast publications. This past March, around 500 more workers at Condé Nast, including at storied publications such as Vogue, GQ, Allure, and Bon Appétit also unionized with The NewsGuild of New York as Condé Nast Union.
Continue reading “WIRED Union wins a first contract after strike threat”
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Access to abortion is a fundamental health care right and a matter of personal choice. And we’re going to fight for it by doing what we do best: organizing to protect our rights in the workplace.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Abortion as a healthcare right and collective action”
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If you haven’t already signed up for the Guild assembly, “Was that the Reckoning? Addressing anti-Black racism in the news industry,” now’s the time!
The event is at 8 p.m. ET, this Wednesday and will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the landmark 1619 Project; NewsGuild of New York President Susan DeCarava; Desiree Stennett, race and equity reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and Erin Logan of the Los Angeles Times.
As unionized media workers, we have an opportunity and the responsibility to hold our employers — and ourselves — accountable. I hope you’ll join us. Register here.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Big wins and a reckoning”