By Martha Waggoner, TNG international chair
Organizing will be a main focus of national and local leaders when they gather for the 80th convening of The NewsGuild-CWA.
That’s because TNG saw an unprecedented year of organizing in 2018. We organized more than 20 workplaces in 2018, which means more than 1,400 people, mostly media workers, have or will have the protections of union contracts. Continue reading “TNG sector conference to focus on organizing”
The Buffalo Newspaper Guild has honored one its members with its first Citizens Award for his heroic actions in saving the life of the county sheriff. Continue reading “Buffalo local honors member who saved sheriff’s life”
By Martha Waggoner, Guild International Chair
It’s a big accomplishment to get a first contract, as four recently organized units within The NewsGuild-CWA have done.
But to get contract language that’s rare, if not unprecedented within TNG, well, that’s cause for even more of a reason for celebration.
The contracts for units at Gatehouse newspapers in Springfield and Rockford in Illinois, and at Lakeland and Sarasota in Florida, include language that protect the beats of female reporters when they return from maternity leave. The language says not only do the women return to work, but they also return to their same beats.
The language came from bargaining at Springfield, where the local’s bargaining team noticed that some women were assigned less prestigious beats when they returned from maternity leave. One reporter had burst into tears in the newsroom when she learned she was pregnant because she had seen a colleague lose her beat after her pregnancy.
Continue reading “4 new TNG contracts include rare maternity leave language”
OMAHA, Nebraska, Oct. 8, 2018— Newsroom employees of The Omaha World-Herald voted overwhelmingly on Monday to unionize.
The 71-5 vote by reporters, copy editors and photographers to affiliate with The NewsGuild was part of what organizers said will be ongoing efforts by employees of The World-Herald to maintain and improve the quality of the paper through a fair contract. Staff members supporting the organizing drive said they want to ensure a local voice in the direction of the state’s largest newspaper. Continue reading “Omaha World-Herald newsroom workers vote to unionize”
More than 120 members of CWA Canada face the prospect of a lockout and a strike if they don’t accept a Postmedia demand for massive givebacks coming at the same time as the company CEO has received a huge salary increase.
Members of the Ottawa Newspaper Guild began voting Sunday under the threat of lockout Thursday if they don’t accept the so-called deal. Meanwhile, members of the Montreal Guild say they will strike in support of the brothers and sisters if Ottawa is locked out.
Montreal, which Postmedia also owns, is facing the same demand for givebacks.
The 63 members employed by The Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun are feeling bullied by the company’s tactics, said Lois Kirkup, vice president of the ONG (CWA Canada Local 30205). Members are scared and angry, she said.
“And that was their tactic – to scare people into voting for a really lousy deal,” she said.
During the almost three years of bargaining, Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey has received a 33 percent pay increase and bonuses while the Ottawa workers haven’t had a pay increase in six years.
Postmedia is demanding concessions on health benefits and sick leave that could cost ONG members thousands of dollars – members who already made concessions on the pension plan.
The 58 members of the Montreal Guild (CWA Canada Local 30111) who work at The Gazette will strike in solidarity, local President Ron Carroll said.
The executive board of the Communications Workers of America has granted strike approval at the request of CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon.
By Martha Waggoner, Guild International Chair
Another newsroom has chosen to join The NewsGuild-CWA to give its journalists a voice in their working conditions.
The journalists of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and the Daily Press in Newport News have announced that they’re joining TNG -CWA as they fight to ensure wage equity, fair hiring practices and diversity in the workforce. Continue reading “Virginia journalists choose to join NewsGuild-CWA”
By Martha Waggoner, Guild International Chair
The NewsGuild-CWA and newspapers owners and managers agree on one issue: the tariff increase on paper is wrong and should be eliminated.
The International Trade Commission meets Wednesday to decide the issue. Among those opposing the tariff increase is TNG, through its parent union, the Communications Workers of America. Newspapers have blamed the tariff increase for layoffs and for reductions in print editions.
CWA President Chris Shelton wrote a letter to the commission, urging that it consider the effects of the tariffs on the U.S. news industry. The commission is an independent government agency that will decide whether to maintain the tariff on uncoated groundwood paper.
In his letter written to the commission in July, Shelton references TNG as representing 25,000 journalists and other media workers. He lists the many problems facing the troubled media industry, including a 30 percent decline in newspaper subscriptions over the past decade.
“Given the upheaval already facing the newspaper industry, I am concerned that steep duties on imported uncoated groundwood paper from Canada could make it even harder for newspapers to succeed in the current economic environment,” Shelton wrote in his letter to David Johanson, chair of the commission.
One paper factory in Washington state, North Pacific Paper Co., and its private-equity owner, One Rock Capital, requested the tariff, The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers have reported. The 87-year-old partner of One Rock Capital, John A. Georges, owns multi-million-dollar homes, as does his son, who’s also a partner at One Rock.
Terrance C.Z. Egger, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, told the Inquirer that the tariff “is extremely onerous, unfair and totally unwarranted. The damage it is doing to the already fragile state of the economics of newspapers of all sizes across America is severe.”
