Author: The NewsGuild-CWA

Unionized workers of The Lever have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement since affiliating with the Denver Newspaper Guild-CWA, Local 37074. The agreement covers eight workers and strengthens protections from the previous contract, ratified when The Lever Union was an independent union. That includes a shorter probationary period for new employees; more robust healthcare coverage, including full dental and vision coverage; expanded severance; and a CBA signing bonus. It follows six months of organizing and negotiations.

“This deal is a testament to the hard work of our members, and we’re thrilled to have reached a deal for an even stronger contract with The Lever’s management,” said Natalie Bettendorf, Lever podcast producer and member of the union’s bargaining committee.

PITTSBURGH – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s appeal of a ruling requiring the company to pay back its workers—members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh (TNG-CWA Local 38061)—for the cuts to pay, illegally implemented increases in health care costs, and other unilateral changes to their working conditions.

Millions of dollars are owed to current and former PG employees. And the PG has no further venue for appeal.

“I’ve actually lost count of the number of agencies, judges, courts, and other authorities that have told the Blocks that the workers were right and the multi-millionaires were wrong. Our members were the first to tell them—more than nine years ago now,” said Jon Schleuss, President of The NewsGuild-CWA. “It’s staggering to think how much money and time the company wasted on losing when that could have been spent on dignified working conditions and improving the caliber of local journalism. The Block family’s efforts to delay accountability are finished. We look forward to seeing justice served so that our award-winning journalists can continue to focus on holding power to account.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a bill into law that will create tax credits to support journalism jobs in the state. Newsom supported the Community NEWS Act after local and international outreach from the Guild and a coalition led by Rebuild Local News.  

Local Guild leaders pressed Newsom to sign the legislation earlier this month. 

The law creates job retention credits of up to $20,000 each year for every employed journalist and creates a $15,000 credit for every new journalist hired. Part-time journalist positions are supported with $7,500 credits.

Contact information: indianalocalnewsguild@gmail.com

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — We, the workers at Mirror Indy, FPI News and Free Press Indiana, are proud to announce that we are forming a union: the Indiana Local News Guild. 

A supermajority of our colleagues have signed cards authorizing union representation by The NewsGuild, a sector of Communications Workers of America.

We have asked leadership to voluntarily recognize the union, citing overwhelming support among staff.

Our union campaign comes as our organization expands and we want to ensure all employees have a seat at the table. By unionizing, we want to ensure that we can keep our benefits — including paid parental leave, a hybrid work schedule and affordable healthcare. We also want to make sure workload expectations remain clear and for workplace policies to be equitably applied. 

Nominating Conference: January 9, 2027, on Zoom
Sector Conference: August 13-14, 2027, in Chicago, IL

The Nominating Conference of The NewsGuild-CWA will be held at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT on Saturday, January 9, 2027. This is a virtual conference that will be conducted on Zoom. An in-person Sector Conference will be conducted August 13-14, 2027, in Chicago, IL immediately preceding the 2027 CWA Convention, (August 16-18).

On Friday, President Trump said he would ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from accessing the White House because of coverage he disliked. The following day journalists and media workers from those news organizations were barred by security from entering the grounds.

On Saturday the Politico and E&E News (PEN) Guild alongside their local, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, released a statement saying, “This morning, Secret Service barred our own PEN Guild member Cheyenne Haslett from the White House simply for doing her job.

“Press access cannot be weaponized against journalists for their reporting,” they said. “An attack on one outlet’s ability to cover the White House is an attack on a free press for all of us. We stand with our members and every journalist targeted for doing their job.”

Last week, McClatchy laid off 30% of its unionized workers. Over 90 unionized journalists and media workers across 17 publications lost their jobs.

Workers at some of the affected outlets are raising money to support their laid-off colleagues. These fundraisers are linked below.

NORTHAMPTON, MA — Workers at the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) are celebrating the formation of their union, CDI Workers United (CDIWU), after receiving voluntary recognition from CDI leadership on August 31, 2026.

The workers are represented by the Providence Newspaper Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 31041. Workers organized around shared priorities including meaningful participation in workplace decisions, transparency, accountability, equitable working conditions, and a desire to strengthen communication across programs and throughout the organization.

“We organized because we believe deeply in CDI and in the cooperative values that guide our work,” said Addy Schuetz, a member of CDIWU. “Every day, we help communities build structures that give people a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect them. We believe workers deserve that same opportunity. Forming CDI Workers United gives us a way to bring those values more fully into our own workplace and to work together toward a stronger, more sustainable CDI.”

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Monday, halting the Trump administration’s latest efforts to impose new restrictions on visas primarily used by students and international journalists. 

The changes would have severely limited the duration of visas for journalists working in the United States for international news outlets, and placed additional restrictions on how long students can remain in this country and whether they could change or extend their planned studies.

Yesterday, the large news publisher McClatchy laid off more than 90 unionized journalists and media workers across 17 publications. They represent about 30% of all McClatchy workers unionized with The NewsGuild-CWA, at news outlets like The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and The Kansas City Star. 

These are journalists and other workers who have been asked to adjust, bend, mold and fit into an ever-changing business, some working for decades at McClatchy. They’ve done so seamlessly. 

Their reward? They lost their jobs, cut by a company that should spend as much time figuring out how to use high-skilled employees as it does replacing their work with AI.

The departure of these talented reporters, visual journalists and writers will immediately leave gaping holes in local coverage for dozens of communities across the United States.