Author: The NewsGuild-CWA

Nebraska journalists at the Omaha World-Herald Guild are celebrating a new two-year contract with Lee Enterprises. The contract – the Guild’s third with the company – was passed unanimously and guarantees multiple wage increases, immediate raises for all union members, new protections from Artificial Intelligence, expanded bereavement definition and more. Journalists in Omaha first unionized in October 2018 and are part of the Denver Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37074).

The AI protections include negotiations over any effects of new AI policies or technologies and a requirement that any AI generated content will be clearly labeled. Raises include 3% in each of the two years of the agreement.

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The New York Assembly and Senate on Saturday passed a first-of-its-kind journalism jobs tax credit in the 2025 budget. The credits will become law when New York Governor Kathy Hochul signs the state budget.

The job tax credits were first introduced as the Local Journalism Sustainability Act (S.625-Hoylman-Sigal/A.2958-Woerner). The final budget language provides $30 million in tax credits each year over three years, covering half of a journalist’s salary up to $50,000 each year. Publishers will only be able to use these employment tax credits to rebuild their newsrooms by hiring new reporters and retaining current staff.

The organizing effort for this initiative has been spearheaded by the Albany Newspaper Guild, New York News Publishers Association, the New York State AFL-CIO, The NewsGuild-CWA and the Communications Workers of America beginning in 2022.

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On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released the following statement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Contact: Ryan Martin, 202-680-0427

SCHUMER STATEMENT ON THE ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE JOURNALISTS AS THEY SEEK A FAIR CONTRACT WITH GANNETT

New York, N.Y. – A long-time advocate for New York’s local news outlets, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer today released the following statement urging Gannett to negotiate in good faith with the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle journalists and reach a fair deal on wages, benefits and working conditions to avoid a strike:

“Local journalism is the glue that keeps our communities together and nowhere is that more true than Rochester, where Gannett was first established nearly a century ago – with the Democrat & Chronicle as its flagship newspaper. I visit every one of New York’s 62 counties each year — many of which depend on Gannett newspapers as a critical source for local news. It breaks my heart to see the decline of these once robust newsrooms with reporters who are struggling to get by and newsrooms without enough reporters to cover many of the important local stories that are foundational to a well-informed citizenry and a healthy democracy. I urge Gannett to stay at the table and negotiate in good faith with the union to reach a fair deal on wages, benefits, working conditions, and investments to create the robust well-supported newsrooms our communities need. I stand in solidarity with the journalists at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle as they pursue the fair contract and benefits they deserve.”

The NewsGuild-CWA and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild are hiring a comms director.

Job Title/Position: Communications Coordinator
Salary Range: $80.932.66 – $103,073.27
Job Location: Washington, DC

This is a full-time position for a Communications Coordinator, based in  Washington D.C. The Communications Coordinator  will work with both  The NewsGuild-CWA and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild as the principal media strategist. They will help manage earned media, online media, internal, and external communications. The ideal candidate will have the ability to work independently, as well as part of a team, and be able to respond to time-sensitive communications and deadlines.

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Journalists at The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions use technology to change our society, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement. Workers first unionized and won voluntary recognition in October 2020.

Workers locked in a $65,000 salary floor, guaranteed annual raises of at least 3.5% for the lowest paid employees and codified their 401(k) match and other benefits they had at the time of unionizing.

“We pushed really hard for a fair contract and safe benefits and we’re extremely excited to have it,” said Malena Carollo, an investigative reporter at The Markup.

“It means a lot to have job security in this type of environment,” she said in referencing the hundreds of journalists who have been laid off by media companies in January. The threat of layoffs at either profitable or billionaire-owned organizations have led many journalists to strike at publications like the Los Angeles Times and Condé Nast recently.

They also secured an impressive six months of 100% paid parental leave.

“It means people are able to take the time they actually need after they have or adopt a baby,” Carollo said.

The contract also includes $15,000 support for a diversity, equity and inclusion committee and new hiring pool goal minimums for candidates of historically underrepresented groups. Workers also secured book writing rights and the power to share in any production rights if their stories are turned into films or podcasts.

More than 200 unionized journalists at seven newsrooms launch a one-day strike to demand fair wages, protection of 401k match

Biggest collective action against Alden Global Capital since 2021 purchase of Tribune Publishing

Alden has slow walked contract negotiations; bargaining for most units is in its fifth year

NATIONAL – More than 200 Tribune Publishing journalists, designers, and production workers at seven newsrooms across the country walked off the job for 24 hours today in a historic strike to protest the company’s refusal to pay journalists, designers and editors a fair age and management’s threat to take away the 401k match benefit. Tribune Publishing journalists at all the newsrooms are represented by The NewsGuild-CWA.

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After more than 3 years of bargaining, the Indianapolis News Guild reached a two-year collective bargaining agreement with Gannett.

The agreement invests $200,000 in giving members long-deserved raises and updating the woefully outdated wage scale. This was a priority among the 39 members, whose input also guided the decision-making in non-economic areas.

The contract includes a new seniority-based wage scale, plus across-the-board pay increases in both years of the contract, which will benefit every member and help with pay equity in the newsroom.

Continue reading “Indy Guild ratifies new contract, with better pay and job protections against AI”

AUSTIN — Employees of the award-winning nonprofit newsroom The Texas Tribune announced their intent to unionize on Wednesday as the Texas Tribune Guild, part of the Media Guild of the West and The NewsGuild-CWA.

Organizers petitioned for voluntary recognition from the CEO, editor-in-chief and the board of The Texas Tribune.

Members of the union organizing committee presented management with the request for voluntary recognition after 90% of eligible staffers signed union authorization cards signaling their desire to be represented by the Texas Tribune Guild.

Continue reading “Texas Tribune employees announce union organizing campaign”