Contact: Charlie Vargas, (909) 275-9669; SCNG News Guild, juancharlievargas740@gmail.com

Journalists at 11 daily newspapers in Southern California are walked out Thursday, Dec. 14.

“We are simply seeking fair wages so that we don’t have to struggle to afford living in the communities we cover,” said SCNG Guild unit chair Sean Emery, a courts and crime reporter. “We believe in local news, and our communities deserve robust coverage. But choosing a career in journalism should not require a virtual vow of poverty. It is time for the members of our newsroom to be paid what they are worth.”

Contact: Jen Sheehan, jen@nyguid.org, 610-573-0740

NEW YORK – Unionized editorial workers at Law360  — who have had enough of parent company LexisNexis execs’ illegal tactics and stalling at the bargaining table — will hold a one-day strike on Wednesday, highlighted by a mid-afternoon rally and a day-long picket line outside corporate headquarters in New York City.

Readers of the legal news service are urged not to cross the digital picket line Wednesday.  

The work stoppage comes after The NewsGuild of New York filed an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of Law360 Union against LexisNexis on Tuesday. The basis of the charge is a Nov. 16 bargaining session in which LexisNexis representatives threatened Guild members with less favorable terms the longer negotiations continue. Regressive bargaining is a form of bad faith bargaining, in which one side moves backwards, offering less on a proposal than they had previously offered. 

At midnight today workers at the Washington Post started a 24-hour unfair labor practice strike over the company’s refusal to bargain in good faith.

After 18 months of bargaining with Washington Post, Guild workers — including reporters, editors, cartoonists, visual journalists, advertising sales people and circulation drivers — walked out. Despite a year and a half of efforts, Post management has refused to bargain in good faith for a fair contract that keeps up with inflation and the Post’s competition.

NABET-CWA President Charlie Braico and NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss released a statement in support of Federal Communications Commission Chair Rosenworcel’s announcement on a proposed rulemaking to support local journalism by prioritizing license application review for broadcasters that provide locally originated programming:

“American democracy depends on every citizen having easy access to local news coverage that provides credible, factual information they need to make informed decisions about their health, their safety, their government and their lives. Yet a rise in local news deserts, communities without access to local news, threatens the livelihood and wellbeing of our communities and our democracy. In the last decade thousands of local newspapers have shut their doors and half of all journalist jobs have disappeared. 

“We must do everything we can to protect and bolster local news coverage and the journalists and media workers who help bring us the news. That’s why we applaud Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s announcement on the proposed rulemaking to support local journalism. We look forward to working with the Federal Communications Commission to ensure our members can have a future in local journalism and our communities are served by the news they deserve.” 

On November 9, The NewsGuild-CWA condemned the killing of 39 journalists and media workers in the Israel-Hamas War. Since that time, roughly 20 more have been killed and many others have been injured, harassed and detained. As stated by the Committee to Protect Journalists, this has been the deadliest month for journalists since they started gathering data in 1992. 

The nearly 60 known dead include 50 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese. Many currently reporting from Gaza have lost homes and family, and are reporting without regular access to phones, internet, shelter or power.

The Unions of Lee Enterprises is denouncing plans by Lee Enterprises to sell The Southern Illinoisan newspaper to Paxton Media Group under terms that will result in the elimination of all the local journalists who currently work for it.

Despite pronouncements by Paxton Media on Oct. 27 that it will foster “community-based journalism” and “expand” coverage through the purchase of The Southern Illinoisan, the entire union-represented newsroom has been told they should clear out their desks by Nov. 24.

The NewsGuild-CWA, America’s largest union of journalists, strongly condemns the killing of journalists in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon and calls on all parties to ensure the safety of journalists in the region to work without threat or interference. 

The union additionally condemns comments made on Thursday by Benny Gantz, a minister in the Israeli government and former defense minister, who compared journalists to “terrorists” in a post about Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel.