By Bernie Lunzer
Last month, while sitting in on a local bargaining session, I asked management’s chief negotiator what the publisher’s plans were for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The employer’s rep was stumped. He had no idea.
But he knew he had to extract millions of dollars from the employees. Continue reading “Why Aren’t Publishers Investing in the Future? Don’t They See One?”
July 12, 2017 – The battle for fair contracts at GateHouse Media newspapers has intensified in recent months. Workers at the 16 Guild-represented publications engaged in joint actions, developed a coordinated campaign to take on GateHouse and its parent company, and scored a stunning victory at a meeting of shareholders.
Continue reading “GateHouse Workers Launch Coordinated Strategy”
Just a week after the East Bay News staff was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “relentless” coverage of the deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, Digital First Media, owner of the Bay Area News Group, announced plans to move copy desk work to Southern California, triggering 20 more layoffs from a shrunken roster of 92 Guild-represented employees in the East Bay.
Nearly 1,500 NewsGuild members in 28 bargaining units joined together on World Press Freedom Day to focus attention on an often-overlooked threat — the damage done to newspapers by profiteering hedge fund owners. Continue reading “DFM, GateHouse Workers Target a Different Threat to Press Freedom — Asset-Stripping Hedge Fund Owners”
Buffalo Wins First Raise in Seven Years
Members of the Guild at The Buffalo News ratified a new two-year contract in April that provides a much-needed boost in wages for the first time in seven years. The agreement also beat back several damaging proposals from management. Continue reading “Bargaining & Settlements – Bytes & bits: Buffalo”
Members of the NewsGuild-CWA marked World Press Freedom Day on May 3 by launching a campaign to protect the Right to Report. The union is asking all those who treasure freedom of the press to sign a petition and join the fight to protect this cherished right.
Continue reading “Journalists Mark Press Freedom Day with Campaign for the ‘Right to Report’”
May 4, 2017 – NewsGuild-CWA members at 28 digital media companies owned by Gatehouse Media and Digital First Media (DFM) observed World Press Freedom Day on May 3 with coordinated actions to support quality journalism at the papers and to highlight the damage wrought by severe cuts in their newsrooms and other departments.
The activities, which included rallies and displays of signs and banners at work stations, aimed to raise awareness of the growing threat that “vulture” hedge funds pose to the nation’s community newspapers. Union leaders say the newspaper owners’ excessive profiteering threatens journalism at a critical time of politicized attacks on the news media. The events marked the first coordinated acts of solidarity by GateHouse and DFM workers. Continue reading “In First-Ever Coordinated Actions, GateHouse, DFM Workers Stand Up for Press Freedom”
Unionized workers at media outlets owned by GateHouse Media and Digital First Media (DFM) will mark World Press Freedom Day – May 3 – by sending a message to their employers: “Democracy Depends on Journalism: Invest in Us.”
Continue reading “Workers at Digital First Media, GateHouse Join Forces on Press Freedom Day”
