Category: Featured

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s former owners hit a dead end and must pay back millions to journalists. We won at the Supreme Court. 

Our union hasn’t been able to say those words very much over our 93-year history. 

But we’re saying them this week after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up management’s appeal of our victory at the appellate court. 

This whole saga has been going on for years, and so I wrote up a “mini” timeline:

Close to 30 Guild leaders got together this past weekend for the New Local Officers Seminar (NLOS), which hadn’t been held since 2019. The seminar was created in 1982 to train local officers recently elected to their positions. 

Over four days, participants learned and shared their experiences on leadership, organizing, bargaining, representation and communications. They dove into the role of local leaders, discussed burnout and learned more about the Guild’s Learn, Do, Teach framework to build capacity. The seminar covered the role of stewards, contract and rights enforcement and an overview of bargaining processes. Attendees also joined sessions on how to build an organizing structure and union communications.

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.”

To our readers—

We’re happy to share some good news: after a series of bargaining meetings concluding in September, the Current Affairs staff union has ratified and signed a new contract with the magazine, covering the next two years. 

We’re represented by the Chicago News Guild, Local 34071, an affiliate of the The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA), and this contract gives Current Affairs workers a number of important protections and benefits. We’re proud of what we were able to secure through collective bargaining, and hope this contract will become a useful standard for workers at other media organizations who are considering unionization. 

Among the major provisions of the new contract are:

• A strong anti-AI policy, prohibiting the use of generative AI to write articles or create art for the magazine. 
• Ownership of our intellectual property, meaning that workers retain the copyright to the writing and art they create. 
• Three weeks days of paid time off (PTO).
• Unlimited sick days, so workers can seek medical care without worrying about counting their leave. 
• 10 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• “Just cause” employment protections, giving workers greater job security. 
• A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to wages, helping ensure that pay keeps pace with rising inflation.
• A worker representative on the Current Affairs board of directors.

Contact: dhnewsguild@gmail.com

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL – On Thursday, Oct. 1, Daily Herald journalists elected to form the Daily Herald News Guild by an overwhelming vote of 15-0.

Authorized observers from the union and management witnessed the counting of ballots unsealed at the offices of the National Labor Relations Board at the Dirksen Federal Building in downtown Chicago.

The secret ballot election was conducted via U.S. mail after newspaper owner Alden Global Capital/Tribune Publishing refused to voluntarily recognize the union. All 20 union eligible journalists had signed cards in support of organizing in late August.

The Guild will officially be certified within a week of the vote tally.

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. 

WASHINGTON – The staff of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) today request voluntary recognition of their union, NLIHC Workers United. A supermajority (96%) of workers, 28 employees, have signed union authorization cards, demonstrating their desire to be represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG).

For over fifty years, NLIHC has been a leading voice for equity, integrity, and fairness – in their work, with their members and partners, and on the national stage. NLIHC is dedicated to achieving racially and socially equitable public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes have quality homes that are accessible and affordable in communities of their choice. As workers of a mission driven, values based organization, the staff of NLIHC know “there’s nothing about us without us.” A years-long effort in the making, today they come together with the hope of advancing three major priorities – transparency, staff development and support, and collaboration – with the creation of their union. A union will give these workers a concrete mechanism to ensure shared values extend to the workforce.

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).