Featured | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA

Screenshot of letter from Los Angeles Times journalists decrying management's attempts to lay off workers without bargaining.

NAHJ, SPJ, AAJA, CCNMA join L.A. Times Guild in decrying management’s attempt lay off workers, including many journalists of color

On Thursday, more than 370 workers in the Los Angeles Times newsroom sent a letter to management calling out the company’s attempt to lay off 74 workers, including 57 Guild-covered workers on the copy desk, web desk, photo desk, production desks and elsewhere. Leaders from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and the Latino Journalists of California CCNMA quickly jumped in and called out Times’ management.

Your handling of this proposed layoff sends a clear message to the newsroom: You don’t care about the contract, and you don’t care about us.

We’re willing to do whatever it takes to win the contract that this newsroom deserves. You should be too. Starting now, we need to see a senior newsroom leader at every bargaining session — not just observing, but participating. Show us that you want to make progress. Show us that you care.
L.A. Times Guild letter to management

Journalists, part of the Media Guild of the West TNG-CWA Local 39213, were in negotiations with management over the attempted layoffs Thursday. Several leaders pointed out that the layoffs predominantly targeted journalists of color.

White House stands with striking Guild members at Insider, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Gannett

Late Thursday the White House offered support for NewsGuild-CWA members who have been on unfair labor strikes across the United States in recent days. Hundreds of workers have been on strike at different outlets including Insider, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and two dozen Gannett newsrooms.

In a statement provided exclusively to the Insider Union’s strike publication Business Outsider, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre threw the administration’s support behind recent newsroom unfair labor practice strikes breaking out in local newsrooms and digital outlets.

Photo of person holding sign at a rally during a strike at Gannett that reads, "Don't starve local news." Other workers and supporters are in the background with one sign that reads "Palm Beach NewsGuild walks out"

Here’s how you can support striking Guild members

Hundreds of Guild members from more than two dozen newsrooms went on strike across the U.S. in the past week, joining the strikers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who have been on strike for nine months.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Post-Gazette striker Steve Mellon speaks during the May Day Rally and March commemorating International Workers’ Day at the United Steelworkers Building, Downtown, on Monday, May 1, 2023. Behind him are fellow strikers Ed Blazina, left, John Santa and Andrew Goldstein. (Karen Carlin/Union Progress)

Workers from the newsroom and production side have been striking against the Block family over the company’s cancellation of health insurance and its illegal imposition of terms. They’re running a strike publication and continuing to hold the line and make sure that the company follows federal law.

Support Pittsburgh Members

Insider

About 300 journalists went on an open-ended strike on Friday, June 2 over an unfair labor practice where the company illegally changed health insurance without bargaining (sound familiar?). The workers are pushing for decent health care coverage, a livable minimum wage and protections from artificial intelligence eroding their jobs.

SUPPORT Insider members

Gannett

Hundreds of workers from about two dozen Gannett publications went on a one-, two- or five-day strike in Gannett over the company’s unfair labor practices. Workers pushed for a no-confidence vote and the Guild called on shareholders to withhold their votes for CEO Mike Reed this week. Under Reed’s stewardship of the company following the merger of GateHouse Media and Gannett Media in November 2019, newsrooms have been hollowed out, local news coverage has dwindled, and Gannett share prices have fallen nearly 70% – far more than peers in the industry like the New York Times and Lee Enterprises. Shares tumbled more than 10% after the walkout. Several newsrooms set up fundraisers to help cover the lost wages during the strike.

Palm Springs Desert Sun

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION

Arizona Republic

Austin American-Statesman

NJ, NY & Reviewed Journalists

MLex and FTCWatch workers unanimously vote to unionize

Yesterday a majority of eligible MLex and FTCWatch workers voted 13-0 to form the MLex Guild, a unit of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and part of the Communications Workers of America. MLex Guild is comprised of workers in Washington, San Francisco and New York.

After about six months of organizing, the MLex Guild in April formally announced its intention to form a union, with 100 percent support from eligible members.

Members of the Florida Times-Union Guild talked with members of the community in Jacksonville in March 2023.

Gannett journalists to strike during annual shareholders meeting

Reporters call on Gannett shareholders to vote no-confidence in CEO Mike Reed, citing Reed’s gross mismanagement

Two dozen newsrooms and hundreds of journalists expected to take part

NATIONAL — Gannett journalists today announced that they would be holding a wave of nationwide strikes starting on June 5, the day of Gannett’s annual shareholder meeting. Hundreds of union journalists in two dozen newsrooms from California to New York are expected to take part to demand that Gannett get serious about reinvesting in local news, in the largest collective action that Gannett employees have taken to date.

Journalists will take one-day walkouts on the day of the meeting, with some newsrooms walking off the job for two days or more. The Gannett publications participating will come from more than half a dozen states, including California, Arizona, Texas, Indiana, Florida, New Jersey and New York.

Journalist unions condemn Meta’s threat to remove local news from platforms

Contact: Matt Pearce president@mediaguildwest.org

California’s journalists strongly condemned Meta’s threat to ban news on platforms like Facebook and Instagram if the California Journalism Preservation Act (AB 886) becomes law. The bill, which faces a likely Assembly vote on Thursday, would charge large platforms like Meta and Google parent Alphabet for scraping journalism for their platforms. The revenue would then be portioned out to publishers and broadcasters with a requirement that at least 70% of the revenue go directly to supporting newsroom jobs.

“This is a corporate bullying tactic timed to intimidate California lawmakers the day before they take up this bill on the Assembly floor,” said Matt Pearce, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and president of Media Guild of the West. “The California Journalism Preservation Act is a good bill, designed to strengthen local journalism in California, and it deserves civil debate, not threats of censorship.”

Insider Union votes to authorize a strike

Vote follows management illegally changing workers’ health care and a proposal in April to lay off 20% of bargaining unit

Insider Union announced today that a supermajority of union members voted in favor of authorizing their bargaining committee to call a strike. Members are calling for the company to bargain in good faith and are protesting management’s decision to illegally change workers’ health care. Members are also demanding a resolution to a proposed layoff that would reduce the newsroom by 20 percent, as they are bargaining for a fair first contract. The nearly 300 members of the Insider Union are represented by The NewsGuild of New York.

94 percent voted in favor of strike authorization on Tuesday afternoon after a bargaining session with Insider management. 80 percent of the bargaining unit participated in the vote.

New York Times Guild wins groundbreaking contract agreement

Five-year contract includes immediate $65,000 salary floor, hybrid work options, a ban on NDAs, new investments in local news around the country

Agreement reached after a series of escalating collective actions by workers, including the first full work stoppage since the 1970s

NEW YORK — The New York Times Guild, a unit of The NewsGuild of New York, announced on Tuesday that it has reached a tentative agreement with The New York Times Company on a new collective bargaining contract after more than two years of negotiations. The tentative agreement, which must be ratified by members to go into effect, is a five-year deal that will be effective until March 2026.

The agreement will set new standards for working conditions, wages and benefits across the media industry. The deal addresses a majority of the provisions that Times workers have demanded since their previous contract expired in March 2021, at the height of the pandemic.

View of the Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2020.

Unions, public interest advocates thwart hedge fund’s attempted takeover of local news and set groundbreaking FCC precedent

In a major victory for journalists and media workers, funding for hedge fund Standard General’s takeover of local news broadcaster TEGNA expires while deal is under review due to concerns about its impact on jobs

Washington, D.C. — Thanks to the dedication of members and leaders at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), civil rights groups, and consumer advocates fighting against the financialization of local news, the effort of hedge fund Standard General and its private equity partner Apollo Global Management to take over local news broadcaster TEGNA appears to have failed.

Late Monday TEGNA announced it was terminating its merger agreement with Standard General and stands to receive a $136 million breakup fee.

Guild calls on Gannett shareholders to vote against CEO Mike Reed at annual meeting

NEW YORK – The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America today sent a letter to Gannett shareholders urging a vote of no-confidence against CEO Mike Reed at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on June 5. The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 50 Gannett bargaining units, covering more than 1,000 employees.

The letter warns that Reed’s actions are jeopardizing the financial future of the company, underlining that the hollowing out of newsrooms was tainting the company’s reputation, turning off subscribers, forcing out talented staff, and creating legal risks by hampering proper vetting of stories.