Latest News | The NewsGuild

Newsletter: We are on strike in Pittsburgh and need your help

“The last few days have been wild!” is what I reply when people ask how things are going or how folks are doing in Pittsburgh. I’ll get into more down below, but the TLDR is that our members are on strike right now in Pittsburgh and they need your help right now!

Here’s what you can do right now:

Donate to the striker fund. We worked with our amazing family at The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia and CWA to set up a strike supporter fund. This will help any worker on strike (Guild-CWA-Teamsters) who faces hardship and needs help above and beyond the strike benefits workers get. Your contribution will help someone cover rent or mortgage, take care of a family member and make sure they’re fed. Donate what you can here. Note, we cannot accept contributions from any employers whose employees are represented by TNG, CWA or IBT.

Workers at Forward win contract

Workers at Forward, a source for news, opinion and culture “through a Jewish lens,” won a new contract after 14 months of bargaining.

Boundless Greed: Alden walks away from bills, gathers wealth and guts news organizations

The founders of Alden Global Capital — the infamous ‘destroyer of newspapers’ — are walking away from unpaid bills as they amass ever more personal wealth (and continue to gut news organizations)

Editor’s Note: The article first appeared on the website Save Local News on Sept. 23.

Randall Smith, cofounder of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, is infamous for two things: gutting local newspapers and a voracious acquisition of pricey real estate.

America’s journalists want Congress to prioritize saving jobs, not hedge funds

The NewsGuild-CWA is calling on members of Congress to improve the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act so that it protects local journalists and strengthens local reporting. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

San Francisco Chronicle Guild members fight management antics

Members of the San Francisco Chronicle Guild have been busy fighting management antics this month while bargaining for a new contract.

They found a nice new spot for their contractually guaranteed Guild bulletin board after the company remodeled the newsroom, but in mid-September management moved the board to a less visible location.

Management also removed Chronicle Guild flags, which staffers had planted with the office’s fake greenery.

Nominations for NewsGuild officers will be January 7

The first virtual Nominating Conference of The NewsGuild-CWA will be held on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023, beginning at 12 p.m. ET.

Guild delegates to the 2022 Sector Conference voted to establish a virtual Nominating Conference to nominate NewsGuild officers. This change eliminates the need for delegates to travel to two separate conferences in the same year.

Verso Guild members ratify first contract

Verso Books’ U.S. staffers ratified their first contract on Wednesday, 16 months after they began negotiating. The decision was unanimous, with all 14 members voting in favor.

That’s a marked turnaround from August, when workers rejected management’s proposed contract by a vote of 14-1.

And the winner of the swag contest is…

Kathy Zhang is the winner of the NewsGuild’s union drip contest with the entry below. We asked Guild members to post their best union look on Twitter and tell us why they’re proud to be a member. We pulled the tweets and used a random number generator to select the winner.