Newsletter: We’re on strike at Law360!

Our members at Law360 are on an unfair labor practice strike this morning and I’m on the train to rally with them in New York this afternoon.  

Management, led by LexisNexis Vice President Teresa Harmon, continues to demand that union members accept paltry raises that fail to seriously address rising costs of living and dramatically increased costs for healthcare. Throughout bargaining management has repeatedly dismissed the impact of inflation on members as irrelevant to negotiations about wages. All while refusing to agree to the union’s reasonable demands that the company remedy its March 2024 unlawful layoff of 26 union-represented workers. 

ADD YOUR NAME: Support Law360 Union Journalists On Strike

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Newsletter: Major Victory in Pittsburgh: NLRB Seeks End to Strike + Support Our Strikers Today!

We finally have an injunction petition filed in Pittsburgh! It’s a major win in our 22-month-long strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Executive Vice President Marian Needham and I joined our striking family last week after the news broke in a press conference and rally at the Post-Gazette building. 

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Newsletter: Journalism is by humans, for humans

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490 days after he was unjustly detained by Russian authorities, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is finally coming home.

Throughout Evan’s unjust detention, members of IAPE TNG-CWA Local 1096, Dow Jones employees, and supporters everywhere changed their social media avatars and members distributed “Free Evan Now” buttons as fast as IAPE could deliver them to show support for Evan and press freedom.

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Newsletter: 80+ first contracts in 3 Years

Earlier this month we lost Jane McAlevey, who inspired so many Guild members to do the hard work of No Shortcuts, her book and training that taught us:

  • The power to win is in the community, not the boardroom. 
  • A strong union is built through strong one-on-one connections between rank-and-file workers. 
  • Chart and map out workplaces. Really understand worker sentiment. 
  • Build structure tests.
  • Open up bargaining.
  • Escalate to super majority collective actions, including strikes.
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Newsletter: Reviewed Workers Strike; Sun Sentinel Journalists Organize

Workers at Reviewed – a Gannett publication – are back on the digital picket line today after the Fourth of July holiday. The Reviewed Union struck earlier this week, citing the need for fair wages and a management’s status quo violation.

For the duration of bargaining, management has insisted on a proposal that would cut pay and writers and editors have been asked to take on additional duties, which is an illegal change to their working conditions.

“Gannett has consistently come to the table with bad-faith offers, while forcing all of us to do the job of multiple people for the same pay. As of the last month, they want us to do work outside of our job descriptions, with no associated pay increases. We’re fed up. We’re going on strike until Monday to send Gannett a message: Until you pay us what we deserve, it’s no longer business as usual,” said Madison Durham, a senior staff writer.

To help support us during the strike, please share and donate to the Reviewed Union strike fund so members can continue fighting for fair wages.

The journalists at the South Florida Sun Sentinel announced this week they are forming a union to defend the future of their newsroom and South Florida’s access to quality local journalism. An overwhelming majority of Sun Sentinel journalists, 88%, signed cards in favor of unionizing. The workers have demanded voluntary recognition by the owner, Tribune Media, which is owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. 

The last two decades have been difficult for journalism in general, and for Sun Sentinel staffers in particular. They have seen staff levels razed and salaries and benefits cut. With diminishing resources, they pulled together and provided the region and the nation with Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the slaughter of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018. They continue to win awards and earn national praise for their reporting. 

The workers organized at a rapid pace just one month after eight Tribune-owned publications ratified historic agreements

Follow the Sun Sentinel Guild on social media.

IAPE members voted by an overwhelming margin to approve a new four-year contract with Dow Jones & Company! Nearly 81% of eligible IAPE voters cast a ballot during the ratification process, a new record-high turnout for the union.

Over a year-long period, IAPE members mobilized and marched, packed virtual open bargaining rooms and pledged to walk out, painted picket signs and scribbled on post-it notes, and pushed management to a contract that includes: above-inflation wages, better healthcare coverage, some AI protections, and extra severance when jobs are cut as a result of new technology, among other benefits.

Their industry-leading contract shows what is possible when members organize to show the power of a dissatisfied and mobilized workforce.

Our Pittsburgh strikers are shipping out their new shirts — be sure to get one before they’re gone! You can nab one for yourself with a $20 donation to the strikers.

Newsletter: Trust Journalists. Not AI.

Nebraska journalists at the Omaha World-Herald Guild are celebrating a new two-year contract with Lee Enterprises. The contract – the Guild’s third with the company – was passed unanimously and guarantees multiple wage increases, immediate raises for all union members, new protections from Artificial Intelligence, expanded bereavement definition and more. Journalists in Omaha first organized in October 2018.

Congratulations to the Omaha World-Herald Guild! When we fight, we win!

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Taking Our Fight to the Statehouse(s)

A bill sitting on the Maryland governor’s desk would dramatically impact journalism jobs and local news coverage across the state during a critical election year. If signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland House 1258 would remove estate notices from news organizations and put them in centralized websites. These notices provide essential advertising revenue for the few Maryland newspapers in the state.

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Newsletter: Stand with student journalists on World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day couldn’t come at a more poignant time. This week, amid growing unrest on college campuses over the Israel-Gaza war, courageous student journalists across the continent worked tirelessly under precarious conditions to deliver accurate reporting to their communities and the entire nation at large.

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