Hot off the presses, unionized journalists behind The New York Times’s Wirecutter have unanimously approved a new three-year contract. Wirecutter Union workers had been working under an expired contract since Feb. 28.
Continue reading “Newsletter: So many contracts!”
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.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Stand with student journalists on World Press Freedom Day”
I’ve got historic news to tell you about.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Strike, injunction, & historic legislation”
Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce (donning his statin CWA jacket) joined comedian Adam Conover’s show Factually! for an in depth discussion on the state of journalism and how unions can play a role in safeguarding its future.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Law360 journalists walk out!”
Last week, our members at the Palm Springs Desert Sun started an open-ended strike. Two days later, that strike ended with one of the best new contracts journalists have won in Gannett in the last several years.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Journalists WIN 25th strike of 2024!”
The media industry has been on a wild ride so far this year. Layoffs across the industry from the Wall Street Journal, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Los Angeles Times, Messenger and this week, Vice Media.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Unions and…Fortnite?”
Happy Friday!
We have a lot of news around the Guild, so let’s jump in.
Last week I attended the Washington Post RAT-ificiation party in Washington, DC and it broke my heart with joy. Outgoing co-unit chair Katie Mettler showed a video about leadership. Have you seen the shirtless dancing guy? A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But followers are the ones that build a movement and you have to embrace them as equals.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Are you going to Labor Notes?”
It has been a very busy 2024! Just yesterday more than 200 workers across Tribune Publishing struck seven publications over the owner’s refusal to provide raises and retain a 401k match that employees depend on. The owner? Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund murdering America’s newsrooms.
America’s journalists are standing up and fighting back.
“We didn’t go into this job for the money, but Alden’s cuts have hit so close to the bone that we can’t even do our jobs as journalists anymore. Enough is enough. Journalists deserve to be able to retire with dignity,” said Madeline Buckley, criminal courts reporter at the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Tribune Guild unit chair. “The company’s insulting proposals on wages and benefits puts our future at risk, along with our ability to continue to produce the hard-hitting journalism this city relies upon.”
Continue reading “Newsletter: 24 strikes in two weeks? Yep!”When we were organizing at the Los Angeles Times seven years ago we never thought we would go on strike.
Now, six years to the day since we had our vote count, workers are on strike for 24 hours in protest of illegal behavior by management and company plans to lay off a disastrous number of journalists.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles Times management announced that it intends to imminently lay off a significant number of journalists and asked the Guild to gut seniority protections in the union contract so they have vastly more freedom to pick whom to lay off. This will greatly damage our ability to provide the accountability journalism so important to Southern California.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Los Angeles Times is on strike TODAY”NewsGuild-CWA members at Law360 are on strike today. Workers at the legal news service owned by LexisNexis are fed up with management’s illegal and stalling tactics at the bargaining table and started a one-day work stoppage in protest over management’s behavior.
The Law360 group is special to me (and yes, every member and bargaining unit is special to me). But Law360 members paved the way for my colleagues to organize at the Los Angeles Times. Law360 unionized in August of 2016 and set up a union website. We straight-up copied their “Union busting 101” page and most of their website. Law360 members applied aggressive collective action tactics, which we copied at the Times up to our union win in January 2018.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Law360 went on strike this morning”