Press Freedom | The NewsGuild

Newsletter: Condé workers make history

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Condé Nast workers made history on Friday: More than 500 staffers at a dozen publications won voluntary recognition of Condé Nast Union. All of Condé Nast publications are now union!

The newly recognized union covers full- and part-time editorial, video and production workers at Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Glamour, GQ, Self, Teen Vogue, them., Vanity Fair and Vogue, as well as Condé Nast Entertainment. It also includes more than 100 subcontracted employees who work for a third-party staffing agency.

Newsletter: NYT performance reviews show bias; Guild loses a good soul

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An analysis by members of the New York Times Guild published last week reveals stunning racial disparities in performance evaluations of Guild-represented employees by management at the New York Times.

The study found that being Hispanic reduced the odds of receiving a high score by about 60%, being Black cut the chances of high scores by nearly 50%, and being Asian lowered the odds of a high score by about 35%. In 2020, not a single Black employee received the highest rating, while white employees accounted for more than 90 percent of the roughly 50 people who received the top score.

NewsGuild calls on Biden to support press freedom around the world, including Saudi Arabia

Updated 5 p.m. – NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss said, “It’s good to see that President Biden raised the murder of Jamal Khashoggi with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Now he must hold the Saudi government accountable.”

Today NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss released the following statement on the meeting between President Biden and Saudi leaders:

America’s journalists call on the Biden administration to advance human rights and protect press freedoms around the world.

President Biden once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah and even released U.S. intelligence reports that pinned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for ordering the killing of Washington Post Columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Newsletter: We are worth more.

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Over the weekend there was devastating news out of Buffalo, N.Y. Ten people were killed and three wounded when a gunman opened fire in a supermarket on Saturday in an act of racist violence. My heart goes out to the people of Buffalo, which is known as the city of good neighbors. I commend the brave reporting by Buffalo Newspaper Guild journalists. Members “jumped into action to faithfully tell the story. It’s a task we will continue to vigorously pursue.”

Newsletter: Packing bargaining to deliver a message

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Workers at the Chicago Reader took to the streets to save their publication. Last Tuesday they tweeted “We won,” after co-owner Len Goodman stepped down, ending his attempt to delay the publication’s transition to a nonprofit.

Newsletter: Meet the new Guild staffers

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This every-other-week newsletter is packed with a lot of news. My hope is that we help communicate all the fights of our members through this newsletter and build solidarity within the Guild. Can you do me a favor and forward this newsletter to at least one of your colleagues and ask them to subscribe?

Folks can subscribe right here.

We’ve got two new staffers! I’m thrilled to announce them after a lot of work to make it happen. Danielle Newsome (she/her) joins us as a new staff representative, with a focus on the jobs that used to be part of the Guild’s director of collective bargaining. This comes after all of our discussions last year to increase capacity and provide more support to our locals. And while CWA still has a hiring freeze, this position was created after the passage of the SMART resolution at CWA’s October Convention.

NewsGuild Statement on the Death of Fox News Cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian Journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova

Updated 7:40 p.m. ET

The NewsGuild-CWA decries the death of Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova, who were killed Monday in Ukraine in an attack that also injured Fox Correspondent Benjamin Hall. Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova are the second and third journalist killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the last two days. As least 636 other civilians have also been killed, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Newsletter: Still smiling

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Members of Tribune Publishing Guilds released a study last week documenting rampant pay disparities based on race, gender and ethnicity at more than a dozen Tribunes newsrooms across the country.

NewsGuild Statement on the death of Brent Renaud

Statement by The NewsGuild-CWA on the death of Brent Renaud:

“We condemn the death of American journalist Brent Renaud — and numerous other innocents — in Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against the people of Ukraine.

Journalists win $825,000 and reforms in lawsuit brought by Minnesota ACLU, CWA, NewsGuild

A federal judge has approved a settlement that prohibits Minnesota State Patrol from attacking or arresting journalists and awards $825,000 to several who were assaulted and injured while covering protests over the police killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright in 2020.