54 years after its humble beginnings as a newspaper in Wyoming, the national magazine’s unionizing efforts will go towards pay parity and equitable working conditions.
Press contact: McKenna Stayner, hcnunion@gmail.com
Website: www.hcnunion.org
Twitter: @HCNUnion Instagram: @HCNWorkers
On Jan. 9, staff at High Country News, a 54-year-old nonprofit magazine that covers lands and communities in the Western U.S., announced their intent to unionize. The High Country News Union has organized with the Communications Workers of America Local 37074, Denver News Guild, joining peers such as the Denver Post and Casper-Star Tribune. On a national scale, High Country News staff joins the ranks of an increasing number of nonprofit newsrooms to unionize, from Grist to CalMatters to ProPublica.
“I’m so excited to see what HCN will become when staff have a real and meaningful say in our workplace. The High Country News Union will be a body to receive and digest all our individual needs and reflect our shared goal of making HCN a better, healthier work environment,” said HCN’s Features Director McKenna Stayner.
In recent years, the publication has spotlighted labor movements across the West. But this is the first time HCN workers themselves have organized. The wall-to-wall union will include staff from the customer service, marketing, development, art and editorial departments. The magazine has a small home office in Paonia, Colorado, but most staff are dispersed across the West, working remotely.
The High Country News Union plans to negotiate for salary and hourly wages commensurate with the national industry; affordable health coverage for dependents; just cause employment; sustainable work loads; mental health support; and pathways for internal career development. The union has requested that HCN’s executive director Greg Hanscom and board of directors voluntarily recognize the union by Jan. 12 in order to better support staff in the editorial and art departments to marketing and development, some who have worked there just a few months, while others have been there over 30 years.
“The High Country News Union is an investment in the future of the organization during a difficult time for the journalism industry. I’m proud of our work and thankful for the progress HCN has made in supporting its staff in the last few years. But there is still much to do to make this a more sustainable workplace, and I feel strongly that our continued evolution as an organization will be best served by a greater collective voice in decisions and plans that impact us all,” says Roberto (Bear) Guerra, HCN’s visuals editor.
“HCN’s leadership openly recognizes the industry norm of underpaying staff as par for the course. But they base their compensation model on similarly-sized organizations in Denver, not nationwide publishing standards. It’s more akin to playing a different golf course. With the launch of HCN’s Union, we pivot towards prioritizing staff retention over this approach, which fails to align with the standards set by other nonprofit news publications in the industry. This is a notable moment for all HCN’s staff, as some of our devoted staff have contributed for decades and will now hopefully have representation across all departments through our wall-to-wall bargaining unit,” says Bradon Schwarz, Charitable Gifts Advisor at HCN.
For more information, please contact Union Representative McKenna Stayner at hcnunion@gmail.com, or visit our website to find the union’s full mission statement and more.