After more than 3 years of bargaining, the Indianapolis News Guild reached a two-year collective bargaining agreement with Gannett.
The agreement invests $200,000 in giving members long-deserved raises and updating the woefully outdated wage scale. This was a priority among the 39 members, whose input also guided the decision-making in non-economic areas.
The contract includes a new seniority-based wage scale, plus across-the-board pay increases in both years of the contract, which will benefit every member and help with pay equity in the newsroom.
Workers also won a higher mileage reimbursement rate, an added holiday, a severance floor and a better cell phone reimbursement policy than non-union Gannett newsrooms.
The new contract established a labor-management committee and added a section that outlines the company’s commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, which will help workers hold them accountable.
Workers fought off a proposal that would have made it easier for Gannett to implement artificial intelligence and proposals that might have weakened their jurisdiction over their work.
We did what we set out to do every day, as a union: We demanded autonomy and a say in our work lives. We demanded more and remained loud about it. We did not back down until we got there.
With 91% voter turnout, members unanimously voted to ratify the contract Monday, Jan. 22.
Indy members said they will continue to stand in solidarity with fellow Gannett union newsrooms whose fights continue to ramp up, any way they can.