On Monday, a strong majority of journalists at LancasterOnline and WITF public radio station voted in favor of unionizing with The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia Local 38010 in a 39-10 vote.
In 2023, the Steinman Family, which owned LancasterOnline, gifted the news organization to the Harrisburg-based NPR affiliate, WITF. Workers formed plans to unionize after management laid off 10 percent of its staff one month after the new management took over. CEO Ron Hetrick had previously told news staff that the company wouldn’t reduce its workforce for five years.
Now, the journalists will soon begin bargaining a first contract.
Brett Sholtis, an Investigative Reporter at LNP said, “When we approached the Guild in November, a lot of people were unhappy with recent changes in our leadership and in our newsroom. But this quickly became about so much more than that. We want to make sure we’re able to keep serving the community.”
Sholtis mentioned that their group includes young reporters out of college as well as veterans in the newsroom, and he is proud of what these members accomplished together.
“We all brought different things to the table, but we have been united in our belief that joining The NewsGuild is the very best way to ensure the future of news in Lancaster and central Pennsylvania for years to come.”
Diane Mastrull, president of The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia said, “In central Pennsylvania, courage played out this week, with LancasterOnline employees standing up for themselves and overwhelmingly saying ‘yes’ to unionizing and recognizing their strength in numbers.”
“They did this amid hostile attempts by the company to discourage and intimidate and I could not be prouder,” she said.
The journalists joined the Philadelphia Inquirer, Spotlight PA and other news organizations represented by the local. They continue a wave of organizing in newsrooms, with more than 8,000 journalists and media workers organizing with The NewsGuild-CWA since 2016.