Thankfully the winds died down this week in Los Angeles and firefighters have improved containment of the Eaton and Palisades fires. We’re still watching the situation and ask you to check in on colleagues affected by the fires.
Nichola Groom, an energy and climate reporter at Reuters and member of The NewsGuild of New York, evacuated and she and her family lost their home in Altadena. They’ve found a spot to live for the next few months while they find a new home.
On Wednesday, the family shared an update:
It’s been a week since we discovered that our home was lost in the Eaton fire. We are still not able to go see it and we have been told it could be weeks before we are able to. We know from photos taken by a Reuters colleague that it is unlikely we will find anything to salvage.
They wrote that their kids are back at school and happy to see their friends. “We are in awe of their positivity.”
“Thanks to everyone out there rooting for us,” they wrote. “We are very lucky to have you all.”
Please join me in supporting Nichola and her family as they try to rebuild their lives.
If you’ve been impacted by the wildfires, please contact a local union officer or steward. CWA has a Disaster Relief Fund that can provide some assistance during emergencies.
On Monday I told you about the great first contract won by journalists at Spotlight PA, the nonprofit newsroom in Pennsylvania.
“Spotlight PA can be the model for other newsrooms that you don’t have to be so acrimonious towards unions,” said Danielle Ohl, an investigative reporter and the unit chair.
Earlier this week, Christopher Baxter, Spotlight PA CEO & Founding Editor, went on LinkedIn.
“One of my greatest accomplishments with Spotlight PA in 2024 was something you’ve probably heard nothing about — until now,” he wrote.
“Together with our incredible reporting staff, we negotiated and agreed upon our first collective bargaining agreement — a formal statement of this simple fact: the future of journalism is nothing without the people doing the work.”
An editor said that—a boss. I almost fell off my chair when I read it!
We have so many bosses who actively fight journalists: from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to the New York Times (currently refusing to recognize the sports journalists at The Athletic).
Chris’ behavior should not be the outlier. As both he and Danielle agreed, both sides approached negotiations with mutual respect and a shared goal to support hard-hitting journalism for readers.
This should be the norm.
On Tuesday more than 400 Washington Post journalists signed a petition asking owner Jeff Bezos to intervene to stop the chaos destroying the publications.
“We understand the need for change and we are eager to deliver the news in innovative ways,” the letter states. “But we need a clear vision we can believe in.”
Decisions made by top management and Bezos have created that chaos, and the cleanup has been anything but neat. They botched finding a new executive editor after terminating one that was widely respected. They killed a presidential endorsement on the eve of the election. Top reporters and editors have abandoned ship. CEO and Publishers Will Lewis is under an inquiry from Scotland Yard over allegations he obstructed justice 13 years ago helping Rupert Murdoch handle the fallout of the phone-hacking scandal at his U.K. tabloids.
“We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency, and prompted some of our most distinguished colleagues to leave,” journalists wrote.
Here’s an idea: Bezos could donate the Post to a charity or set up a nonprofit to give it independence and regain trust.
Dozens of workers at the Post were recently laid off and we continue to stand with them. Check-in with your friends at the Post and ask what you can do to help.
President-elect Trump’s pick for attorney general was pressed on whether she would retaliate against American journalists on Wednesday. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar pressed Pam Bondi for an answer, focusing on Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI.
In a 2023 interview, Patel said, “We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you. Whether that’s criminally or civilly, we’re going to figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”
Klobuchar asked Bondi whether she would back investigations against journalists.
“Clearly, he’s made some statements, but I haven’t talked to Mr Patel about those statements,” Bondi said at the hearing. “But going after the media just because they’re the media is wrong, of course.”
And unconstitutional. The First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution provides five freedoms.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
State legislators in Oregon have introduced a bill similar to the California Journalism Preservation Act. SB 686 would require online platforms to pay digital journalism providers or donate to the Oregon Civic Information Consortium. The bill is not perfect. The crisis we have is one of jobs. There aren’t enough working journalists able to report the news. We’ve lost tens of thousands of jobs in the last decade and we have to halt the losses and reverse the trend. We’re working with our members in Eugene and Bend to make sure the legislation is the best it can be. We also expect a big fight from the tech platforms, who benefit from our work without paying.
Earlier this month our members at the Media Guild of the West sent a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom suggesting an overhaul of the backroom deal he announced late last year as an alternative to the California Journalism Preservation Act.
“We think California can do better than the world’s worst Google news deal, which was almost universally condemned by California’s journalist membership organizations when first outlined a few months ago,” our members wrote.
They provided six recommendations: impose an incentive to encourage Big Tech companies to donate to the journalism fund in lieu of allocating public dollars, public funds must be tied to fair-labor requirements, any publishers receiving funds should be prevented from controlling the nonprofit board, public media should be included in subsidies, journalist worker cooperatives should have an easier time applying for subsidies and that the state should remove itself and the fund from any involvement with Google’s National Artificial Intelligence Accelerator.
Our Pittsburgh strikers scored another legal victory when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Post-Gazette in the company’s efforts to restrict picketing. The order leaves in place a July ruling from the state Superior Court denying the company a permanent injunction against picketing at Gateway View Plaza in Pittsburgh. The decision means the company will have to pay the union’s legal fees. Read more in the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
Our family at The New Republic just ratified a successor three-year contract that includes strong no-layoff protections on AI, a more than $20,000 increase in the salary floor and an average of nearly 20% in raises for members over the life of the contract and more. No member voted against that deal!
“We are thrilled to ratify this contract because it truly represents the value we bring to The New Republic,” said Daniel Pritchett, Director of Engagement at the magazine and a member of the union’s bargaining committee.
There were many other wins in this contract. Congrats to our family at The New Republic!
Finally, do you know an amazing Guild member who represents the diversity and tenacity of the modern labor movement? In These Times just announced a Labor Organizer of the Year award for three individuals who are bringing new energy to existing labor unions, leading collective action in their workplace or advancing worker power in worker centers, co-ops and other models outside traditional unions.
Three winners will each receive $25,000 and another $25,000 will be distributed to each of their unions, organizations or campaigns. Nominations opened yesterday and close at the end of January. Nominate a Guild activist here.
Have a good weekend and keep building our union!
In solidarity,
Jon