Destructive wildfires in Southern California have destroyed the homes of at least three of our members. At least 30 Guild members have been directly impacted in evacuation zones along with 220 other CWA members. Members and leaders at the Media Guild of the West and CWA District 9 are working to launch efforts to help our members. Members impacted by natural disasters can get support through the CWA Members’ Relief Fund, our strike fund. Please contact your stewards or local officers if you need assistance.
Graham Fortier, one of our staffers and members at the Media Guild of the West, lost his house in the Eaton Fire in Altadena. He, his wife and their children are safe, however, their insurance provider deemed their house no longer insurable last March. They got insured by California’s FAIR plan, but they were under-insured on that plan.
“So many of you have reached out volunteering to help, asking what you can do, and we love and appreciate each one of you,” they wrote.
Graham’s family launched a GoFundMe. Please join me in donating to help them!
Graham worked at the AFL-CIO before joining the staff at the Media Guild of the West. On staff he’s helped our members win first contracts at many locations including the Southern California News Group, the Palm Springs Desert Sun, the Arizona Republic and more. He’s championed our folks and he’s one of us. Please stand with him and his family.
The National Weather Service just issued its most serious red flag warning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties this starting tomorrow, saying winds and dry conditions will make it particularly dangerous. “Do NOT do anything that could spark a fire,” the weather service said.
Our members have done a phenomenal job covering the fires, while choking on smoke and supporting their friends and family. It’s extremely dangerous work and something only local news journalists can do right.
We’ll share other ways to help those impacted soon.
Sports journalists at The Athletic have organized with The NewsGuild of New York, announcing last week they want to join the union of the editorial staff already at the New York Times. The Times bought The Athletic two years ago for $550 million in cash. The company said the operations would be separate, but The Times closed its sports desk in September 2023 and integrated operations with The Athletic.
Workers sent a letter to Times Publisher AG Sulzberger asking for voluntary recognition, which he rejected. That tees up an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board.
“We are proud of all that The Athletic and The New York Times as a whole has accomplished since our 2022 acquisition, and we know that our inclusion in the Times Guild will only further strengthen our work,” workers said.
Katie Strang, a senior investigative writer for The Athletic, is among those urging Times management to include them in the bargaining unit.
“Over the past several months, we have organized around the principle of preserving what makes The Athletic great — our staff, our work and our loyal readership,” Strang said. “The work we do is union work and we believe we should be afforded the same benefits and protections as the Times Guild members under their current contract.”
Last week Washington Post staffers marched on the boss to protest the planned layoffs of dozens of workers at the Post. They also released a statement saying the layoffs were especially disturbing since Post CEO Will Lewis has not directly addressed employees in over 230 days, during a time when many high-profile colleagues have jumped to other companies and policies have been implemented with little explanation.
“The diligent, talented workers that make The Post every day should not bear the consequences of poor decisions made by Post executives,” they wrote. “They deserve better. The Post deserves better.”
“We demand leaders do the right thing: address workers during this time of upheaval and stop punishing hardworking Post employees for the decisions made far above their heads.”
Fourteen workers at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network went public with a campaign to unionize with the Pacific Media Workers Guild (TNG-CWA Local 39521). Workers at the nonprofit that advocates for autistic people seek to form a union to cultivate greater equity, transparency and collaboration in the workplace to improve their lives through their work. Workers have asked for voluntary recognition.
“We want to show that disabled workers can make a union,” workers wrote in their mission statement. “Making a union will help us make Autistic Self Advocacy Network the best it can be.”
Journalists at the nonprofit newsroom Spotlight PA ratified their first contract over the holiday break. Workers secured a $60,000 minimum salary floor, a $750 ratification bonus, brought family health insurance plans into parity with single plans, increased paid family leave, added holidays, grievance and arbitration, just cause protections, guaranteed retirement contributions and more.
The journalists cover Pennsylvania and were part of the Philadelphia Inquirer until August 2023, when they were spun off into their own independent newsroom. Management quickly agreed to voluntarily recognize the journalists and got started on bargaining early.
“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. She said that the nonprofit’s leaders and the journalists had the same goal: to produce high-quality journalism. “For our newsroom, that involves accountability for elected politicians and a public service for our readers.”
Danielle knows what she’s talking about.
She and her colleagues at The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Md., formed the Chesapeake News Guild in 2018. Tribune, which owned the paper at the time, sold out to Alden Global Capital and both companies dragged on negotiations for years.
“For years I was at a table that made me feel worthless and unheard in negotiations that were going nowhere,” Ohl said about bargaining in other newsrooms. “The way our bargaining team worked with Spotlight was really productive and could be a model going forward.”
About six union organizers with United Academics of Philadelphia also ratified a first contract. They’re working for the American Federation of Teachers Local 9608, organizing professors at local universities. They won a $2,500 ratification bonus, 100% employer-paid health insurance, an annual remote work stipend, 20 weeks of paid parental leave, a $1,000 professional development stipend and more.
“We’re really proud of the language in this contract,” said unit chair Zoe Cohen. “It allows us to do work as organizers that aligns with our values and helps us build better relations with our members.”
Cohen also emphasized that the contract’s strength was partly due to the UAP executive board’s good-faith bargaining with the union staff.
Both Spotlight PA and United Academics of Philadelphia are part of The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia. They closed out a wild year of first contracts, with Guild members winning 44 of them in 2024.
Three of the four striking Pittsburgh unions were in District Court last week for the continuation of the 10(j) injunction against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our folks there have been on strike for 27 months while the company repeatedly violates federal law. Striker Steve Mellon covered the proceedings for the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
Union-side attorney Joe Pass was up first and gave several examples of how the company never budged from its initial proposals, wanting “total control” as part of their bad-faith bargaining.
As for wages, Pass said the company proposal would cut press workers’ pay from an hourly wage of $25.84 to $24.48 during the proposal’s first year. That pay would raise over three years, topping out at $25.72. “They’re losing money,” Pass said.
Attorney Richard Lowe, representing the Post-Gazette, followed Pass and made the case that the PG proposal actually provides workers a pay increase. This argument uses interesting math. In the expired contract, 8% of employee wages were diverted to cover health care costs – that amount was capped at $4,000 annually. The PG proposal eliminates the diversion and raises pay 8% from the amount workers received after the diversion. The catch: Health care costs rise for the employee and could be as high as $14,000 annually.
Lowe painted the PG as an entity of plummeting fortunes. “Dismal” is the word he used to describe the newspaper business. He said he PG loses millions of dollars every year and the company needs flexibility in order to sustain itself in a news economy shifting away from print and towards digital models. The PG said it plans to move to an online-only news platform, according to Lowe.
But the company is spending millions on out-of-town union-busting attorneys that are fighting journalists and destroying the publication’s reputation. And they haven’t presented a compelling business model to anyone.
The testimony will continue on January 21 and the judge will rule shortly after.
Over the holidays there were a lot of generous supporters of our strikers. The New York Times Tech workers donated $114,000 to the workers from their strike fund and others stepped up too. Former newspaper writer and editor Cris Hoel donated a carload of groceries in time for holiday meals. And a local pet food pantry also donated food for striking pets.
Supporter Sue Kerr said the pantry will supply pet food to strikers with dogs, cats or other animals until the strike is over.
“There’s something universal about being a pet person,” Kerr said. “People understand how much pet owners spend on pet food. It reminds them that your family is like theirs. You have pets that need to be fed.”
The NewsGuild of New York is hiring a local representative. Pay ranges from $107,000 to $136,000 with generous benefits. Applicants need a minimum of 5 years of experience in contract bargaining and organizing and will need to work in the New York City area. More info here.
In solidarity,
Jon Schleuss
President
The NewsGuild-CWA