DFM Workers: Stop pillaging our community newspapers to finance your mansion buying sprees!

Nov. 21, 2017 – Employees of news organizations owned by Alden Global Capital, a shadowy hedge fund that now controls 200 newspapers across the country, are telling head honchos Randall Smith and Heath Freeman: Stop pillaging our community newspapers to finance your mansion buying sprees!

Sign their petition here.

Washington Post Workers Demand a Fair Contract

Close to 100 Washington Post employees and their supporters picketed outside the paper’s office on Nov. 14 to protest management’s paltry bargaining proposals and to demand a fair contract.

“We want Jeff Bezos to be a leader and to understand that investing in the people at the Post is investing in the future of the Post,” said Robert Struckman, president of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, is estimated to be worth more than $81 billion and is ranked among the world’s richest people. Continue reading “Washington Post Workers Demand a Fair Contract”

DFM Workers Expand Coordinated Campaign

Nov. 6, 2017 – NewsGuild members at papers owned by Digital First Media (DFM) expanded a coordinated campaign in recent weeks by exposing the devastating effect that Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that controls DFM, has had on local news coverage and journalists’ jobs.

Workers at DFM’s 12 unionized papers recently unleashed two separate two-day Twitter storms to call attention to the corrosive effect of Alden’s management of the papers: Layoffs at twice the industry average. Gutting the papers’ assets by selling buildings and equipment. Entire communities left without news coverage. Continue reading “DFM Workers Expand Coordinated Campaign”

AP Employees Press Demand for a Fair Contract

Oct. 12, 2017 – NewsGuild-CWA members at The Associated Press Washington Bureau pressed their demands for a fair contract as they greeted managers and Guild colleagues outside a dinner organized by the AP on Oct. 10. The dinner coincided with an editors’ conference. Continue reading “AP Employees Press Demand for a Fair Contract”

Staff at the Chicago Reader Ratifies Contract with New Owners

Oct. 10, 2017 – Employees of the Chicago Reader unanimously ratified a one-year contract on Oct. 6, resolving a lengthy labor dispute that led to a strike threat at the alternative publication. The members of the Chicago News Guild reached the deal with a labor-friendly investor group that acquired the Reader in July. Continue reading “Staff at the Chicago Reader Ratifies Contract with New Owners”

Washington Post Workers Want a Raise from Billionaire Jeff Bezos

Sept. 29, 2017 – Nearly 100 members of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG) and supporters walked a spirited informational picket line on Sept. 27 to demand a contract from Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post. Continue reading “Washington Post Workers Want a Raise from Billionaire Jeff Bezos”

Why Are News Organizations Paying Women, Minorities Less?

 

AP reporter Jill Bleed comments during the question-and-answer session. Standing, Bill Baker, unit chairperson at the New York Times, waits to speak.

September 2017 – Study after study initiated by NewsGuild-CWA locals at some of the nation’s most prestigious newsrooms have reached the same conclusion: Women and minorities are getting paid less than their white, male counterparts. And it means every local has an obligation to request data from media employers about the gender, racial identity, disabilities and pay of employees as they prepare for contract negotiations, President Bernie Lunzer said. Continue reading “Why Are News Organizations Paying Women, Minorities Less?”

After 565-Day Strike, Halifax Journalists Ratify Contract

Strikers braved the cold Canadian winter. Photo courtesy of Christian Laforce

September 2017 – “It was an endurance test of almost 19 months, but the Halifax Typographical Union stood its ground on the key issue of job security.”

Continue reading “After 565-Day Strike, Halifax Journalists Ratify Contract”