The 25,000 members of The NewsGuild-CWA stand in solidarity with the employees of Signal Ohio. We call on leadership to recognize their union as one bargaining unit, stop wasting nonprofit dollars on anti-union lawyers and begin negotiations immediately.
On August 26, more than 80% of Signal Ohio staff went public with their union drive, forming the Signal Ohio News Workers Guild. In response, management hired Jackson Lewis, a notorious anti-union law firm.
CEO Rita McNeil Danish and Board Chair Doug Ulman have told journalists at other outlets that they look forward to negotiating and reaching an agreement that is fair to all their employees, but management has ignored repeated requests from workers to meet.
“We stand with the employees at Signal Ohio who are bravely fighting to secure better working conditions and be able to do the jobs they love for years to come,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss.
“As journalists, we want to focus on telling our community’s stories and it’s disappointing when managers choose to fight us instead of working with us. It’s especially disappointing to see Signal Ohio management hire a union-busting law firm and choose an adversarial path when our free press is under attack.”
Signal Ohio’s response is in stark contrast to that of other nonprofit newsrooms, such as ProPublica, The Marshall Project, Cityside, Calmatters, Texas Tribune, and other nonprofit newsrooms who chose to voluntarily recognize their employees as one union.
On September 9, workers staged a two-hour work stoppage in response to continued silence from leadership.
“We didn’t want to do a work stoppage and we’ve tried to address issues in-house, but ultimately our union is made up of courageous people who have dedicated their careers to accountability, transparency, and community – so here we are,” said Signal Akron reporter Doug Brown.
“We are hopeful that Signal Ohio leadership will recognize our union instead of putting up expensive and wasteful roadblocks to fight us every step of the way.”
“It’s been a long, disappointing two weeks of silence from our leadership,” said Signal Statewide higher education reporter Amy Morona.
“There’s still time for them to do the right thing by recognizing our statewide news organization as one bargaining unit.”Supporters and community members are encouraged to send a letter to CEO Rita McNeil Danish and Signal’s board demanding they respect workers, respect local journalism and recognize the union.
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