Media contact: sonewsworkersguild@gmail.com
Journalists powering Signal Ohio’s nonprofit newsrooms in Akron, Cleveland and Columbus are coming together to form a union with the Northeast Ohio NewsGuild, Local 34001 of Communications Workers of America.
The staff of Signal Ohio went public with their union drive on August 26, with more than 80% of eligible employees signing union cards to form the Signal Ohio News Workers Guild.
“Strong local journalism depends on well-supported journalists,” Signal Akron Culture and Arts Reporter Brittany Moseley said. “Joining the News Workers Guild will provide my colleagues and I the resources we need to better serve our communities.”
The SONWG is requesting the organization’s leadership voluntarily recognize the union and work with staff to create its first-ever contract. If not recognized voluntarily, workers will seek an election monitored by the National Labor Relations Board.
“We care deeply about the communities we serve and the journalism we produce,” members noted in their mission statement. “Many of us are founding members of our newsrooms, the first of which launched nearly three years ago, and all of us are committed to seeing them succeed.”
All 14 of the organization’s current full-time reporters are backing the move.
“My role has led me to telling the stories of the working class citizens who are the heartbeat of the city,” Signal Cleveland Community Reporter Najee Hall said. “Supporting unions means supporting the rights of people to stand together, negotiate fairly and build a future rooted in mutual respect and shared success.”
The group’s mission statement also nodded to the organizations’ ties to the “civic muscle” it has built in its newsrooms as well as with its Documenters programs in Cleveland, Akron
and Cincinnati. Those programs steward communities of curious residents who are trained and paid to document local government meetings, creating a new public record.
“Signal Ohio—with three vibrant Documenters communities at its core and a band of tenacious, thoughtful reporters to pair with them—is distinctly positioned to do journalism differently,” said Signal Cleveland Documenters Assignment Editor Doug Breehl-Pitorak. “Our union will deliver the support my coworkers and I need to reach and sustain that potential.”
SONWG is joining the historic Local News 1 union, which represents journalists at four additional news organizations across Northeast Ohio.
“The employees at Signal Ohio cover the issues that matter most to the people of Ohio every day. We’re excited for them to join with us in building sustainable and quality journalism in Ohio,” said Tim Botos, President of The Northeast Ohio NewsGuild and a staff writer at the Canton Repository.
Follow the Northeast Ohio NewsGuild on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook for additional updates.
About The NewsGuild-CWA
The NewsGuild-CWA is the largest union of journalists and other communications employees in North America, representing more than 25,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. The NewsGuild is a sector of the Communications Workers of America, which represents employees in telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, broadcast and cable television, health care, public service and education, law enforcement, manufacturing and other fields.