Aug. 27, 2020 – Staffers of the Tribune Content Agency won union recognition Thursday, voting 24 to 2 in favor of joining the NewsGuild-CWA.
“We look forward to joining our colleagues in the fight for decent pay, fair conditions and diversity in our newsrooms,” the Tribune Content Guild tweeted.
“Our goal is simple,” they wrote in July when they announced their union campaign: “Ensuring the integrity of our newsrooms and well-being of our co-workers so that, amid industry upheaval and uncertainty, we continue to produce and provide the quality journalism our clients and their communities trust.” They organized to combat furloughs, the shuttering of Chicago’s Spanish language publication ‘Hoy,’ issues stemming from a lack of diversity in leadership, and the prioritization of shareholder profits over communities.
“To accomplish our goal, we need a say in the decisions being made that affect our livelihoods and the quality of our work,” they wrote. “We are fighting to be a part of the decision-making process that affects us, as well as journalists throughout the industry.”
Their victory is a testament to the possibility of remote organizing as the majority of the group had never met each other in person prior to or during their campaign.
Based in Chicago with employees around the country, Tribune Content Agency delivers a daily news service and syndicated premium content to more than 2,000 media and digital information publishers in nearly 100 countries. The agency has supported the news industry in various iterations since 1918.
In separate balloting, staffers of Daily Meal Ventures, Inc., a part of Tribune Publishing that publishes “premium content,” voted 5 to 0 to unionize.
Members of the new units will become part of the local chapter of The NewsGuild.
The union campaign is part of a surge in union organizing by The NewsGuild-CWA, which has added more than 3,000 new members in the last two years.
Follow the Tribune Content Guild on Twitter @TBContentGuild.