Editorial staff at The Bergen Record, represented by The NewsGuild of New York, are fed up with the newspaper chain’s refusal to agree to a fair contract with living wages, despite three years of bargaining.
NEW YORK – Journalists represented by The NewsGuild of New York at the Bergen Record voted overwhelmingly to walk out, a move precipitated by Gannett’s chronic union-busting and unwillingness to agree to a fair contract with livable wages.
The Record Guild, which represents 68 editorial workers at the newspaper, took the formal vote on Monday. With 92% percent voter turn out, members approved the walkout by 95%.
“Gannett continues to bargain in bad faith and insult us at the bargaining table. Our members’ walkout vote shows we won’t let Gannett bully us into submission,” said Kaitlyn Kanzler, Record Guild unit chair and courthouse reporter for The Record. “We’re willing to do what it takes to get a contract done. There is no journalism without us, the dedicated journalists who live in and report on North Jersey’s local communities.”
The union has been bargaining for their first contract with Gannett for more than three years. During that time, the nation’s largest newspaper chain has engaged in a host of tactics that violate labor law including:
- Overall bad-faith bargaining over contracts, including refusing to bargain and/or engaging in surface bargaining,
- Making unilateral changes to working conditions including unilaterally instituting artificial intelligence (AI) policies,
- Failing to provide and/or unreasonably delaying in providing requested information and/or refusing to answer questions about the Employer’s proposals,
- Discriminating against bargaining unit employees because of their union activities and sympathies
- Unilaterally automating, subcontracting, and/or otherwise shifting work away from members, including through the use of AI.
The NewsGuild of New York, on behalf of The Record Guild, filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against Gannett. Meanwhile, company reps at the bargaining table have doubled-down on only offering poverty-level wages for journalists.
Bergen County is one of the most expensive counties to live in in New Jersey, with homes at a median value of $692,262. A living wage for a single person with no children is $55,120 annually and over half of the staff make below that, with a shocking number (nearly a quarter of the staff) earning less than $40,000 annually.
“Our members’ ability to earn a living wage has a direct impact on local news,” said Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of NY. “Readers deserve better and so do our members. Gannett management knows this and still refuses to prioritize local news over unsustainable company profits. What happens next is up to Gannett.”
ABOUT THE NEWSGUILD OF NEW YORK
The NewsGuild of New York, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America, is a labor union representing nearly 6,000 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Thomson Reuters, ProPublica, The Nation, TIME, PEOPLE, Consumer Reports, and The Daily Beast. The NewsGuild of New York advocates for journalists to have a voice in the newsroom, for press freedom, for inclusive and diverse workplaces, and for just cause, no exceptions, for all media professionals.