Daily News Union Mission Statement

The New York Daily News, since its inception in 1919, has occupied a unique position in the nation’s largest city: Giving a voice to the voiceless, afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted, casting its wary eyes across the five boroughs into a new millennium. Along the way, it has claimed 11 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2017. Its newsroom provided a home to a collection of journalistic giants: Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, E.R. Shipp, Juan González, Earl Caldwell, Mike McAlary.

Times change, but the mission remains the same: A conscientious chronicling of life in New York, a collective finger still taking the pulse of our home from the streets to the subways and beyond.  

One year into our second century, we – the paper’s print, digital and photo employees – seek to secure the paper’s future and ensure its voice endures as part of the city’s constant conversation. With that goal in mind, we are forming a union with the NewsGuild of New York to ensure our role in the city we serve for the newspaper we cherish. 

It is a move we make in the face of an uncertain future, when we’ve worked tirelessly through a pandemic that’s upended the world and our industry. It’s an era when simple comforts like a newsroom are not guaranteed and journalists across the country are regularly fired and furloughed, overworked and underpaid.

Our union, in these uncertain times, seeks fair compensation and job security. A staff that reflects the city’s dynamic diversity. And the resources that will embolden us to do our jobs confidently and collaboratively.

We join publications like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune in unionizing our newsroom. 

We will continue delivering our readers the best local and national journalism in the city. And we seek a productive relationship with our publishers as we set forth to collectively bargain and build a sturdier publication. 

We are asking Tribune Publishing, the News’ parent company, to voluntarily recognize our union without delay. And we ask our readers to support our efforts to create a just and equitable workplace, one that fosters essential journalism and gives us a fair shake. Together we can sustain the newspaper as a formidable force in the century to come.