The New York Daily News Unionizes with The NewsGuild of New York

02/05/2021

For Immediate Release | February 5, 2021
Press Inquiries: Josh Austin, 484.269.0158

 

The New York Daily News Unionizes with
The NewsGuild of New York
Editorial employees of the award-winning paper seek to safeguard The News’ future by advocating for job security, equity, and a more inclusive and diverse newsroom reflective of the city they cover. 

 

New York — New York City’s hometown paper has formed a union. The editorial staffers of the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Daily News have announced today that they have organized under The NewsGuild of New York, with more than 80% of eligible staff standing together to request voluntary recognition from Tribune Publishing. 

For 101 years, the Daily News has served as the watchdog and storyteller of New York City. Now, during a particularly precarious moment for media professionals and local news outlets, the editorial workers of The News seek job security, fair compensation, and a more diverse and inclusive newsroom that reflects the city’s dynamic population. 

An iconic city publication, The News joins a continually growing list of workers at news outlets across the United States seeking and securing union representation. Over the past three years, several Tribune-owned publications organized with The NewsGuild-CWA, including the Chicago Tribune, the Virginian-Pilot, the Hartford Courant, the Allentown Morning Call, and the Orlando Sentinel

The editorial staffers of The News were represented by the Guild until the mid-1990s, when workers faced an incredibly hostile and concerted anti-union campaign at the hands of management. While The News now operates under different ownership, the workers at the paper stand united once again in a renewed effort to protect the paper and advocate for their colleagues and the city they cover. 

“It’s painful to imagine what New York would be like without the Daily News,” said Clayton Guse, Transit and Data Reporter. “The paper’s held the nation’s largest — and often most corrupt — city government accountable for a century. The goal of this union is to ensure we have the resources to continue that essential work for the century to come.” 

“It’s time we — the reporters, the photographers, the page designers — have a say,” said Kate Feldman, national news reporter and senior TV writer. “We all want what’s best for The News, and to do that, we need support. It’s about better pay so we can survive in this city we love, better job security to give us the freedom to keep exploring, better resources so we can best serve our readers. That should be everyone’s goal, and our union will fight to make sure it is.” 

“We’re thrilled to welcome our hometown paper back into the Guild,” said Susan DeCarava, President of The NewsGuild of New York. “The fight to save local news and to guarantee that the communities our members serve have access to reliable information and compelling stories is an effort we share with our Guild colleagues nationally. We ask that Tribune Publishing voluntary recognize the Daily News Union without delay so that, together, we can safeguard and ensure that The News thrives for another 100 years.” 

To learn more, visit nydnunion.com

The 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.

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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 4,000 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Thomson Reuters, The Nation, BuzzFeed News, TIME, PEOPLE, Wirecutter, 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.

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