Press

NEW YORK – Leadership of The NewsGuild of New York has voted to approve an $250K investment to support journalists at New York’s Hometown Newspaper, the Daily News, fighting for a fair contract and for the ability to continue providing news vitally important to New Yorkers.

NEW YORK – Unionized journalists at two Gannett newspapers in New York have ratified a two-year collective bargaining agreement that will correct long-standing wage stagnation, set salary minimums for the first time and improve time off and job security. 

Today, the New Yorker Union is undertaking a half-day work stoppage. From 9 A.M. to 1 P.M., union members will not participate in the production or the promotion of content for the print magazine or the Web site. We are withholding our labor to demand just cause in our contract, and in protest of management’s resistance to our proposal and refusal to provide us with information necessary for bargaining. If we do not receive a sufficient response from management on our just-cause proposal, we will be forced to take further action.

The NewsGuild of New York issues the following statement in response to a clear threat to the health and safety of journalists we represent. New York Times employees will send a letter directly to Times management about their concerns.

CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his production team were unjustly arrested this morning while reporting on police brutality protests in Minneapolis. They were taken into custody during a live broadcast while they were simply doing their jobs.

This morning, Quartz management announced a company-wide restructuring. People from teams across the organization will lose their jobs, but it has had an outsized impact on our unit; about half of our members are being laid off We are heartbroken to see our colleagues go—they are some of the most talented and kindest people in the business.

When Daily Beast management – led by our new corporate partners Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles – informed us several weeks ago they were looking to slash staff in our newsroom, our bargaining team went right to work.

We successfully negotiated a robust buyout plan for our members, giving them the chance to decide for themselves if they wanted to leave the company. Twenty-five unit members, or roughly 70 percent of our unit, applied for the buyout. Our members now have a seven-day window to accept the buyout or rescind their application, which will mean the total number of members who choose to leave could change.

We have also won job security for unit members who choose to stay with the Company. Because we expect to exceed $1.5 million in payroll savings through the buyouts, unit members will be protected from any layoffs through Dec. 31, 2024.

We have also struck a tentative two-year collective bargaining agreement with the Company that benefits all of our members, whether they are choosing to take a buyout or staying. We have achieved retroactive pay increases from January 1 for all members. For members who are staying, the contract lifts wages for the lowest earners by at least 4% in 2024 (4.5% in 2025); mid-range earners by 2.5% in 2024 and 3% in 2025; higher-paid earners by 1% in 2024 and 1.5% in 2025; and top-paid workers by .5% in both years.

We have been in the driver's seat of this process since Sherwood and Coles arrived at the Beast. We have battled with Company lawyers, demanded information in the face of uncertainty, and have won the fight for our colleagues to design their own futures. The security and dignity we’ve afforded our colleagues affirms that our work is valuable and empowering. No matter how many members accept the buyout, our work as a Union will continue. Managers come and go, but we, the Daily Beast Union, are here to stay.

From the NYTimes:  More than 100 New York Times workers and their supporters protested outside The Times’s Manhattan headquarters on Tuesday, accusing the company of delaying contract talks.