President of the NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America, Jon Schleuss joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the multiple strikes in newsrooms across the country. Schleuss also talked about the issues with the business plan for most newspapers and the successful contract negotiations at the New York Times.
Earlier this June, there were 25 NewGuild-CWA newsrooms on strike across America simultaneously. Each strike was different, but the workers were fighting for the same thing: livable wages. Schleuss discussed multiple different strikes that are ongoing and the reason workers walked out. Each newsroom faces different problems locally, but at the end of the day each one is still fighting to receive a livable wage from their employers, he said.
Over recent years, many outside groups have purchased newspapers across the country and attempted to turn them into a profit-making operation. This process has become known as financializing the newsroom, according to Schleuss. Many issues stem from this, like cutting over half of their staff in a year or running “ghost papers” where local newsrooms only staff one or two workers and produce a newspaper containing no local news. It also creates employers willing to commit to unfair labor practices and bad faith negotiations in hopes of stalling the organizing efforts and not having to pay for a union staff, he said.
Recently one of the most popular newspapers in the country, the New York Times secured a new contract after two years of negotiations. When the process began, the negotiating team put together a plan to help put pressure on the employer to negotiate in good faith. It took some time, but after two years the workers were able to win their new contract with no concessions, including increasing base pay to a minimum of $65,000.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more.