Happy New Year! Today, the America’s Work Force Union Podcast welcomed Ariel Wittenberg, journalist and unit chair of the Politico-E&E News (PEN) Guild, a union that represents journalists at Politico and E&E News. Wittenberg discussed the challenges and victories union journalists face as artificial intelligence tools become increasingly prevalent in newsrooms. She provided insight into the PEN Guild’s contract negotiations, their fight for editorial standards in an era of AI and ongoing arbitration over contract violations related to AI-generated content.
The PEN Guild is a Local within the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which is part of the Communications Workers of America.
Wittenberg began by discussing how PEN Guild, which signed its first Collective Bargaining Agreement in early 2024, secured crucial protections for journalists against the unchecked use of AI in news production. Wittenberg explained that the contract requires the company to provide notice and offer bargaining opportunities if AI is introduced in ways that affect journalists’ work, including higher severance if AI-driven layoffs occur. Additionally, the contract clearly mandates that all AI-generated content must meet Politico’s standards of journalism and ethics, including human oversight.
Despite these protections, Wittenberg detailed how Politico’s use of AI during major events, such as the Democratic National Convention, violated the union contract. Journalists received minimal notice before AI tools were used to summarize key speeches and interviews, with the output appearing alongside human reporting on the front page. Wittenberg highlighted how AI-generated content often fails to adhere to newsroom style guides and correction policies, thereby eroding traditional standards of accountability and transparency.
The ongoing issue extends beyond these events. Wittenberg shared that Politico Pro, its subscriber site, allows readers to request AI-generated reports derived from journalist articles. These reports, as tested by the union, have produced factually incorrect content and lack any formal fact-checking, with leadership justifying the lapse by characterizing the tools as outside the newsroom’s ethical guidelines. PEN Guild pursued arbitration and secured a favorable ruling, giving both sides 60 days to establish a compliant use of AI. Wittenberg emphasized that this fight to uphold journalistic standards in the age of AI is playing out throughout the industry, making public awareness and support for union efforts more critical than ever.
For more on the fight for sustainable implementation of AI in the newsroom, listen to the full episode of the America’s Work Force Union Podcast above.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
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