President of The NewsGuild-CWA (TNG-CWA), Jon Schleuss, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss several recent first contracts and organizing victories at newsrooms and online publications across the country.
In Florida, there has been a long battle for members of the Palm Beach and Southwest Florida NewsGuild to get a first contract with their ownership group. Schleuss discussed the four-year battle for a first contract with Ganett — the largest newspaper chain in America, and owners of The Palm Beach Post, The Palm Beach Daily News, The News-Press and The Naples Daily News. He discussed the wins for workers who are in their 2-year contract, including the unique protections against the misuse of artificial intelligence.
Continuing the theme of organizing wins, the Salt Lake Tribune recently joined TNG-CWA, becoming the first newsroom in Utah to be represented by the NewsGuild. The non-profit newspaper ownership group chose to voluntarily recognize the union. Schleuss described their reason for seeking union representation and some of their contract desires for negotiations.
Finally, Schleuss discussed a contract win at several Ziff Davis brand publications. The workers, from digital brands like Mashable, PC Mag and Lifehacker, threatened to go on strike during one of their busiest time frames, Amazon’s Prime Days, and Schleuss explained how that quickly changed the negotiations in favor of workers. He also outlined the contract wins for workers, including the most comprehensive protections against improper AI usage that Schleuss has seen. There are more first-contract victories to come as Schleuss alluded to eight contract wins that will be coming to light soon.
For more from the NewsGuild, please listen to the show above.