Press

NEW YORK – Journalists at three newspapers in New Jersey represented by The NewsGuild of New York, have voted 98% to ratify their first contract with Gannett, lifting long-stagnant wages by over 25% on average, and averting a planned walkout.

NEW YORK –  Editorial workers at CNET and ZDNet are joining The NewsGuild of New York as members of the Ziff Davis Creators Guild (ZDCG).

Late last year, Ziff Davis acquired both websites, which cover technology, reviews and beyond. CNET and ZDNet workers will be covered under ZDCG’s current contract, ratified last summer. Under the site’s former owner, Red Ventures, CNET content creators previously unionized as the CNET Media Workers Union affiliated with the Writers Guild of America East.

NEW YORK – The NewsGuild of New York released the following statement from President Susan DeCarava in response to the historic vote to elect Claude Cummings Jr. as the next President and Ameenah Salaam as the next Secretary-Treasurer of the Communications Workers of America, the parent union of The NewsGuild-CWA. Cummings will be the union’s first-ever Black President. Salaam is the first Black person to hold the Secretary-Treasurer post.

The Unit Councils of the New York Times Guild and the Wirecutter Union, which together represent nearly 1,400 employees, strongly condemn Meredith Kopit Levien and A.G. Sulzberger’s decision that the company will not voluntarily recognize the Times Tech Guild. We call on the company to reverse this decision and honor the votes our colleagues have already cast.

The NewsGuild of New York joins our parent union, The NewsGuild-CWA, in strongly condemning the targeting of media workers by police in Minnesota this past weekend.

On Thursday, we were notified via email that TNR planned to relocate the “majority” of its editorial staffers from New York City to Washington D.C. Simultaneously, a New York Times article announcing this shift appeared.

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.