CHICAGO, Ill.—More than 40 newsroom workers at the Chicago Tribune announced a union-organizing
campaign Apr. 11, collecting cards for representation by the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America. “Our newsrooms have lost promising young talent along with established voices, depriving us of decades’ worth of expertise and emptying our pipeline to advancement. The journalists who remain receive subpar wages and declining benefits and experience constant insecurity about their futures. We have no voice in the decisions our corporate owners are making about our news organizations,” the Chicago Tribune Guild wrote on its Website. “Through collective bargaining, we can fight against the attrition that has forced us all to work more with less; and we can fight for job security, pay equity, cost-of-living raises, fair and reasonable health care benefits, and diversity in all ranks of the newsroom.” Chicago News Guild organizer David Roeder told the Sun-Times that signed cards are coming in “at a very fast pace.” The Tribune has not had a union since it was founded in 1847, and has suffered two rounds of layoffs recently. The NewsGuild represents news staff at the Sun-Times, Chicago’s other daily, and workers at the weekly Chicago Reader joined in 2015. Read more
