Newsroom Staff at ADN Taking Steps to Unionize

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Category: News

Created on Wednesday, 11 September 2024 15:16

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By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
    Most newsroom staff at Alaska’s most widely-read newspaper moved to unionize on Tuesday. The effort’s organizers say 80% of eligible employees at the Anchorage Daily News have signed union authorization cards, a necessary first step to organize a union.
    They plan to advocate for fair wages, increased financial transparency and a sustainable workplace environment. The group of 16 includes reporters, photographers and copy editors, among other newsroom roles.
    It sent a letter on Tuesday morning to the newspaper’s owner, editor and publisher, asking to be recognized as the Anchorage News Guild and to begin negotiations as part of a communication workers union, called the NewsGuild-CWA.
    “The signatures have come from every corner of our newsroom. We are dedicated to the work we do and the community we serve. We believe this step will make our journalism even better,” the letter said.
    Organizers said the effort at ADN is part of a larger, industry-wide trend towards organizing. The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 25,000 media professionals from publications like The Seattle Times, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
    The Anchorage News Guild would be the state’s only currently unionized newsroom.
    Organizers filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, but said in their letter that they would withdraw the petition if voluntarily recognized by the newspaper’s leadership.
    “Voluntary recognition will save the company precious time and resources. It would demonstrate your commitment to a newsroom that derives its strength from employees who feel respected and valued,” the letter said.
    The letter asked ADN management to respond by 2 p.m. on Tuesday if it would voluntarily recognize the unionization effort and invited management to participate in a joint announcement. Organizers said they did not receive a response and issued a news release that afternoon.
    Owner Ryan Binkley, who purchased the newspaper out of bankruptcy in 2017, and Editor David Hulen, who has worked as a reporter and editor with the paper for more than three decades, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
    Megan Pacer, a digital audience producer for the paper, said ADN employees love their jobs, but want a “supportive and sustainable” work environment.
    “I have colleagues who have gone without raises for almost 10 years. I have colleagues who have started families this year and in the past couple years without paid parental leave,” she said. “I have the benefit of living with a partner with whom I can split rent and expenses, but I have colleagues who don’t have that luxury in a city that’s just becoming more and more expensive to live in.”
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https://alaskabeacon.com/claire-stremple

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