Newsroom staff at The Daily News in Longview, Washington voted 6-0 to unionize with NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America (CWA) in mail ballots counted May 14. It’s the latest in a wave of unionization at news organizations around the nation.
The key issue is stability, says union supporter Katie Fairbanks: The paper’s eight newsroom staff members love their work, but wages of less than $17 an hour make it hard to stick around. Fairbanks says turnover is so high at The Daily News that its most senior reporter has been there only five years. Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-headquartered chain that owns The Daily News, didn’t mount an antiunion campaign or try to talk workers out of unionizing. Workers expect to begin negotiations soon on a first union contact.
-Don McIntosh
