The News Media Guild’s bargaining team met with The Associated Press this week to discuss the editorial unit.
Here is a rundown of what happened during the meeting:
·A tentative agreement was reached with the company on its social media policy. This has been a lengthy back and forth, but ultimately the Guild was successful in getting the company to commit to protecting the reputation and well-being of its employees, which includes maintaining the SAFE program or any future iterations. Furthermore, the AP has agreed to document online harassment cases and review the findings with the Guild up to twice a year.
·The Guild and the company then discussed job security. The Guild is seeking to ensure employees will be referred to by their names they choose and by pronouns with which they identify. The company agreed to this proposal, however, it rejected the Guild’s proposal that would require bylines and credit lines changed on previously published content. The company says it is unable to do this, the Guild is considering this argument. The company has agreed to use a variety of pronouns for personnel forms.
·Also on job security, the Guild and the company continue to discuss tying employees to business locations in light of the company’s recent trend of getting rid of physical office locations. The company has also rejected the Guild’s initial proposed language on AI, where the Guild is asked AP to commit to not replacing guild work with AI.
The guild was represented by Vin Cherwoo, a sports writer from New York; John Braunreiter, a customer support specialist from Milwaukee; Kim Kruesi, a newsperson from Nashville, Tenn.; Bobby Caina Calvan, a newsperson from New York; Mike Warren, an editor from Atlanta; and administrator Kevin Keane.