The News Media Guild met with The Associated Press last Wednesday to discuss the editorial unit contract. This was a key meeting because the Guild presented its economic wage proposal for the first time to the company.
Members of our unit joined the Zoom bargaining session and are invited to so in the future.
Here is a summary of the meeting:
- The Guild presented a 10-5-5 wage proposal when it comes to increasing employee salaries. Employees would receive a 10 percent raise upon ratification of the contract, and then see 5 percent raises on July 1 of the following two years. It would increase the starting base salary for journalists to $52,678 in the first year.
- The Guild is also seeking to add Seattle, Portland, Ore., Sacramento and Miami to the Class A differential list.
- The Guild is also seeking the same increases to shift and weekend differentials, as well as bumping up the Guild minimum when employees use their own cars during work hours.
- On paid parental leave, the Guild is pressing the company to explain why it would provide 20 weeks of paid parental leave to birthing and adoptive parents but only 12 weeks of paid leave to spouses of birthing parents. The Guild stressed to the company that its proposal is a step in the right direction, but we cannot support a policy that is both discriminatory and inconsistent for our members. The company said it would think about our objections and get back to us.
- The company didn’t respond to our economic wage proposal, but instead stressed that it would have to get back to us on what news outlets they feel the Guild and others should compare our salaries to. AP was quick to point out that we should not compare ourselves to the NYT because they are a subscriber-based company and that the Washington Post has the benefit of owner Jeff Bezos. While the Guild does not disagree that AP is structured differently, we remain steadfast that our wages have stagnated, and we are not keeping up with competitors.
The Guild and the company also met today to discuss the editorial contract. We will keep you posted.