{"id":3175,"date":"2019-09-12T15:47:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T15:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.home.ona\/newsroom19\/?p=108"},"modified":"2021-06-22T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:22:09","slug":"unions-millennials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/2019\/09\/12\/unions-millennials\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We’re saying enough’: Millennials drive unions movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Rebekah Sanders\u2019 12th year at the Arizona Republic. During that time, the newsroom has shrunk to a third of its former size, with nearly 300 people laid off.<\/p>\n

Since 2013, executives at the Republic\u2019s parent company, Gannett, acquired the Belo Corporation, bought six stations of the London Broadcasting Company, attempted to merge with Tribune Publishing Company and resisted a bid from Digital First Media. And then just weeks ago, Gannett was purchased by GateHouse Media.<\/p>\n

And over the last decade, executive salaries have skyrocketed<\/a> while reporter salaries have stagnated.<\/p>\n

This year, Sanders began working with her coworkers to unionize, becoming part of a groundswell happening at newsrooms and digital media sites across the country.\u00a0 At the forefront of the movement are millennials, whose deep-rooted expectations about low pay and long hours are suddenly changing.<\/p>\n

\"unions\"
The Vox Media Union poses, wearing Writers Guild of America East t-shirts. After a walkout and 29-hour-long bargaining session, its member ratified its first collectively bargained contract in June.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, unions are modifying\u00a0 expectations, beginning in 2015 with Gawker Media<\/span><\/a> and hitting legacy newsrooms like the Los Angeles Times, which have been anti-union<\/a> for more than a century.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 Times’ Matt Pearce, a vocal member of the LA Times Guild, will host a panel on Friday at the Online News Association, along with Danielle Ohl from the Capital Gazette and Eric Eddings of Gimlet Media. The session, moderated by Brittany Cheng of SB Nation, is entitled “Unions and the Movement to Protect Journalists” and will address the rapid rate of unionization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just look at national digital media organizations, it\u2019s gotten to a point where if you\u2019re not unionized you are either now or soon to be in the minority,\u201d said Alex Kirshner, 25, a member of the Vox Media Union. \u201cThese discussions about how we treat professionals in digital media are, I think, a lot more front and center than they ever used to be, and I think people notice that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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My full statement on my employer seizing my work phone.<\/p>\n

The Arizona Republic Guild will remain united. pic.twitter.com\/H2pHml1s5M<\/a><\/p>\n

— Rebekah Sanders ? (@RebekahLSanders) September 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n