The Press Democrat Guild

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The Press Democrat Guild needs your support!   Less than two months after Darius Anderson and Sonoma Media Investments sold The Press Democrat and its sister publications to Media News Group/hedge fund Alden Global Capital, our new owner…

After more than 9 months of negotiations, The Press Democrat Guild finally has a new contract! Our members voted, with nearly 98% in support, to ratify a 3-year agreement that guarantees raises for every member each year.

We successfully unionized the Petaluma Argus-Courier, Sonoma Index-Tribune and North Bay Business Journal, who joined our union and will now enjoy better pay and better protections.

We successfully guarded against company proposals that would have had a significant financial impact on our members, and instead secured a total of 6.5% raises over 3 years, preserved our healthcare premium costs and ensured our employer would still contribute to our 401k.

We also defended our jurisdiction, ensuring that the journalism produced by our publications will continue to be performed by union workers.

These contract victories came with impressive solidarity among our members, who spoke up and acted collectively – speaking with the community, advocating on social media and demonstrating their union pride with our Guild t-shirts.

Securing this contract and the terms that we fought hard for will help provide stability and hope for the future of our newsrooms. It will help us continue to do this work and preserve local news.

We are grateful for all the support we have received throughout this process. Thank you to readers, members of the community and other news guilds and unions across the United States who cheered us on!

We would also like to thank Hunter Paniagua of Pacific Media Workers Guild, who guided us through every step of the bargaining process and spoke on our behalf at the bargaining table. We appreciate all of your hard work, wisdom and support!

We will enforce the contract we won and never stop fighting to make our newsrooms the best workplaces they can be. We will also continue to support our colleagues in newsrooms across the country as they fight for fair contracts. So keep following along for updates!

Pacific Media Workers Guild NewsGuild-CWA

Today, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Press Democrat Guild is urging Sonoma Media Investments’ leadership to make amends for the Trecini Winery advertisement published in the Oct. 4 print edition of The Press Democrat. (We'd rather not link to it. See SFGate's recent coverage on the issue.)

Our union members vehemently oppose the tone and tenor of this ad, which is not only culturally insensitive and offensive, but misrepresents, trivializes and disregards what Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about.

Sonoma Media Investments’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion statement reads: "We pledge to promote equality and humane treatment of others, and to oppose prejudice, indifference, sexism, intolerance and hate. This we will do through our hiring, promotion and retention practices, through our advertising programs and customer service, and through our news coverage and community engagement."

These values are important to our union, not only as they apply to our mission and reporting, but also in how they shape the culture of our newsroom.

We call on our employer to recommit to our stated values by issuing an apology, retracting the advertisement, and reviewing the systems by which it was approved.

As journalists, we’re used to talking to people about issues that concern them and the community. We listen, we ask questions, we take notes, we shoot photos. We rarely talk about ourselves, our struggles or our dreams. Tonight we did. Thank you for listening.



Pacific Media Workers Guild Communications Workers of America NewsGuild-CWA Dripped Out Trade Unionists