We voted by 85% in favor of a strike, but we’ll need your help to reach a deal
Dear Eagle readers:
For the first time in our union’s history, L.A. Times Guild members this month voted by 85% to authorize a strike, should leaders decide that conditions at the bargaining table warrant one.
This is a pivotal moment that was hard to imagine when we started negotiating our successor agreement more than three years ago — let alone when we first formed our union in 2018. Journalists are fiercely independent. We’re used to observing from the sidelines. It takes a lot to galvanize us into coordinated action.
But it’s been an extraordinary few years.
After cutting our staff in half, Los Angeles Times ownership is seeking to gut seniority protections for future layoffs, while expanding the ability to outsource our work. We have gone without a cost-of-living increase since October 2021, and our colleagues are heading for the exits.
There was also, of course, the presidential endorsement debacle, the exodus from our Editorial Board, the bias meter rollout and our owner’s participation in the public trolling of one of his own reporters. At the bargaining table, we’ve seen long delays between management proposals, stonewalling over our requests for information, and even attempts to intimidate members for participating in union activities.
I am proud to stand with my colleagues and demand better.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m scared. I have two young daughters — both born since we started bargaining our second contract — and an aging terrier mix who will reliably need some kind of emergency surgery every time we’re starting to financially recover from the last one. I can’t afford to risk missing a paycheck or losing my family’s health insurance. But I also can’t afford not to.
Because this fight isn’t just about job protections. It’s about the future of the Los Angeles Times.
Simply put, the Times has no future under management’s proposals, which aim to give management even greater power to continue cutting from our newsroom without any long-term strategy for how to make our work more successful. Saving a dime today to lose a dollar tomorrow is a doomed business plan.
We want to make sure this continues to be a place where we can do the kind of original, ambitious journalism that has held powerful people and institutions to account for more than 100 years. And we know you do too.
To be clear, we are not asking subscribers to cancel their subscriptions. There is still time for The Times to avert a strike. Tell management to do so by signing this pledge to honor our picket line if we are forced to walk out.
With your help, we can win this. We’re in it together.
In solidarity,
Alex Wigglesworth,
Times reporter and Guild bargaining committee member
The Eagle is an occasional newsletter from the union members of the Los Angeles Times Guild. Subscribe to get future updates in your inbox.