Three more Gannett newspapers move to unionize

Three more Gannett newspapers announced plans to unionize, with 31 employees of the Asbury Park Press, Courier News and Home News Tribune signing on in a bid to join the NewsGuild of New York.

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The Bergen Record, Daily Record and New Jersey Herald voted to form a union earlier this year, and a group of digital producers for Gannett newspapers in New Jersey and four other states voted to unionize earlier this month.   All have joined the NewsGuild, an arm of the Communications Workers of America Local 31003.

“For over a decade, we have lived in fear for our livelihood as our corporate owner, Gannett, decimated our newsrooms with routine layoffs and buyouts, depriving our readers of decades of institutional knowledge and damaging our local journalism,” the 31 journalists and staff said in a statement posted on their website.

Journalists at four other Gannett-owned newspapers in the state – The Daily Journal, Courier-Post, Burlington County Times,  and New Jersey Biz — have not publicly announced plans to unionize.

Gannett declined to voluntarily recognize the other unions formed this year, forcing them to hold a vote supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.

The vote by the Record Guild, which includes the Bergen Record, Daily Record and NJ Herald, passed with 94% of the vote in May, according to the NLRB, but 23% of eligible members never returned their ballots.

“Gannett can prove they care about local journalism, too, by voluntarily recognizing our union now and putting an end to their anti-union campaign of interrogation and lying to our members,” the APP-MCJ Guild organizers said.  “However, we are not waiting for their lead. There’s too much at stake.”

Staff at the three Central Jersey newspapers complained that their “newsrooms have been gutted from a staff that once numbered in the hundreds down to a team of less than 50 journalists tasked with covering the issues facing more than 3 million residents in Central Jersey and along the Jersey Shore.”

“Our colleagues have lost their jobs while on vacation, on disability and even while on company-mandated furlough,” the union organizers said.  “Reporters with decades of experience were forced to re-apply for their own jobs, while others took on greater responsibilities without a raise.”

According to the APP-MCJ Guild, “journalists who have survived these cuts often receive wages and benefits from Gannett that are not enough to make ends meet in one of the most expensive areas in the country, forcing talent young and old to other outlets or out of journalism entirely.”

“We are offered health insurance plans with high deductibles and meager coverage, and are routinely sent into the field to cover crowded and potentially dangerous events with little to no personal protective equipment,” they said.

Still, the names of some veteran journalists for the newspapers, like Erik Larsen and Ken Serrano, are not included on the list of Gannett employees publicly supporting the union.

Like their New Jersey counterparts, the APP-MCJ Guild wants to advocate for greater diversity in hiring and news coverage.

“I am tired of watching my female colleagues walk out the door because management won’t listen to their ideas or appreciate their talents,” said Susanne Cervenka, an Asbury Park Press reporter. “I am tired of being asked to do more work with no compensation while the CFO gets a $600k bonus for furloughing and laying us off.”

Plans for journalists to unionize won the quick support of Senate Majority Conference Leader Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch),  who called on Gannett to remain neutral during the union election process.

“I am calling on Gannett to refrain from anti-union campaigning that has resulted in an Unfair Labor Practice charge in other organizing campaigns in the area,” Gopal said.  “I am further calling on Gannett to respect the integrity of the APP-MCJ Guild as a single bargaining unit. Anything less would be a clear attempt to discourage workers from exercising their statutory rights.”

Two State Assembly members from Monmouth County joined Gopal in support of the fledgling union.

“Union-busting hinders the free exercise of workers’ rights, is simply undemocratic, and has no place in New Jersey where there is a proud and long history of unionized labor,” said Eric Houghtaling (D-Neptune) and Joann Downey (D-Freehold).

During the Record Guild’s unionization process, two U.S. Senators and three members of the House of Representatives pushed Gannett to stop interfering with the right of reporters to unionize.

U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, and Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) accused Gannett of holding anti-union captive audience meetings with their employees.

A union spokesperson confirmed to the New Jersey Globe that Gannett management was holding those meetings in a bid to stop employees from forming a union.  The New Jersey Globe has learned that Dan Sforza, The Record’s editor, was among them.

This story was updated at 10:12 AM on August 20 with comment from Houghtaling and Downey.