Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Marathon Talks End Seven-Week Walkout at Seattle Newspapers
Seattle’s first newspaper strike in 47 years ended Jan. 8, after workers ratified a contract hammered out during a marathon bargaining session in Washington, D.C.
“It’s the best contract we’ve held in our hands for two decades,” said Ron Judd, a spokesman for TNG-CWA Local 37082. “We went on strike to gain respect. We believe that respect has been won.”
Judd made his comments to the Seattle Union Record, the citywide newspaper the local published throughout the seven-week strike.
More than 900 workers at the city’s two daily newspapers, the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, struck over wages and wage-equity issues on Nov. 21. The walkout ended with the help of the nation’s top mediator, C. Richard Barnes, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), CWA President Morton Bahr and Vice President Linda Foley, of TNG-CWA.
Concerned after Times’ workers rejected an offer in late December, Murray asked both sides to come to Washington in hopes of settling the dispute. Bahr joined Foley, TNG Staff Representative Bruce Meachem, and Local 37082 members Ralph Erickson and Emmett Murray during 13 straight hours of talks with the publisher and president of the Times.
The settlement was approved 359-116 by Times’ newsroom, advertising and circulation workers. Composing room employees, members of CWA’s Printing Sector who are represented by the Guild local, voted in favor of the contract 45-17.
Key to settlement was back-to-work language calling for “permanent replacement” workers to be let go over the next eight weeks, and calling for strikers to be returned to their jobs.
Until the bargaining session in Murray’s office, the Times’ publisher had been insisting on giving replacement workers as well as workers who had crossed picket lines seniority over the strikers in the event of expected job cuts.
The Times hired 68 replacement workers, primarily in advertising and circulation.
Under the contract, the Times must return all Guild members to their jobs within six months. Because of early retirement and severance packages, however, nearly all members who want to return to work should be back within three months. The Times is expecting to reduce its overall workforce by 10 percent because of financial losses during the strike.
No permanent replacement workers were hired by the P-I, although the paper had threatened to do so. With no “return-to-work” language at issue, the local’s 130 members at the P-I approved an offer Dec. 28 and went back to work Jan. 2.
The papers are owned separately but publish under a joint operating agreement and negotiate in tandem with TNG-CWA.
Under the new contracts, wages will increase by $3.30 per hour over the next six years across the board, the same scale the papers originally offered. But workers won their fight to eliminate a two-tier wage structure for journalists in news bureaus outside the city. The contracts also increase the employer contribution to health insurance premiums, along with other improvements.
Significantly, the strike forced the company to bargain with the union for the first time after years of weak contracts, Meachum said.
“What you’ve won, you can’t possibly imagine,” he said, speaking to a crowd outside the Times building after the vote, as reported by the Union Record. “More than just the fact that now you’re a union, more than just the fact that now they’re going to respect you — what you’ve won is the ability to do collective bargaining with this newspaper.”
Bahr and Foley expressed thanks to Murray and Barnes, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, who had been involved in negotiations for two weeks. “Their involvement was critical to our reaching a settlement,” Bahr said.
Strikers had enormous community support throughout the strike. When the papers announced their intent in mid-December to hire permanent replacements, Washington’s governor, city and county officials and religious leaders quickly blasted the publishers.
Gov. Gary Locke said the “decision to hire replacement workers when a federal mediator has come from Washington, D.C. to try to resolve this dispute can only inflame the situation and prolong the strike.”
Foley said she’s proud of the members’ resolve. “Our members were determined to win a fair contract and they have stood firm,” she said. “We are grateful to the entire Seattle community, which supported us from day one.
“It’s the best contract we’ve held in our hands for two decades,” said Ron Judd, a spokesman for TNG-CWA Local 37082. “We went on strike to gain respect. We believe that respect has been won.”
Judd made his comments to the Seattle Union Record, the citywide newspaper the local published throughout the seven-week strike.
More than 900 workers at the city’s two daily newspapers, the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, struck over wages and wage-equity issues on Nov. 21. The walkout ended with the help of the nation’s top mediator, C. Richard Barnes, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), CWA President Morton Bahr and Vice President Linda Foley, of TNG-CWA.
Concerned after Times’ workers rejected an offer in late December, Murray asked both sides to come to Washington in hopes of settling the dispute. Bahr joined Foley, TNG Staff Representative Bruce Meachem, and Local 37082 members Ralph Erickson and Emmett Murray during 13 straight hours of talks with the publisher and president of the Times.
The settlement was approved 359-116 by Times’ newsroom, advertising and circulation workers. Composing room employees, members of CWA’s Printing Sector who are represented by the Guild local, voted in favor of the contract 45-17.
Key to settlement was back-to-work language calling for “permanent replacement” workers to be let go over the next eight weeks, and calling for strikers to be returned to their jobs.
Until the bargaining session in Murray’s office, the Times’ publisher had been insisting on giving replacement workers as well as workers who had crossed picket lines seniority over the strikers in the event of expected job cuts.
The Times hired 68 replacement workers, primarily in advertising and circulation.
Under the contract, the Times must return all Guild members to their jobs within six months. Because of early retirement and severance packages, however, nearly all members who want to return to work should be back within three months. The Times is expecting to reduce its overall workforce by 10 percent because of financial losses during the strike.
No permanent replacement workers were hired by the P-I, although the paper had threatened to do so. With no “return-to-work” language at issue, the local’s 130 members at the P-I approved an offer Dec. 28 and went back to work Jan. 2.
The papers are owned separately but publish under a joint operating agreement and negotiate in tandem with TNG-CWA.
Under the new contracts, wages will increase by $3.30 per hour over the next six years across the board, the same scale the papers originally offered. But workers won their fight to eliminate a two-tier wage structure for journalists in news bureaus outside the city. The contracts also increase the employer contribution to health insurance premiums, along with other improvements.
Significantly, the strike forced the company to bargain with the union for the first time after years of weak contracts, Meachum said.
“What you’ve won, you can’t possibly imagine,” he said, speaking to a crowd outside the Times building after the vote, as reported by the Union Record. “More than just the fact that now you’re a union, more than just the fact that now they’re going to respect you — what you’ve won is the ability to do collective bargaining with this newspaper.”
Bahr and Foley expressed thanks to Murray and Barnes, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, who had been involved in negotiations for two weeks. “Their involvement was critical to our reaching a settlement,” Bahr said.
Strikers had enormous community support throughout the strike. When the papers announced their intent in mid-December to hire permanent replacements, Washington’s governor, city and county officials and religious leaders quickly blasted the publishers.
Gov. Gary Locke said the “decision to hire replacement workers when a federal mediator has come from Washington, D.C. to try to resolve this dispute can only inflame the situation and prolong the strike.”
Foley said she’s proud of the members’ resolve. “Our members were determined to win a fair contract and they have stood firm,” she said. “We are grateful to the entire Seattle community, which supported us from day one.