by Robert Wright
Journalists from one of Austin’s oldest publications, The Austin American Statesman, went on a 4-day strike against their parent company Gannett. The union representing the Statesman journalists, Austin News Guild, are leading the strike representing 41 guild members. After almost three years of bargaining, Statesman journalists have not yet received a serious contract offer from their parent company Gannett- the largest media holding company in America.
The asks from the Austin News Guild are as follows:
– Competitive Pay and Benefits
– Fair Contract Negotiations including worker input on severance pay and layoffs
– Protections against AI- which Gannett made national headlines for after trying to after trying to replace Highschool sports journalists with AI written articles.
In a statement provided by Austin News Guild President Nicole Villalpando, the union president said “After three years of bargaining, the Austin News Guild went on strike April 5-8. We did a picket on Friday. And a picket at the Statesman’s premiere event. We are asking for job protection as well as raises. We haven’t had regular raises for everyone since 2017. Our proposals are simple and what Gannett has approved at other Guilds. Yet, they have given us conditional offers that are worse than the status quo protections.”
In response to the 4-day strike, Statesman management and Gannett filled the newspaper with old articles and reposted USA Today articles, falsely labelling their authors as Statesman writers, lapsing multiple journalistic standards in their writings and running fewer local and state stories throughout the strike. The Austin American Statesman also posted temporary job listings to hire scabs willing to replace the striking journalists.
The Austin American Statesman Journalist strike also comes at the same time as journalists in Rochester, New York, strike against Gannett as well. Journalists with the publication Democrat & Chronicle mirror the demands of the Statesman journalists.
When asked for the next steps for the Austin News Guild if Gannett fails to bring a contract in the wake of the strike, Nicole Villalpando responded that the Guild will continue to take action until a fair contract is reached.
