Bargaining update 4/28: AI issues, no wage counter

For our third round of bargaining, we hoped that management would come to the table with a counter to the wage proposal we presented in our first bargaining session six weeks ago. They did not. So, this session focused primarily on issues related to Generative AI.

In our first bargaining session, we proposed commonsense AI protections for Guild members and Seattle Times readers. In our second bargaining session, management rejected the core of all those protections, asking the Guild to trust that the company’s internal AI policies (which are subject to change at any time without Guild input) will protect us and readers. 

In this third session, we presented a counterproposal on AI. To show good faith, we softened our proposal on Guild notification for new AI and agreed with a proposal by management to set up a labor-management committee to discuss newsroom AI issues on a regular basis.

However, we held strong to our core priorities: Protecting our jobs; promoting transparency around AI usage to help safeguard community trust; and clarifying that Guild journalists should be using AI as a tool rather than management using AI as a way to replace us or our work.

In addition, we clarified that that any Guild journalist should receive credit, via metrics, from any stories created using our original work, and have the ability to remove their byline from any AI-altered work they find no longer meets appropriate standards.

Management did not immediately present a new counterproposal on AI. They said they would look for avenues to compromise. But they made it clear that they would like to be able to force Guild journalists to use AI and would like to be able to replace Guild journalists/positions with AI. 

Until management responds to our wage proposal, we cannot advance on non-AI issues like PTO, hybrid work and leaves of absence. All economic issues are connected and we are waiting to see the whole picture before negotiating further on benefits.

Our next bargaining session will be Tuesday, May 12.