Bargaining update 5/12: AI Counterproposal, still no wage proposal

For our fourth round of bargaining, held on May 12, we received a counterproposal from management on artificial intelligence. As a reminder, we have been seeking contract language that will protect our jobs; promote transparency around AI usage; and clarify that Guild journalists should be using AI as a tool rather than management using AI to replace our work.

In response to our public mobilizing around AI, management’s latest counter included significant movement in our direction, including language that guarantees only human journalists will interview sources and write stories, which they had previously said they would never guarantee in the contract. This is a crucial protection for reporters, and we have secured it in large part because of the way all of you have mobilized to stand up for each other.

However, this new language doesn’t offer the same human-only guarantees around the other essential elements of journalism that Guild members do: copy editing, designing, creating graphics, digital production, etc. We do not want to accept that job protections only apply to reporters, so we are looking to push back.

Meanwhile, management is still refusing to bring us a counter proposal on wages, almost two months after we gave them our initial proposal. They accused the bargaining team of holding up the process and said the company’s wage proposal is “not ready.” When asked what was needed to get it ready, they responded that they would like us to settle all other open articles first like PTO and leaves of absence before showing us a wage proposal.

We think it is unreasonable to counter our own proposals or withdraw proposals just because management is holding their counterproposal on wages hostage. We have heard loud and clear from members that wages is our No. 1 issue and not having management’s proposal is preventing us from being able to see the full picture and move ahead on other issues.