Bargaining Update 9/29: Join our info picket
Hi everyone,
There was little change in the company’s approach during our Tuesday bargaining session.
We need to continue to escalate pressure. Join our informational picket tomorrow at noon.
Your bargaining committee met with the company this afternoon for our first bargaining session in a month after a break due to scheduling conflicts.
The company did not bring a new counterproposal on artificial intelligence. Bargaining committee members brought up a recent column from executive editor Michele Matassa Flores assuring Seattle Times readers that “journalism is a craft that requires human relationships … between reporters and their sources, photographers and their subjects, writers and their editors.”
In response, head of human resources Martin Hammond said, “Our compact with the readership is not the same as our compact with the employees.”
The bargaining committee continues to fight for contract language that guarantees that newsroom bargaining unit jobs will not be replaced by AI, even as Martin has reiterated that he doesn’t see the company agreeing to that.
We’ve reached agreement on smaller issues — like a policy around reinstating historical bargaining unit positions — but are stalled on high-priority matters including AI, hybrid work protections and, of course, wages.
We refuse to bargain against ourselves. Management has previously rejected our package proposal but declined to offer solutions-oriented counterproposals, so we largely resubmitted our offer from Aug. 25.
Hammond continued to pressure us to drop our demands around paid time off, hybrid work and severance in order to get a realistic wage offer out of management, saying the company is “not doing anything different than we always do.”
As of today, all of the proposals on the table are in management’s court.
It’s time for us to escalate. This is why it’s important we have as many people as possible join our info picket tomorrow.
Join your co-workers near the office at the corner of Denny Way and Stewart Street at noon Wednesday (near the 8 bus stop) to bring attention to our call for a fair contract. Please wear your union shirt. The picket will last until 1 p.m.