Letter to the L.A. Times newsroom - Los Angeles Times Guild

Colleagues, 

After 135 years of service, the journalists of the Los Angeles Times are forming a union. 

A majority of the newsroom has already signed cards supporting representation by the NewsGuild, and we look forward to gathering more signatures in the weeks ahead. 

Our supporters are award-winning journalists across every department who have dedicated — and at times, risked — their lives to serve our readers and to better inform our city, state and country. 

Unfortunately, producing this kind of journalism has gotten harder. 

Yearly raises have become a thing of the past. Talented journalists who want to build careers here have left for better pay and opportunities at other news outlets. We have few job protections at a time of high uncertainty in our industry. Our benefits cost far more than they used to. 

We have two main goals. 

First, we want to keep the benefits and conditions we like and protect them from unilateral change by Tronc. Second, there are aspects of our pay, benefits and working conditions where we think we can negotiate a better deal. 

Working together, we can fight for a better and more equitable workplace, including: 

•  Annual staff-wide salary increases and guaranteed minimum salaries 
•  Accrued vacation for all employees 
•  Competitive parental leave for mothers and fathers 
•  Equal pay for men and women and equal pay for journalists of color 
•  Fair notice of layoffs, guaranteed severance packages, and recall rights 

More than 25,000 journalists and media workers are already represented by the NewsGuild, including newsrooms at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun, Reuters and the Associated Press. 

Help us make history and keep doing the work that made the Los Angeles Times one of the most respected names in journalism. 

The Los Angeles Times Guild organizing committee 

Join us at latguild.com