REGION — A union representing journalists employed by the Southern California News Group recently announced its members have approved their first employment contract nearly two months after threatening to strike.
The Southern California News Group Guild — representing 125 members across 11 newsrooms, including the Orange County Register and L.A. Daily News — confirmed that 93% of its members voted on Nov. 15 to ratify a contract with the media company’s owner, New York-based investment firm Alden Global Capital.
The contract ratification vote followed two years of negotiations and the guild’s strike authorization vote in September, in which over 94% of members voted in favor of a strike.
“The gains in this contract will be life-changing to Guild members, especially those at the bottom of the pay scale. Some of those people are veteran colleagues who have not received a raise in over a decade,” said Charlie Vargas, reporter and member of the Guild’s contract actions team. “The other new members, both current and future ones, will get to start their careers with a bit of a higher leg up to contribute to a profession in dire need of committed journalists. This commitment to them all is a step in the right direction in the future of journalism.”
The new contract states that members will receive an average 12% pay raise over two years, with some long-serving, underpaid employees seeing increases of more than 48%. All members are guaranteed at least a 6% raise over two years.
The agreement introduces just cause protections, ending at-will employment and ensuring fair and transparent disciplinary measures. The inaugural contract also establishes seniority-based layoff procedures and safeguards against management performing union work, excessive use of AI, freelance contracting, and forced changes in reporters’ beat assignments.
“This contract would not have been possible without the strength and unity of our members, who, after years of facing stagnant wages, came together to demand better from our newsroom owners,” said Sean Emery, an SCNG reporter and guild unit chair. “For the first time in many, many years our members will see much needed raises, particularly those who have struggled to get by on the lowest end of the pay scale. We have the power of our members to thank for this significant step forward.”
The Southern California News Group is a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, a Denver-based company owned by Alden Global. Known in the industry as a “vulture fund” and “the destroyer of newspapers,” Alden Global owns more than 200 daily newspapers and has a reputation for cutting costs and staff to boost profits.
Last year, Alden Global purchased the San Diego Union-Tribune in a controversial sale by L.A. Times owner and billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project reports that Alden Global has recently expanded into the mobile home sector, spending over $275 million to acquire more than 10,000 manufactured housing lots over the past four years. During this time, rents in several of these lots have increased by 50 to 100%.
“This is a hard-fought first step in a continuing process of pressuring the company to do the moral thing,” said Mindy Schauer, a photojournalist and member of the bargaining committee. “We will keep fighting for what our hard-working employees deserve.”
Southern California News Group journalists voted to unionize in June 2021, joining Media Guild of the West, the Los Angeles-based local of The NewsGuild-CWA that represents journalists in Southern California, Arizona and Texas.
“This is a first step in repairing some of the damage that Wall Street has done to local journalism and to Main Street here in Southern California,” said Matt Pearce, president of Media Guild of the West. “These journalists stood up, demanded what was fair, and now the Southern California News Group is set to add at least $700,000 of new investment into their journalism serving our communities at a time when many of our other local newsrooms have been making cutbacks.”
