The Athens Banner-Herald, along with the Savannah Morning News, joins the newly formed Georgia Gannett NewsGuild. The guild highlighted the layoffs of 400 employees, paused 401(K) matching, rollouts of mandatory five-day unpaid leave, and an indefinite hiring freeze by Gannett, the country’s biggest newspaper chain. The guild also mentions that these cuts “come after years of unequal pay, unrealistic workloads, and diminishing morale within our newsrooms.”
The Georgia Gannett NewsGuild released their demands of better pay, better working conditions, and for Gannett to officially recognize the union. If Gannett fails to recognize the union, then the guild says “We will vote, and we will win.”
This news comes as hundreds of journalists across the country staged a walkout in hopes to end the deep cuts. The newspapers that participated in the walkout include the Arizona Republic, the Austin American-Statesman, the Bergen Record, the Rochester Democrat, the Chronicle, and the Palm Beach Post. Gannett said the walkout will have no interruption on news coverage.
The walkouts occurred simultaneously with the Gannett shareholders meeting. President of The NewsGuild of New York, Susan DeCarava, called the meeting “a slap in the face to the hundreds of Gannett journalists who are on strike today.”
This marks the largest labor action in Gannett’s history.
