Support striking local journalists!

Dear supporters,

Tribune Publishing union journalists have made the difficult decision to walk off the job for 24 hours to fight for a fair contract that will allow us to keep providing essential service in our communities.

We — the reporters, editors, designers and photojournalists at The Morning Call, Chicago Tribune, suburban Chicago Tribune publications, Design and Production Studios, Orlando Sentinel, Tribune Content Agency and Virginian-Pilot/Daily Press — are raising money to support this historic work stoppage.

This is a fight for our communities. Here’s how we got here:

We’re bargaining with Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund known for strip-mining newspapers for outsized profits while letting the overall product diminish. Despite that, our journalists have produced impactful, award-winning work covering criminal justice, schools, local government, the COVID-19 pandemic, national elections and arts and culture.

We’ve made reasonable proposals to our employer: to maintain our current benefits, including the company’s 401K matching contribution, to rectify unacceptable wage inequities and to adjust our salaries for inflation with cost-of-living increases. Most members have gone without a raise for at least five years amid historic inflation — all while Alden has the industry's highest profit margins.

We are fighting to provide fair and sustainable living conditions so local journalists can continue to bring value to their communities. Studies show that losing access to fair and reliable news sources is correlated with increased costs to taxpayers, more corruption and increased political polarization.

And we’ve been fighting for five years.

Any funds raised will help members take care of essential living expenses due to lost wages. Leftover funds will support future contract efforts. Your donation helps us fight for Allentown, Chicago, Orlando, Virginia and local jouranlism across the country.

Please note: We’re taking care to avoid journalistic conflicts, and will respectfully return any donation from any source that is in nature political, governmental or otherwise in conflict with our role as journalists.

You can also support our contract effort by writing a letter here to company executives to tell them how much you value the work of local journalists.

We thank you for your time.

In solidarity,

The Tribune Publishing Guilds