In a protest over budget cuts and company leadership, journalists at the nation’s largest newspaper chain are planning to walk off the job on Monday — including staff from the Arizona Republic.
The Phoenix-based Republic is one of 24 newspapers whose employees are protesting against parent company Gannett. The Arizona Republic Guild, the union that represents the paper’s staff, announced plans to walk off the job for 48 hours starting Monday.
The action is timed to coincide with a shareholder meeting. Staff are seeking the ouster of CEO Mike Reed.
In a statement, the guild said the staff had been cut from more than 400 journalists to about 130 over the past two decades, with 90 of those jobs being non-supervisor positions covered by the guild.
They say they are seeking a contract that ensures livable wages and decent health care benefits while guarding against further staff cuts.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The guild clarified its initial statement on the estimated job losses over the past two decades. This story has been updated to reflect that revised statement.THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC GUILD IS WALKING OFF THE JOB 🧵
— Arizona Republic Guild 🌵 (@azrepublicguild) June 1, 2023
It's very simple, what @Gannett is offering us would leave some members with LESS money in their paychecks each week, and that is unacceptable. We've started a GoFundMe to help support our journalists https://t.co/wAPc4dSgMx
