Sept. 27, 2024 2p
(WGTD)---The editorial staff at the Racine Journal Times wants to unionize.
They're asking the owners of the paper--Iowa-based Lee Enterprises--to voluntarily allow them to organize. If not, the employees say they'll ask the National Labor Relations Board to order an election.
Racine NewsGuild, as they're calling themselves, would operate as a unit of Kenosha Newspaper Guild Local 34159, which has for a number of years represented employees at the Kenosha News. The Guild is affiliated with Communications Workers of America.
In a news release, the unions said the two staffs have coexisted under the same company for five years but work under vastly different conditions. Lee Enterprises bought the Kenosha News five years ago with the union already in place.
The unions claim that the quality of the Journal Times and employee morale both have suffered in recent years as the result of the company's decisions to cut positions and reduce local news coverage.
There's been no comment from Lee Enterprises.
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