Earlier today, The Daily Beast published a story about NewsGuild members circulating a letter that opposes a proposed union dues increase of less than one half of one percent. The proposed changes, which would raise dues from 1.3846 percent to 1.75 percent of a member's salary, and also eliminate a dues cap which prevents the union from collecting dues on income over $140,140 per year, would be the first revision to the dues structure in the union's 88-year history. To give you an idea how how silly it is for the New York Times' best-paid staffers to be throwing a collective tantrum over a pittance of a dues increase, even hiring lawyers to help them fight it, here's an example: For someone making $200,000 a year, the proposed hike would result in that person's annual dues increasing by about $4 a day.
The Beast reported that New York Times politics writer Nick Confessore was "among the most vocally opposed to the dues increase," and also published the names of about two dozen star (and presumably well-compensated) New York Times reporters who oppose the increase, which included Maggie Haberman, Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey, Eric Lipton, Katie Rosman, Kenneth Vogel, Mark Leibovich, Cecilia Kang, and Trip Gabriel.
Defector obtained the full letter, which was signed by more than a hundred Times (and a small handful of Reuters) staffers as of Wednesday. Below is the letter and its signatories; the names of people who work for New York Times sports section are in bold, as a service to our readers to remind them where these writers and reporters stand on solidarity the next time they write about labor in sports.
Dear Union Colleagues:
In the coming days, you will receive a ballot in the mail from the Guild asking you to vote on a proposal to raise your annual union dues by at least 26 percent. This will cost many of us between $400 and $500 more for every year we remain in the union. The highest earners in our Guild will pay more than $1,000 extra per year.
The Guild has said its executive committee voted to recommend permanently raising our dues to ensure our union has the money needed to fight for and organize new shops across the region.
We the undersigned stand with all of our colleagues and shops, new and old alike, and agree that the Guild must not back away from helping the newly organized. But the proposed dues increase is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and we firmly oppose it. We urge you to vote ‘no.’
Here’s why:
Five years ago, Guild leaders began a strikingly successful effort to organize new shops and expand our membership. That spoke to a broad hunger among those in our business for union protections and we salute that. But the Guild never figured out how to fund this ambitious expansion.
Instead, it has run ever larger deficits and depleted our union’s reserves by more than half. Payroll at the Guild has doubled as we’ve added organizers and as spending on contract negotiations has grown ever faster as the number of our new members has grown four-fold, to nearly 1,200.
This is not sustainable. New members only pay dues when they win their first contracts, and that can take many years. For instance, new Guild members at Conde Nast are in the third year of negotiations and recently took a strike vote.
For now, the Guild’s existing dues-paying members -- you -- are paying for this expansion effort with no clear projections for how much it will cost nor when new dues will begin to sluice into our coffers.
Guild’s leaders have provided few details, other than to say they plan to hire more organizers.In fact, a top Guild official recently told us the Guild never writes a budget that extends more than one quarter ahead and that there is no “reliable way to predict” future revenues and costs.
That is an alarming response. No business looking to expand would simply shrug its collective shoulders and say: “Revenues? Costs? Sorry, no real idea…”
Rather than give the Guild a blank check to spend more of our money, we need to consider a proposal for higher dues in a careful accounting of likely costs and revenues.
The dues hike, coupled with removal of a cap on dues above $140,140, will not pay for the Guild’s current expansion efforts, the recruiting of yet more members and the replenishment of union’s reserves, as the Guild’s leadership has promised.
There simply isn’t enough money to go around. The increase is unlikely to even raise enough money to cover this year’s projected deficit.
There are many alternatives, including trimming expansion efforts to slow spending, removing the cap on dues above $140,140, introducing a one-time assessment to replenish the reserve fund and assessing dues on overtime hours. We can also seek more help from our International Union. All of this should be grounded in transparency and careful budgeting with benchmarks going forward.
We will not leave any organized shop behind. We take our obligations very seriously. But we need to slow down.
In this coming referendum, the Guild leadership has allowed non-dues paying members to vote on the increase. It is critical that those of us who will immediately pay these higher dues make our voices heard. A majority of votes cast -- from across all of the Guild’s media outlets, dues-paying and not -- will decide the referendum.
Please return your paper ballot that will come in the mail. Vote ‘no’ so the Guild can develop a more sensible, sustainable plan to ensure our future.
FYI: The vote will be conducted by mail ballot, on a timeline to be determined in the coming days by the Guild. Ballots will be mailed to each member’s address on file with the Guild. To check or update your mailing address on file, contact Tim Try at tim@nyguild.org. If you do not receive your ballot or need a replacement, contact Global Election Services (Phone: 1-877-455-9367, E-mail: helpdesk@voteges.com).
Signed,
Ken Belson -- NYT
Patti Cohen -- NYT
Nick Confessore -- NYT
Michael Powell -- NYT
Reed Abelson -- NYT
Daniel Adkinson -- NYT
Binya Appelbaum -- NYT
Kim Barker -- NYT
Julian Barnes -- NYT
Tony Barone -- Reuters
Nellie Bowles -- NYT
Dan Barry -- NYT
Susan Beachy - NYT
Tara Siegel Bernard -- NYT
Jacob Bernstein -- NYT
Nellie Bowles -- NYT
Scott Cacciola -- NYT
Brian X. Chen -- NYT
David Chen -- NYT
Roselle Chen -- Reuters
Helene Cooper -- NYT
Michael Corkery -- NYT
Karen Crouse -- NYT
Conor Dougherty -- NYT
Joe Drape -- NYT
Jesse Drucker -- NYT
Steve Eder -- NYT
Sydney Ember -- NYT
Kevin Flynn -- NYT
Henry Fountain -- NYT
Matt Futterman -- NYT
Ellen Gabler -- NYT
Trip Gabriel -- NYT
David Gelles -- NYT
James Glanz -- NYT
Adam Goldman -- NYT
Maggie Haberman -- NYT
Richard Harris -- NYT
Svea Herbst -- Reuters
Tiffany Hsu -- NYT
Lara Jakes -- NYT
Cecilia Kang -- NYT
Jodi Kantor -- NYT
Kate Kelly -- NYT
Corey Kilgannon -- NYT
Gwen Knapp -- NYT
Serge Kovaleski -- NYT
Cliff Krauss -- NYT
Nick Kulish -- NYT
Michael LaForgia -- NYT
Sharon LaFraniere -- NYT
Mark Leibovich -- NYT
Eric Lipton -- NYT
Juliet Macur -- NYT
Sapna Maheshwari -- NYT
Jonathan Mahler -- NYT
Jonathan Martin -- NYT
Mark Mazzetti -- NYT
Patrick McGeehan -- NYT
Shawn McCreesh -- NYT
Mike McIntire -- NYT
Tim McLaughlin -- Reuters
Wesley Morris -- NYT
Jack Nicas -- NYT
Dennis Overbye -- NYT
Michael Paulson -- NYT
Azi Paybarah -- NYT
Amy Padnani -- NYT
Ivan Penn -- NYT
Randy Pennell -- NYT
Bill Pennington -- NYT
Jeremy Peters -- NYT
Richard Perez-Pena -- NYT
Matt Phillips -- NYT
Eduardo Porter -- NYT
Ben Protess -- NYT
Roni Caryn Rabin -- NYT
William Rashbaum -- NYT
Lynda Richardson -- NYT
Campbell Robertson -- NYT
Katie Rogers -- NYT
Matthew Rosenberg -- NYT
Katie Rosman -- NYT
Michael Rothfeld -- NYT
Rebecca Ruiz -- NYT
Bedel Saget -- NYT
Richard Sandomir -- NYT
David Sanger -- NYT
Stephanie Saul -- NYT
Charlie Savage -- NYT
Jennifer Steinhauer -- NYT
Dionne Searcey -- NYT
Michael Shear -- NYT
Ernest Scheyder — Reuters
Jennifer Schuessler -- NYT
Ben Shpigel -- NYT
Dan Slotnik -- NYT
Ben Sisario -- NYT
Liam Stack - NYT
Emily Steel -- NYT
Hiroko Tabuchi -- NYT
Megan Twohey -- NYT
Neil Vigdor -- NYT
Kenneth P. Vogel -- NYT
Dan Wakin -- NYT
David Waldstein -- NYT
Joe Ward -- NYT
Nancy Wartik -- NYT
Elizabeth Williamson -- NYT
Michael Wines -- NYT
Billy Witz -- NYT
Karen Yourish -- NYT
