Salt Lake City — For the first time since its founding in 1870, the newsroom of The Salt Lake Tribune has organized to form a union and help build the next century of the state’s flagship publication.
On Monday, a supermajority of the paper’s reporters, photographers, web designers and artists asked the nonprofit’s board of directors, editors and CEO to voluntarily recognize The Salt Lake News Guild. The union is represented by the Denver Newspaper Guild and Communications Workers of America.
“The Salt Lake Tribune has been an essential news source in Utah for more than 150 years,” said Jeff Dempsey, an audience manager at The Tribune. “Our goal with the union is to work in equal partnership with management to ensure it remains essential for the next 150 years and beyond.”
The mission statement of the guild, signed by more than 70% of the newsroom staff, commits the group to the ideals that have been the bedrock of The Tribune since 1870.
“Our mission is to ensure The Tribune remains Utah’s independent voice,” the statement reads. “We are committed to democratic values and the viability of our nonprofit newsroom. We honor our legacy and history of empowering our statewide community.”
It goes on to state: “We seek a seat at the table where decisions are made and a role in guiding our nonprofit journey.”
Emily Anderson Stern is a seventh-generation Utahn who grew up reading The Tribune and is proud to be a government reporter at a publication that has bettered the lives of Utahns for decades.
“I chose to work here because as a nonprofit, its ultimate mission is to be sustainable to serve the community, not line someone’s pockets,” she said. “I am proud to be a member of the guild because I know that when reporters have a voice in the organization they work at, they are better able to hold power to account and work for the people who read — and those who don’t read — their words every day.”
Under federal labor laws, Tribune leadership can voluntarily recognize the employees’ union.
Leia Larsen, an environment reporter at The Tribune, said she is optimistic management will see the benefits of valuing its workforce and together they can build on the progress that has occurred since The Tribune was granted nonprofit status in 2019.
“We’re grateful for visionary leadership who transitioned The Tribune into the nation’s first legacy daily nonprofit newsroom,” she said. “Uniting as workers is an important next step. It aligns with our shared mission to ensure The Tribune remains Utah’s independent voice and continues producing the strong journalism our state deserves."
If management refuses to recognize the union, the matter goes to a poll with the National Labor Relations Board. If a simple majority of employees vote in favor, negotiations for a labor contract move forward.
The hope, said Carmen Nesbitt, an education reporter at the paper, is that a union can insulate reporters from intense pressures to generate pageviews.
“I think we can serve Utah better by unionizing as we work to refocus on quality journalism over virality,” she said. “There’s important accountability work to be done and that may not always have mass appeal in a rural state like Utah. But it’s no less important.”
Bethany Baker, a photographer and videographer for The Tribune, said the publication follows a wave of union efforts, from The Idaho Statesman to the Desert Sun and nonprofits like Texas Tribune and Propublica.
“It is my hope,” she said, “that unionizing will contribute to long-term sustainability at our newspaper, so that the high-quality journalism our readers have come to expect from The Salt Lake Tribune continues for years to come.”
Robert Gehrke has been a government reporter and news columnist at The Tribune for 20 years — much of it while the paper was teetering on collapse.
“Think about what it would’ve meant for Utah if we hadn’t survived,” he said. “Our team has sacrificed a lot for this place. We cherish its role in the community in a way most can’t understand. We wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize The Tribune’s survival. But the paper, our readers and the state will benefit immeasurably if the next generation of journalists aren’t forced to make the same sacrifices we did in order to serve our readers.”
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