EVERETT, SEPT. 5: Everett Herald union members held a picket Thursday night to protest a proposal from owners that ties salary bonuses to the number of articles produced.
The Everett NewsGuild has been bargaining for its first contract with new owners, Carpenter Media Group (CMG), since they took over The Everett Herald last year.
The current proposal made by CMG states that a reporter would have to write at least 10 stories a week to earn a $1 per-hour raise, the union said in a press release.
Journalists claim that tying salaries to quotas could be “devastating” for local news coverage by not allowing time for proper coverage.
“The only item left to fight on is stopping the company from tying reporters’ wages to story quotas, a potentially devastating requirement that would harm local news in the region,” the release said.
The union made an offer to owners CMG at a recent bargaining session, they said. Both the union and CMG go back to the bargaining table next week.
At 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4, reporters and community members gathered at the intersection of Hewitt Ave. and Colby Ave.
“I’m here supporting these journalists because as a librarian I know that it is vital that our public news be well funded and that we have professionals doing important work for a decent wage and without the pressure of a certain number of articles they need to be producing every single week,” Kim Larson, VP of Sno-Isle Libraries Employees United (SILEU), said.
Attendees held signs that read “Carpenter Puts Profit Over People,” “Honk For Local News,” and “Fair Contract Now!”
The union is also asking the community to sign a petition online.
The picket comes months after the union called on Herald subscribers to threaten cancelation if CMG “fails to give journalists the pay and working conditions they deserve.”
“After working for so many months to try and get a contract over the line, it’s disheartening that the company keeps insisting on tying my pay to arbitrary quotas,” Will Geschke, a Herald reporter, said. “You’d think they’d be smarter than that, but then again, these are the people that laid off half our staff just over a year ago. Everyone can see the effects that’s had on the paper.”
The saga began last year when Sound Publishing’s longtime parent company, British Columbia-based Black Press, sold to new ownership. CMG, now the fourth-largest media company in the country, bought the Herald along with other small newspapers in the Pacific Northwest.
Although the union had been negotiating for increased wages since its creation in 2022, things came to a head in June 2024 when CMG announced layoffs of nearly half the Herald staff.
Everett Herald employees and supporters went on strike a week later, calling on CMG to discuss reinstating jobs and fair wages. The strike came to a conclusion when CMG and the union negotiated optional buyouts, increased severance packages and raises for the remaining staff.
This is an ongoing story.
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