Guild rep attends News Guild’s New Local Officers Seminar
Thursday, June 6, 2019 by The Guild
Luke Hammill, the Buffalo Newspaper Guild’s Sun papers steward, recently attended the national NewsGuild’s New Local Officers Seminar, held March 1 to 4 in the Baltimore, Md., area.
Topics included stewards’ rights and responsibilities, bargaining goals and strategies, mobilization and organizing. Many of this year’s attendees came from newly organized shops across the United States, reflecting the wave of unionization that has taken place at American media organizations in the past few years.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 by The Guild
From left, Mike Pesarchick Jr., Francesca Bond and Aaron Besecker.
By Mike Pesarchick Jr.
The sun was shining on the Scajaquada Pathway as I, Aaron Besecker and Francesca Bond arrived to take part in Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s annual Shoreline Sweep, dedicated to cleaning up trash from the area’s waterways.
The Guild has taken part in the sweep for many years now; this was the first year we went to Scajaquada Creek to clean up. In recent years, we had cleaned up the shores at Father Conway Park in the Old First Ward.
We and the two dozen other volunteers were issued neoprene gloves, trash bags and tongs and marched off to the shore.
Trash ranged from small candy wrappers to beer growlers and basketballs. Dozens, if not hundreds of plastic bottles and Styrofoam plates littered the shore, most likely heaved from the thousands of cars that pass by on the Scajaquada Expressway yards from the water.
In two hours of work, we three pulled six full bags of trash and recyclable bottles, two basketballs and one shopping cart out of the water and off the shore.
With 2,300 other volunteers sweeping 60 locations across Western New York, we were just a small part of the machine, but it felt good to make a difference.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 by The Guild
Members of the Guild sold Kids Day editions of The Buffalo News once again this year to benefit Oishei Children’s Hospital.
Guild members volunteer each year at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and East Ferry Street to sell papers in the early morning hours.
On Tuesday, April 30, 2019, thanks to decent weather, enthusiastic volunteers and generous souls, the Guild’s Kids Day volunteers raised $304. This is our highest total in more than a decade at least.
Reporter Maki Becker sells papers at Jefferson and East Ferry. (Photo by Sharon Cantillon)
Saturday, January 26, 2019 by Colin Dabkowski
After one of the most difficult summers in recent memory, the Guild and The News are in rebuilding mode.
And while we are still processing the repercussions of our colleagues’ departures, there are reasons to hope for better days ahead. Foremost among them is the addition of several new faces to the newsroom, which has welcomed five new full-time staff reporters and editors — largely in the decimated sports department —
and four part-time print and digital reporters.
Our new members have brought a welcome dose of energy into a battered workplace. Their work will likely be instrumental in a new initiative spearheaded by management and supported by the Guild to reinvent The News as a collection of digital businesses and to build subscription and other sources of revenue into a sustainable future. (More on this in a future issue of the Frontier Reporter.)
In the meantime, the Guild has worked hard to guard the provisions of our contract, to extend our jurisdiction to newly launched products like the Kenmore and Tonawanda Sun newspapers and to help our members through a challenging time in the industry.
This issue of the Frontier Reporter — in stark contrast to the last one — takes a more optimistic tone as we attempt to work together with management to put The News back on solid ground.
— Colin Dabkowski, vice president of mobilization and communication
Read the full version of the Frontier Reporter here:
More News
- Sun paper expansion results in more hiring, raises for Sun-based Guild members
- Guild members reel from 17 buyouts, honor colleagues and look ahead
- Guild statement on freedom of the press
- Targeted buyouts in Editorial follow first-quarter losses from The News
- Vince “Jim” Ippolito
- Guild members vote to ratify tentative agreement
- Guild reaches tentative agreement on 3-year contract with no concessions or cuts to wages, benefits
- Members protest The News’ overreliance on freelance writers
- Guild members march in Labor Day Parade
- Guild gains editorial jurisdiction at The Hamburg Sun
- Two-year Guild contract secured after 10 months of negotiations
- Guild to host NewsGuild Multi-District Council meeting in June
- Guild members approve new contract
- Guild schedules contract vote for April 20
- Company updates employees on State of the News
- Tan succeeds Davis as Guild president
- Guild executive committee minutes: Tuesday, April 16, 2019
- Guild executive committee minutes: Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019
- Guild executive committee minutes: Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019
- Guild executive committee minutes: Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018
- Guild executive committee minutes: Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018
- Guild executive committee minutes: Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018
- Guild executive committee minutes: Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018
