• by Ray Schultz , January 25, 2024

Reporters at The New York Daily News walked out for a one-day stoppage on Thursday as their union negotiates its first contract at the paper. 

The iconic tabloid is owned by Alden Global Capital’s Tribune Publishing, a company known for pursuing staff reductions and expense control. 

The staff is protesting newsroom cuts and a policy that says employees must get prior approval for overtime, according to The New York Times.   

The staff organized under the NewsGuild of New York in 2021. 

The Times estimates that roughly a third of union members have left since the spring of 2022. Membership now stands at 54.

At stake is the survival of the publication. 

"I’m a striker who didn’t want to go on strike from a union that didn’t want to go on strike and publishing unions that didn’t want to go on strike," says Tom Robbins, a striking union member, according to the NYC Department of Records & Information Services.  

"In reality, we’re being crushed for cash,” says Michael Gartland, a Daily News reporter and union steward,  according to the Times. "As a result, staff is diminished, which means our ability to cover the city is diminished."