Union members at the Pioneer Press opened negotiations with the newspaper’s hedge-fund ownership intent on bargaining a contract that respects their work, protects their safety and delivers wage and benefit gains. 

After a brief rally outside the newspaper’s offices on Water Street, about two dozen members of the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild walked into bargaining together, hoping to show Alden Global Capital the faces behind the numbers on its balance sheets.

The Guild represents over 50 newsroom and advertising employees at the Pioneer Press, and they have given over 600 years of combined service to the company. That’s worth fighting for, unit vice chair Jared Kaufman said.

“This contract negotiation, this thing we do every three years or so — this is our one chance to fight for the really big stuff,” he said. “That’s why this matters. The gates are open for us all to make the changes we want to see.”

In bargaining, the Guild will look to hold the line against potential use of generative artificial intelligence in place of union members’ work.

Members also want the employer to invest in the Pioneer Press — in workers’ wages and benefits, but also in their physical safety, whether it’s protections against repetitive motion injuries for workers at video editing terminals or personal protective equipment for journalists covering civil unrest.

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