Dear Subscribers,

We want to thank you all for your loyalty and support as we continue fighting for a contract with Adams MultiMedia, the owner of the Skagit Valley Herald, the Anacortes American and the Stanwood Camano News.

With your support, we were able to go on strike for three days in July. But the fight is not over. At our July 27th bargaining session, Adams MultiMedia walked back many of the concessions they were demanding but were unwilling to offer us living wages, or provide us with protections against AI.

After our last bargaining session, we were left with a counter offer of a starting salary of just $19.48 an hour. We have proposed $20 an hour – what we consider to be a more than reasonable ask, considering an hourly rate of $23.87 is considered a living wage for a single person with no children in Skagit County, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator.

We have also proposed that Adams MultiMedia incorporate its own, existing guidelines for newsroom AI usage into the contract, but management has been unwilling to accept that proposal. It is very concerning to us that management wont even be held to their own standards.

Due to managements unwillingness to move on key issues, our union has voted unanimously to go on an open-ended strike if Adams MultiMedia fails to present us with a fair contract on Aug. 24.

We are asking supporters like you to sign a boycott pledge committing to pausing your subscriptions to the Skagit Valley Herald, Anacortes American, and the Stanwood Camano News, should the Guild ask you to in the future.

We are not asking that you pause your subscription at this time, only that you commit to doing so should Adams MultiMedia continue to refuse its workers a living wage, and threaten to use artificial intelligence in the creation of news content.

We hope a boycott will not be necessary, but we accept that it may be the only way to show management the community’s commitment to support the hardworking journalists who make our publications great.

Please consider contacting the company’s management directly, including Publisher Rebecca Poynter and Human Resources Manager Deb Brooks to share your thoughts with them.

Poynter can be reached at 360-416-2100 or rpoynter@skagitpublishing.com. Brooks can be reached at 360-416-2187 or dbrooks@skagitpublishing.com.

Sincerely,

Skagit News Workers and the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild