Lee Enterprises: Kenosha News and Racine Journal Times journalists deserve a fair contract now!
Lee Enterprises
Journalists at the Kenosha News and Racine Journal Times care deeply about serving our readers by providing quality information.
Our owner Lee Enterprises does not care about us enough to pay living wages or ensure our jobs are protected from the creeping intrusion of artificial intelligence (AI).
Lee said it is “untenable” to guarantee us job protection from AI overreach.
Though the company claims it has no plans to replace human journalists with AI, it is demanding the option to do so.
We believe local journalism should be done by local humans, not computers and algorithms. We have repeatedly expressed concerns about the intrusion of AI slop, but Lee is not listening.
We have also made multiple reasonable pay proposals, but the company continues to lowball us.
To make ends meet, several journalists are keeping their heat off when it’s 30 degrees out, and one is driving a totaled car.
Lee does not seem concerned about those hardships.
In September 2024, Journal Times workers unionized the Racine newsroom and joined the Kenosha Newspaper Guild. We aimed to productively work with management by improving pay, job security and slowing staff attrition.
Sadly, those issues remain and have not improved.
In the last two years, Lee has slashed more than 40% of our staff through cuts and attrition, making it difficult to deliver quality coverage to our readers.
We’re asking you to stand with us by signing this petition, which demands that Lee Enterprises agree on a contract that includes fair pay and job protection from AI overreach.
Please help us by signing a petition that will be presented to the company’s management. Thank you.
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We demand that Lee Enterprises give the journalists of the Kenosha News and Racine Journal Times a contract with fair pay and job protections from artificial intelligence (AI) overreach.
These journalists work long hours with dwindling staff to cover their communities.
They spend evenings at county board meetings, mornings at court trials, write features on high school graduates, highlight local athletes and cover many other aspects of life in Southeast Wisconsin.
They do this despite a lack of support from Lee Enterprises.
The company refuses to pay workers fairly, provide job protection from AI overreach and has consistently cut staff and left open positions unfilled.
According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology living wage index, Kenosha and Racine journalists make less money than what it takes to afford basic needs.
That is wrong.
This corporate greed is in line with the company’s ongoing lack of interest in its workers and apathy toward producing quality newspapers to serve readers.
Journalists should not be exploited for working in an industry they love and believe in. They deserve better pay and safeguards from AI.
In signing this petition, we demand that Lee Enterprises support journalists who want fair pay and job protections to keep providing quality coverage to their readers.