Support One Big Union at the Maine Trust for Local News
Stefanie Manning, managing director, Maine Trust for Local News
Under nonprofit ownership, the Maine Trust for Local News is building a business model that could be a roadmap to sustainability for local news organizations across the country. We are here because we are invested in that future. But we need our management to invest in ours too.
More than 150 workers at the Maine Trust for Local News are already represented by a union. But even as we became one company under common ownership, many employees were still excluded from the protections of our collective bargaining agreements. That means that our coworkers see staggering pay disparity and are more vulnerable to layoffs.
Now, we are organizing to become One Big Union. The 40-plus unrepresented workers at the Maine Trust for Local News are seeking to join the News Guild of Maine (TNG-CWA Local 31128).
We ask you to stand with us so we can keep doing the work we love for you.
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To:
Stefanie Manning, managing director, Maine Trust for Local News
From:
[Your Name]
We support One Big Union at the Maine Trust for Local News.
We are subscribers, readers, customers, donors, former staff and community supporters of the Maine Trust for Local News. We write to you today to encourage you in the strongest possible terms to voluntarily recognize their demand for accretion into the News Guild of Maine.
Your staff writes in their mission statement: “We are a collective of METLN staff rooted in the communities we serve — committed to earning trust, reflecting regional identity and championing the stories that matter most to Mainers.”
We know this truth deeply. We see these journalists at our State House and our school board meetings. We look to them to tell us about triumphs on the field and tragedies in our towns. We work with them on ads for our businesses. We read their work on the page and in our inboxes. And we know them as neighbors and citizens and customers because they live here in our communities.
We also know that news is a tough business. We know that our longtime weekly papers are no longer on our newsstands. We know that fewer journalists are working in Maine and across the country today than in decades past. We know that the Maine Trust for Local News is building a model for sustainable journalism in our state, and we know how vital that mission is to our democracy.
We believe in the power of local journalism. So we believe in the power of these workers. We believe in the News Guild of Maine.