Democracy depends on a free, healthy press, and great local news coverage depends on journalists making a living wage!

The newsroom employees of The Roanoke Times are bargaining for a fair pay scale and fair mileage reimbursement.

We have journalists with more than 30 years of experience who are being grossly underpaid. We have excellent, home-grown workers who have 10 more years of experience than their peers but make much less for doing the same jobs.

Everyone in The Roanoke Times newsroom is a professional, dedicated and hardworking journalist who deserves a fair pay scale. The only way to objectively do that is to have salaries based on years of experience.

Corporate owner Lee Enterprises argues the entire newsroom deserves nothing more than 2% raises this year and next, despite the skyrocketing inflation of the past four years.

Lee Enterprises says mileage reimbursement of 34 cents per mile is fair, even though the IRS recommends 67 cents per mile.

We can all agree that a strong democracy demands strong journalism. Please help us attract and keep great journalists by signing our petition and leaving a comment.

Thank you for your support!