By Bill Ross, Executive Director, Newspaper Guild 10, of Greater Philadelphia

– The last of 12 Guild bargaining units nationwide ratified a tentative agreement with Digital First Media Thursday night, culminating a seven-month campaign for the first pay increase in years.

Under the new contract, workers will receive an across-the-board raise of 3 percent in the first year. In years two and three, leaders of the 12 bargaining units will bargain wage re-openers jointly with DFM management.

Some employees hadn’t seen a raise in as much as ten years.

The national framework for future negotiations represents a critical advance for Guild members at all 12 newspapers, campaign leaders said.

The three-year contract will expire July 31, 2019.

The historic agreement between the Guild and DFM was reached after three days of negotiations in July, and after months of coordinated actions by Guild members at 12 newspapers nationwide.

The joint negotiations for the first wage re-opener will begin in February 2017 – just a little more than six months from now.

The joint bargaining framework will include workers at The Denver Post, The Mercury News, East Bay Times, Monterey Herald, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Macomb Daily and The Daily Tribune, Kingston Daily Freeman, Pottstown Mercury, Norristown Times-Herald, The Delaware County Times, and The Trentonian.

The DFM national “#NewsMatters” campaign was financed by a special grant from the Communications Workers of America. That grant, coupled with exceptional rank-and-file leadership, made the nationwide coordination possible.

Campaign leaders expressed thanks to rank-and-file members for their support and participation, and to the more than 11,000 Guild, CWA and community supporters who signed our petition and took part in this campaign.

#NEWSMATTERS