MGW seats new leadership, charts course for 2022
Media Guild of the West, a local union of The NewsGuild-CWA, seated its new leaders at a Monday general membership meeting and began charting its course to fight ongoing threats from the coronavirus pandemic, workplace discrimination and corporate disinvestment in local journalism in 2022.
In a State of the Union address, returning President Matt Pearce highlighted several victories for members over the past year, including: The passage of Senate Bill 98 in California to restrict arrests of journalists covering protests; the ratification of the Phoenix New Times’ first contract in Arizona; the addition of three recently organized units at Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas; and successful campaigns to unionize the Southern California News Group and the Desert Sun in Southern California. Rank-and-file members of the L.A. Times Guild formed a new AAPI Caucus, joining the Black and Latino caucuses members created in 2020.
To support the local’s continued rapid growth during 2021, Media Guild of the West staff doubled from two to four with funding assistance from The NewsGuild-CWA. Members voted to end a dues discount for high earners — known as a dues cap — to enforce a universal dues rate of 1.3846%, and also approved bylaws changes to encourage higher democratic participation by allowing meetings and votes to be held digitally where possible.
Pearce said Media Guild of the West’s strategy is to aggressively organize new units; to support a “organizing model” strategy based on transparent bargaining and high member participation; and to serve as an incubator for new ideas, such as the work-sharing program at the Los Angeles Times in 2020 that helped avert mass layoffs during the pandemic. In 2021, Media Guild of the West piloted an experimental Member Organizer Institute program to teach rank-and-file members basic organizing skills and encourage more job actions, which continues to expand. Media Guild of the West’s Executive Committee voted to endorse bargaining in support of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and joined other unions supporting stronger OSHA workplace safety rules to protect members during the pandemic.
The Executive Committee’s nine officers for 2022-2023, who ran unopposed, were also seated at Monday’s meeting:
President - Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times reporter
Vice President - Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times reporter
Secretary - Colleen Shalby, Los Angeles Times reporter
Treasurer - Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times reporter
At-Large Officer - Jay Clendenin, Los Angeles Times photojournalist
At-Large Officer - Sam Dean, Los Angeles Times reporter
At-Large Officer - Jad El Reda, Los Angeles Times / L.A. Times en Español assistant editor
At-Large Officer - Carla Hall, Los Angeles Times editorial page writer
At-Large Officer - Matt Hamilton, Los Angeles Times reporter
Media Guild of the West, which was founded in 2019 by members of the L.A. Times Guild, now represents nine newly organized bargaining units in Southern California, Arizona and Texas, most of which are still bargaining their first collective bargaining agreements.
Under the local’s bylaws, bargaining units gain the option for automatic representation on the Executive Committee once they win their first contracts, and individual members can gain standing by paying dues at any time. Officers are otherwise elected by popular vote of the local’s membership in good standing.
The Executive Committee handles the local’s official business in between quarterly membership meetings, where a majority of members can vote to support or override leadership decisions at any time.