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LNP, WITF journalists to vote on unionizing

  • By Jeff Hawkes/ Special to LancasterOnline
The LNP | LancasterOnline sign is illuminated at 101 North Queen Street on the evening of June 17, 2020.

 Blaine Shahan / LNP | LancasterOnline

The LNP | LancasterOnline sign is illuminated at 101 North Queen Street on the evening of June 17, 2020.

Editor’s note: This story was reported and edited by independent journalists commissioned by LNP | LancasterOnline. To avoid a conflict of interest, neither newsroom management nor the reporting staffs of LNP | LancasterOnline, The Ephrata Review, The Lititz Record Express and WITF played a role in the newsgathering or editing processes. Jeff Hawkes, a veteran reporter and columnist who retired from LNP | LancasterOnline in 2020 after 42 years, reported and wrote this story. David DeKok, an author and former investigative reporter for The Patriot-News/PennLive in Harrisburg, edited this story. LNP | LancasterOnline copy editors ensured this story met the news organization’s standards for clarity, grammar and adherence to Associated Press style.


Four months after layoffs, and with possible management-dictated changes in their jobs looming, journalists at LNP | LancasterOnline and partner WITF will vote “yes” or “no” Monday on joining a union.

A total of 54 reporters, photographers, copy editors and other news production workers in newsrooms, LNP | LancasterOnline and WITF — the National Public Radio station headquartered in Harrisburg — are eligible to cast ballots. A simple majority of “yes” votes is needed for the newsrooms to join NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia, Local 38010.

Tom Lisi, 37, county government reporter at LNP | LancasterOnline, where he’s worked for almost four years, plans to vote “yes.” Lisi said that union representation of journalists “will make LNP one of the best places to work for in the state.”

“Readers deserve the best talent, and they want journalists who stick around longer and become experts in local issues, not just move on to greener pastures when they’ve honed their craft,” he said.

Jordan Wilkie, 34, the regional democracy reporter for WITF and LNP | LancasterOnline since last February, called journalism an essential public service in today’s world, “like getting fresh water to your house. I am pro-union because protecting the people who are doing the work is protecting the service we provide,” he said.

Other reporters contacted for this story declined comment or would only speak anonymously for fear candid comments might harm their future job prospects.

Not everyone in the newsrooms is in favor of affiliating with a union. Michael Long, 51, an LNP | LancasterOnline deputy editor, said he will be voting no. “Across the board, unions decrease profitability,” Long said in an email to LNP | LancasterOnline colleagues. “And if you take away money from an organization that is already losing money, it will only hasten more layoffs.” When grievances occur, Long said in a followup interview, “there’s nothing stopping us from making concerted, good-faith efforts to address them ourselves with management.”

Pennon, the nonprofit organization that has overseen the two newsrooms since last fall, is urging employees to vote “no.” But separately, in a statement to the press, Pennon said it respects the right of its workers to unionize and wants to build on its commitment to report the news regardless of the outcome of Monday’s vote. The statement’s tone was milder than that in a mailing sent two weeks ago to employees’ homes. Ron Hetrick, Pennon president and chief executive officer, told employees that unionizing “could dramatically change how we work with one another.”

The National Labor Relations Board scheduled Monday’s secret-ballot election after the number of eligible employees who signed union authorization cards exceeded the 30% threshold that triggers a vote. A labor board representative is typically present to supervise the voting. If employees approve a union, they would then have to negotiate their first contract, with the help of a professional from NewsGuild Local 38010.

Employee concerns trigger vote

In addition to a 10% staff reduction last October at LNP | LancasterOnline and WITF — about 24 employees total — Pennon’s recent cost-cutting moves included shrinking the traditional, printed newspaper. Readers now see fewer pages for opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and wire stories covering national and international news and sports.

Pennon’s recent mailing to employees’ homes said a union would not make things better. It asserted that joining a union doesn’t guarantee wage increases and job protection, and it highlighted the $140,000 salary earned by Bill Ross, executive director of NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia. It noted that union executives are paid from dues of 1.5% of each member’s gross wage.

Ross said the local, which presently serves 400 workers, would handle all of the administrative work of the Pennon unit in return for those dues, including providing professional help with contract negotiations and some grievance hearings. Pennon workers would elect their own officers and have a seat on the executive committee of Local 38010.

In response, NewsGuild’s Ross told journalists that Pennon was engaging in scare tactics with “at best, half-truths, and, at worst, bald-faced lies. Do not be fooled,” he wrote. “At every workplace with employees represented by the NewsGuild, the union has achieved premium pay and benefits that far outweigh union dues.”

Regarding job protection, Ross said every NewsGuild contract requires management to prove “just cause” before disciplining or firing a worker. This generally requires so-called “progressive discipline” and typically bars firing someone on the spot. Contracts also protect workers from discrimination or unfairness when layoffs happen, and they provide for severance payments. Recent contracts also protect journalists from replacement by AI, meaning artificial intelligence.

Reacting to Pennon making his salary an issue, Ross noted that CEO Hetrick earned $339,495 plus $23,999 in other compensation. A 2023 public filing by Pennon confirms that amount.

Negative climate for newsrooms

The Pennon workers will be voting at time when newspapers in many cities and towns are on the ropes or have even closed. Aligning with a decadeslong national trend, LNP’s print circulation has been in decline, though not as steeply as in some other markets. According to the Alliance for Audited Media, which monitors newspaper circulation figures, LNP has the third highest print circulation in Pennsylvania for newspapers publishing seven or six days a week. Paid print subscriptions stand at 33,400 on Sundays and 28,000 on weekdays, according to Tom Murse, LNP | LancasterOnline executive editor and Pennon’s vice president of journalism.

Another source of uncertainty for the Pennon journalists is the incoming Trump administration, which in its previous term from 2017 to 2021 was often at loggerheads with organized labor. President Donald Trump’s appointments to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board will eventually influence how the board rules on union questions large and small, including on any unfair labor practice complaints that grow out of the Pennon unionization effort.

The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia is affiliated with the national NewsGuild/CWA, formerly known as The Newspaper Guild. CWA, the Communications Workers of America, once represented mainly employees of traditional telephone companies like Verizon, and still does, but now represents workers in unrelated industries as well. The Newspaper Guild went under the CWA umbrella in 1995.

According to its website, NewsGuild Local 38010 represents The Philadelphia Inquirer, Delaware County Times, Pottstown Mercury, Norristown Times Herald, The Trentonian, The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware Online News, Spotlight PA, the Hazelton Standard Speaker, The Scranton Times Tribune and Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice.

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