DMN Alumni: “This is a chance to save the DMN.”
In a Zoom Town Hall, Dallas News Guild members heard from four former DMN staffers who now work for media organizations with unions – Associated Press, New York Times, Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal
REESE DUNKLIN is a former Dallas Morning News investigative reporter (1999-2015) and now works for the Associated Press.
While at the DMN, he said he felt a sense of “newsroom PTSD because he constantly checked the Belo stock price and read the quarterly and annual reports. There were layoffs, cutbacks, buyouts and bureau closings.
“It began to wear on me.”
At A.P., “I don’t spend my time worrying about layoffs,” Dunklin said, adding that the AP’s union and contract allows him to focus on the journalism.
“It’s just a big relief to know that someone’s got your back, There’s no sudden layoffs,” he said. When DMN execs would call a 9 a.m. Monday morning meeting, you knew that was a bad thing, Dunklin said.
“We just don’t face that [fear] now…. It’s just a big relief to know that someone’s got your back… I commend you guys for doing this.”
“What do you have to lose? Belo has $43 million cash on hand, yet they cut your pay. And they didn’t give you notice. That’s hard. You can look at the quarterly reports and the annual reports and see bonuses to executives who say, ‘You guys are family.’ Family looks out for each other… It’s a great newspaper, and the Decherd family – they have maintained the excellence far more than a lot of these newspaper owners. So a tip of the hat for that, but they could be doing more for you guys.”
“I think this is a chance to save the DMN,” Dunklin told staff.
TAWNELL HOBBS is a former Dallas Morning News reporter who covered Dallas ISD (2000-2016) and is now the national education reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
Hobbs told the story of how on her first day at WSJ, she was asked by colleagues to put on her union shirt and tweet out support for a new contract. She was hesitant. She’d just been hired at a high salary, with five weeks vacation and unlimited sick leave.
A union member asked her, “How do you think you got all that?”
She quickly became “one of these die-hard union people,” Hobbs said. Her union rep is on speed dial.
In her 3-year union contract, she’s received a raise each year, plus this month, all staffers received 100% of their promised bonus, because the payouts were tied to the parent company’s success.
Recently, the WSJ moved her Dallas office and wanted her to pay for her own parking. She filed a grievance. The union, made up of her colleagues, stepped in and fixed it so Hobbs didn't have to pay.
“Every day we’re talking. Every day. We stay close to each other. It makes me feel very secure with the job,” Hobbs said.
“I’ll be honest with you. It would be very hard to go back to a non-union paper. I couldn’t do it.”
SARAH MERVOSH is a former DMN intern hired full time. A newsroom leader, she covered the Dallas metro area and courts as well as serving as a member of the investigative team (2012-2018).
Mervosh was a leading voice in “Our DMN” – a group of employees formed to create a more welcoming culture at The Dallas Morning News. The group’s goals were a precursor to the current unionization effort.
They included increasing opportunities for journalists to come to the table with management and discuss the issues holding the newsroom back including diversity and equity. Its members pushed for a pay study to be performed, which management spent years doing and never shared the results with the newsroom despite apparently giving individual raises to some staffers to make their compensation more “competitive.”
“I’m so proud of you, and so excited to be part of this. I’m here to support you any way I can.”
NAOMI MARTIN is a former reporter who covered Dallas County and criminal justice (2015-2018) She is now at the Boston Globe.
At Martin’s new job the executive leadership tried to argue her position was non-union at first, but the union fought to include her.
When she joined the union, one benefit was that if she was called in to work for a few hours on a day off, including weekends, she is paid for a full day.
She loves “the feeling of knowing I can go somewhere and have an advocate for me… It’s a safety net,” Martin said.
On health insurance, she has no co-pays for doctor visits and no high deductible either.
