Dallas News Guild sees A.H. Belo severance pay corrections as hopeful sign
Today, A.H. Belo announced it will significantly raise the current cap on severance pay — and retroactively apply this new policy for anyone laid off since the second quarter of 2018.
The Dallas News Guild, which represents the newsrooms of Al Día Dallas and The Dallas Morning News, is pleased to see that our former colleagues — many of whom gave years to The Dallas Morning News before abrupt layoffs in January 2019 — will be compensated appropriately.
The 2019 layoffs were a driving force for newsroom workers forming this union, after staffers saw how our colleagues received paltry severance packages — among the lowest in the industry — as a thank-you for their years of service to The News and this community.
These payments to former colleagues will total $1.1 million, A.H. Belo’s majority owner Robert Decherd wrote in an email to employees Monday.
Under the new severance policy, employees will receive 1.25 weeks of base pay per year up to eight years of service, plus one week of base pay per year of service up to 26 weeks’ pay.
Up until now, the company’s severance package for employees was capped at 10 weeks’ pay.
“We wish A.H. Belo management would have invited us to the table to make this decision, since our union election awarded us a period of status quo, in which the company has a duty to negotiate with the Dallas News Guild before making changes to employees’ working conditions,” said Leah Waters, the newly-elected unit chairperson of the Dallas News Guild. “But we welcome this change, and we see this as a solid starting point for negotiating our future contract.”
The guild expects to begin contract negotiations with a 3-hour session in early December, and members look forward to working with management to secure the future of the newsroom.
Soon, journalists of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram will begin their own contract negotiations, after McClatchy voluntarily recognized the Fort Worth NewsGuild on Monday. The guild is thrilled for our colleagues in Fort Worth, and proud to stand with them to work together to strengthen local journalism in North Texas.
