Open Letter to DallasNews Corp. Management
Some Al Día staff members make half the salary of DMN counterparts with similar jobs and experience. Several work extra jobs before dawn or on weekends to make ends meet. They shouldn’t have to.
An Open Letter to Dallas News Corporation Leadership,
Your recent decision to dismantle Al Día and put the journalists on staff at The Dallas Morning News comes with a new responsibility. And an opportunity.
Al Día journalists have unique talents that the typical News staffer does not. They have valuable connections to a community you claim you want to serve better.
For years, the DallasNews Corporation has shamefully paid Al Día journalists far less than their counterparts at The Dallas Morning News. Some Al Día staff members make half the salary of DMN counterparts with similar jobs and experience. Several work extra jobs before dawn or on weekends to make ends meet. They shouldn’t have to.
Dallas Morning News Executive Editor Katrice Hardy told The Poynter Institute for Media Studies that the company made an “aggressive plan” to raise salaries across the newsroom through the union’s pending contract. Why wait? After all, the company has given English-speaking journalists raises during this negotiation period. Why should native-Spanish speakers make significantly less?
Dallas NewsCorp president Katy Murray said in a company-wide meeting Thursday that the Guild contract is “close.” What she didn’t say is that negotiations are being dragged out because the company is insisting that it be able to outsource our journalists.
The company and the Guild have already agreed on a minimum salary scale, one that would increase Al Día staff salaries and put them on more equal footing with their DMN colleagues. Fixing this inequity for Al Día journalists costs about $113,000 per year, spread over five staffers. That’s a lot of money for the staffers, money that the company has in the bank.
Last week, the Guild initiated bargaining and proposed that the company start paying Al Día journalists fairly and equitably. The company took out its red pen and crossed out the Guild’s proposal.
The Guild is concerned that the company’s ongoing pay practices are not only unfair but may be discriminatory under federal law.
We demand our leaders do the right thing and do it now.
– The Dallas News Guild
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The Dallas Morning News is part of the oldest continuously operated business in Texas and the state’s leading newspaper. Proudly, we are the first major newspaper newsroom in the state to unionize in the modern era.
The Dallas News Guild covers the DMN and Al Dia, which includes more than 130 journalists across all departments of the newsroom, including reporters, columnists, data journalists, copy editors, librarians, web producers, audio producers, page designers, photographers and videographers. Eligible newsroom workers voted in October 2021 by a margin of over 75% to form a union.
Keep up with our bargaining efforts on Instagram and Twitter — @DallasNewsGuild — and at the NEWS tab at DallasNewsGuild.org.
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