AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE DALLAS NEWS GUILD
Dec. 4, 2023
The Dallas News Guild is disturbed by the Company’s recent actions against a former member and management’s repeated attempts to undercut the Collective Bargaining Agreement and its guarantees of fair and just workplace rights.
In September, our former member was called into an investigatory meeting with newsroom management and human resources. A source had contacted a Company leader saying a county official’s remarks had been misrepresented. Although management had previously been aware of this public official’s discontent with an article, they sprung into action.
Immediately and without hesitation, the reporter agreed to turn over any and all reporting notes, as well as a recording of a conversation with the official that informed what was published.
However, before reviewing any of the reporter’s notes or recordings, management put him on paid suspension. Before the reporter even turned over his material, the Company had already decided to enlist a journalism professor to conduct an audit of the story. The reporter, a Pulitzer finalist and former interim investigative editor, resigned because he felt managers had already made up their minds.
The Company retracted the story, deleting it from the internet. The editors’ story about the retraction quoted the public official, but failed to address his recorded comments to the reporter. Those comments referenced some sort of memorandum of understanding between police and prosecutors — the very issue in dispute. Further, the story about the retraction quoted the public official as saying he does not weigh in on “municipal issues,’’ even though he and his office have a history of commenting on such issues.
The editors’ retraction story also notes the reporter resigned, a fact immaterial to the content of the initial story. The retraction also does not include the reporter’s own stated reason for leaving the paper: that management caved when Dallas political figures complained about his investigative project.
The retraction — instead of a correction or clarification — deprives Dallas Morning News readers of the views of civil rights leaders on one of the most prominent civil rights issues of the day — police brutality, largely against people of color. The tenor of the editor’s note about the retraction– especially the context-free statement that the reporter resigned — leaves the impression that he fabricated information from whole cloth, despite evidence to the contrary.
When asked at a newsroom-wide staff meeting, managers said “paid suspension” is not a form of discipline. In fact, an investigatory suspension — a leave of absence during a review of one’s work — is explicitly mentioned as a step in the contract’s progressive discipline system. When asked again, management asked that Union business not be discussed at non-Union meetings. Union or not, professionals deserve transparency when it comes to what sort of missteps can put our jobs and reputations at risk.
Paid suspension constitutes a form of disciplinary action, as a matter of common sense and under the terms of the CBA.
The Company failed to properly investigate an allegation of malpractice before instituting a high and harsh form of discipline outlined explicitly in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. They skipped all other possible remedies before resorting to a demoralizing, egregious action.
DallasNews Corporation’s disproportionate and heavy-handed discipline has had a chilling effect on our newsroom and created a culture of fear instead of a culture of growth. People here are afraid that basic, human mistakes can result in the most grave outcomes.
Our Guild supports the highest ethical standards in journalism, but management’s repeated use of termination or suspension in response to journalistic issues violates the principles of fairness and due process required by our Guild contract. Management has repeatedly failed to answer questions and pleadings from members about the severe disciplinary culture now present in this newsroom.
In a grievance meeting on Nov. 20, the Dallas News Guild demanded answers for the reporter whose journalistic error was unjustly upgraded to an HR concern and a full retraction of his story. We demanded answers about and a correction to the retraction story. We demanded a corrective statement from the Company that paid suspension is a form of discipline. We demanded attestations from all newsroom management that they’ve read and understand the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Company responded Nov. 30 with a blanket denial of our grievance citing a procedural error (a missed deadline) and claiming they did not violate the contract. They rejected all of our proposed remedies.
So we are taking our letter — signed by about 74% of our members — public.
Signed,
Maggie Prosser
Josephine Peterson
Zaira Perez Viera
Sue Ambrose
Maria Ramos Pacheco
Jennifer Brancato
Arijit (Ari) D. Sen
Smiley Pool
Hojun Choi
Dave Lieber
Arcelia Martin
Lauren Caruba
Haeven Gibbons
Shafkat Anowar
Imelda García
Aarón Torres
Kelli Smith
Talia Richman
Abraham Nudelstejer
Lorena Flores
Autumn Pattison
Mark Kazlowski
Braulio Tellez
Myah Taylor
Aria Jones
Juan de Dios Figueroa
Kellen Bulger
Kevin Krause
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Mel Fronczek
Everton Bailey Jr.
Chitose Suzuki
Kevin Lueb
Philip Jankowski
Robert T. Garrett
Hunter Johnson
Bernie Diemer
Calvin Watkins
Todd Gillman
Joseph Morton
Irving Mejia-Hilario
Caroline Pate
Spencer Bevis
Jessica Good
Allison Stewart
Maggie Doheny
Rebecca Stumpf
Susan McFarland
Joey Hayden
Alfredo Corchado
Shawn McFarland
Yamil Berard
Alexandra Skores
Adam Wilson
Brad Townsend
Caitlin Sherrill
John Battle
Mark Lamster
Chris Maloy
Jill Houston
Joy Ashford
Tim Cowlishaw
Tommy Cummings
Elias Valverde II
Sarah Bahari
Carol Caraway
Kevin Sherrington
Carla Solórzano
Evan Grant
Tom Fox
Joel Moore
Marin Wolf
Zaeem Shaikh
Tatia Woldt
David Moore
Cynthia Bagwell
Sean Collins
John O’Rourke
Sandy Guerra-Cline
Andrew Walter
Daniel Noxon
Patrick Walker
Rhema Joy Bell
Greg Riddle
Amanda Irwin
Jonna Gaede
R.J. Coyle
Erik Schutz
Chris Amaya
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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. We ratified our contract on a vote of 122-0. We partner with Media Guild of the West.
Keep up with our efforts on Instagram and Twitter — @DallasNewsGuild — and at the NEWS tab at DallasNewsGuild.org.
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