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In May, columnists, photographers, and reporters with the Idaho Statesman, represented by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37085) and affectionately known as the “Idaho NewsGuild,” engaged in a one-day unfair labor practice strike over unfair wages and management’s use of generative artificial intelligence. Idaho members joined other news workers also represented by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, from the Tacoma News Tribune, the Tri-City Herald, the Bellingham Herald, and The Olympian, calling out owner McClatchy Media. Statesman members accuse McClatchy of engaging in bad faith bargaining and refusing to bring decision-makers to the table or even identify them.

Workers expressed major concerns over the use of AI in generating news content. The content, like an AI-generated story posted last year that mistakenly reported a local brewery had closed, undermines credibility in the newsroom. Wages are also a concern for members, as McClatchy is offering a paltry 2% wage increase, despite cost-of-living increases in rent and other essentials.

Idaho NewsGuild members have been bargaining since May 2025.

Despite all being represented by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, the Idaho NewsGuild workers are currently bargaining a separate contract from the other four news outlets who took part in the strike. Both bargaining teams have decided to put the current proposed contract language before the members to gauge where members stand on it. That vote will likely be held next week.

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NEW JERSEY – The Communications Workers of America (CWA), District 1, stands in full solidarity with the people detained at Delaney Hall in Newark who have laid down their labor and refused their meals to demand dignity, safety, and freedom.

Make no mistake: this is a labor struggle. The people held inside Delaney Hall are forced to cook meals, clean the floors, and keep the facility running — for as little as one dollar a day. These workers are on strike to protest the unconscionable conditions they are forced to endure and the basic due process they are entitled to, but have been denied.

While the private contractors who operate these detention centers bank millions, the workers who sustain them are denied the most basic protection and respect. When workers in those conditions organize, withhold their labor, and act together to demand better, they are doing what working people have always done to win justice. We recognize a strike when we see one.

The labor movement was built on the principle that no person should be exploited, silenced, or treated as less than human because of who they are or where they come from. The demands coming from inside Delaney Hall — an end to medical neglect, an end to exploitative labor, the release of the elderly, the young, and the sick, and the restoration of basic due process — are the same demands for dignity, equity, and justice that animate our own fight every day. An injury to one is an injury to all.

We honor the courage of the strikers and of the families and community members standing watch outside the facility, and we defend their right to peaceful protest. And we condemn in the strongest terms the escalation and violence by ICE and state police against people peacefully exercising their constitutional rights.

Last week, CWA members and retirees from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C., for two events: the Presidents’ Meeting and the Legislative and Political Conference.

CWA Local presidents and members of the CWA Executive Board began with the Presidents’ Meeting on Monday, June 1. CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. updated attendees on the current state of our union and plans for continued organizing in our core telecommunications sector. Presidents had the chance to debate and vote on pressing issues from the Credentials, Appeals, and Finance committees. CWA Secretary-Treasurer Ameenah Salaam also delivered her Financial Report.

The following day, President Cummings opened the two-day Legislative and Political (LP) Conference, which featured a host of notable speakers, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Sen. Ruben Gallego (AZ), Rep. Greg Casar (TX-35), and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Members also heard from Minnesota Representative and AFA-CWA member Kaela Berg (MN-55B), who is running for Congress in MN-02, campaigning on a pro-union, pro-worker platform.

President Cummings spoke fiercely against attempts by the current administration to disenfranchise millions of American voters after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. “We are seeing, in real time, white supremacists gerrymandering Black districts out of existence, stripping voters of their rights,” said Cummings. “All because they know their anti-worker, anti-family policies will never win votes from the majority of Americans.

“You may have heard me say this before, but I keep a slip of paper from the so-called ‘good old days.’ It’s my father’s poll tax receipt. In those same ‘good old days,’ Black people who wanted to exercise that most basic right had to pay to be able to vote. Today they call it the SAVE Act, but it’s the same. People who can barely make ends meet being asked to find money for passports and certified birth certificates.

“The right to vote is precious. It should never be taken for granted, and we should never allow it to be taken away at all. We will not go back to those dark days.”

Click here to watch President Cummings’ Legislative and Political Conference speech in its entirety.