31 workers at four Washington newspapers, including The News Tribune, Bellingham Herald, Olympian and Tri-City Herald, helped organize the one-day strike.
TACOMA, Wash. — Journalists across Washington state took to the picket line Tuesday morning to demand higher wages and fight against what their union calls a threat of replacement with AI.
The Washington State News Guild, a union representing 31 workers at four Washington newspapers, including The News Tribune, Bellingham Herald, Olympian and Tri-City Herald, organized the one-day strike. The newspapers are owned by McClatchy Media. The strike coincided with a similar demonstration at the Idaho Statesman in Boise.
“McClatchy Media hopes you won’t notice if it replaces human stories with AI-generated content. The company thinks you’ll happily consume clickbait over real community stories,” the union wrote on its website.
Organizers say they have engaged the company in collective bargaining for a year and reached a stalemate over issues that include wages, AI policies and newsroom workloads. The union says McClatchy has refused to raise an annual wage floor above $52,000.
“Nobody expects to get rich in this line of work, but it should not be out of reach for us to save for retirement or have a child. A sudden car repair or an unforeseen medical bill should not be a crisis,” a fundraiser sponsored by the guild says.
The Washington newspapers affected by the strike all have more than a century of history behind them: The Olympian (1852), The News Tribune (1883), Bellingham Herald (1890) and Tri-City Herald (1918).
Other Washington newspapers went through a similar process in 2024 following Carpenter Media Group’s acquisition of West Coast newspapers that included The Everett Herald, among other Black Press properties.
KING 5 reported at the time that a dozen newsroom employees received layoff notices, reducing the newsroom by roughly half.
McClatchy Media could not be immediately reached for comment.
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