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Casper News Guild, Casper, WY (2026)

12/15/2018

With a vote of 10 to 0, with two blank ballots, the Casper News Guild has ratified its first collective bargaining agreement with Lee Enterprises after eight months of negotiations.
 Negotiations concluded on Friday, Dec. 7, but the union needed a majority of its members to approve the proposed contract. Overall, we are pleased with this first agreement, which will run two years. It secures more severance, better layoff provisions, improved overtime requirements and guaranteed raises for the entire unit this year and next year. It sets a minimum salary and provides a number of benefits for workers across our newsroom. For Lee Enterprises, the company maintains control of our health insurance and 401(k) and is still given flexibility in
running the Star-Tribune.
 The negotiations lasted much of this year and were often contentious. But we appreciate Lee Enterprises bargaining in good faith, and we look forward to working with local management to further strengthen the Star-Tribune in the years to come. As we have said from the beginning, we hope to protect the Star-Tribune’s strong journalistic reputation and work to make this a paper that doesn’t force its talented employees to leave for economic reasons.
 We know as well as anyone the difficulties of our industry. But there is a reason companies continue to buy newspapers, why hedge funds are increasingly interested in print journalism, why executives are able to command seven-figure salaries and six-figure bonuses. We firmly believe that this industry can thrive if companies invest in their workforce. This contract is a step in that direction.
 Thank you to the many unions, both media and otherwise, who have supported us throughout this effort. Special thanks to our brothers and sisters of the Denver Newspaper Guild 37074 for their guidance and support, help that began with our first conversations about unionizing in January and extended throughout bargaining.
 “The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.” – Thomas Donahue, AFL-CIO

11/28/2018

Meet the members of the Casper Star-Tribune's union tomorrow at Frontier. Show support, drink a beer or ask questions. We hope this is an opportunity for the community to know more about who we are and why we're fighting for a strong union in Wyoming.

07/25/2018

Casper Star-Tribune Will Shutter Printing Press, Lay Off Two Dozen

Wednesday, July 25, 2018, Casper, Wyoming — Roughly two dozen mail and press room employees lost their jobs at the Casper Star-Tribune on Monday, the most recent layoff at Wyoming's statewide newspaper, owned by Lee Enterprises.

Publisher Dale Bohren told newsroom staff that the Star-Tribune will now be printed in Cheyenne, at the printing press of the Adams Publishing Group. The press in Casper, which he described as technologically obsolete, will go silent. The Star-Tribune has printed a paper in some form in Casper since 1891.

At least 24 press and mail room employees – including at least 15 part-time employees – will be laid off. All have been offered severance.

Joe Martinez, the press room's supervisor, has been at the Star-Tribune for 32 years.

The Casper News Guild received the news of the layoffs bitterly. It takes more than reporters, editors and photographers to put out a newspaper. We mourn the loss of our colleagues who regularly worked into the night to ensure Casper and Wyoming did not miss an edition, that the morning paper included the results of an election or a University of Wyoming football game. While layoffs to newsroom staff often draw the most attention, newspapers are more than the names that appear atop stories.

Coupled with the appalling layoffs at the New York Daily News, the loss of the press team serves as a bitter reminder of the current nature of our industry. That a printing press and the people that run it are dispatched for a little more profit tells you all you need to know about daily journalism and the corporations that control much of it.

We continue to urge our colleagues in this industry, both in Wyoming and across the nation, to organize, to find their voice and demand their seat at the table.

07/17/2018

Casper News Guild Update on Bargaining Process

Tuesday, July 17, 2018, Casper, Wyoming — Last week, we had our third two-day bargaining session with representatives from Lee Enterprises. The negotiations generally have been civil, professional and productive. While we still have much work to do, we’ve made important gains to help make the Star-Tribune a more attractive destination and home for new and veteran journalists alike. We’ve reached tentative agreements on roughly half of our proposed contract, and we’ve worked to drive the conversation throughout the bargaining sessions so far. What happens at that table affects each of us on a deeply personal level.

A dominant theme throughout has been that some of our members work long hours, do not clock the full extent of their overtime and are unable to take their vacation. We continue to work on overtime but have made progress. Meanwhile, we’ve come to an agreement on vacation that places more emphasis on management to know that our journalists are often overworked or feel they cannot leave without burdening the newsroom and, thus, do not take vacation. It also leaves the door open for vacation to roll over, should it be impossible for us to take our earned time off.

We have agreed to form a labor management committee, which has already met to address Guild concerns. We’ve bargained for sabbatical time for more tenured employees, a drug policy that treats first positive tests as a medical rather than criminal issue, a grievance and arbitration process and the use of a company vehicle for reporters and photographers who often travel across Wyoming for stories. We’re battling for better wages and relief on health insurance costs. Our members often pay more than 50 percent of premium costs, a prohibitively high number, particularly with wages that are at worst stagnant and at best being outstripped by inflation.

While management has come forward with counteroffers to our proposals on wages, health, 401(k) and other areas, they are well short of what the hardworking, award-winning, dedicated journalists at the Star-Tribune deserve and have earned. We have firmly expressed how important those conditions are to us, and how neglected they’ve felt. We remain optimistic that we can swiftly reach an agreement with Lee that is beneficial to both employees and management. But we’re committed to making Casper a home rather than a pit stop for us and for future journalists here. We’ll fight until we reach that goal. Negotiations resume Aug. 7.

04/19/2018

Casper News Guild Begins Formal Negotiations With Lee Enterprises

Thursday, April 19, 2018, Casper, Wyo. — The bargaining committee of the Casper News Guild began negotiations with Lee Enterprises today, taking the next step toward securing an initial contract. Our hopes for the negotiations are consistent with our originally stated reasons for choosing to form a union. We want to ensure that the working conditions at the Casper Star-Tribune meet a high enough standard that those who join the newspaper view it as a destination, not a mere bullet point on their resumes. We know these two truths of newspapers firsthand: Journalists that are established in their communities do their jobs more thoroughly and efficiently, and readers prefer journalists who are more invested in their communities than future job opportunities.

In order to keep Star-Tribune journalists in Casper, we intend to improve wages and benefits with our first contract. We also plan to establish a safety net for anyone who might be subjected to layoffs in the future.

We are not naive to the challenges that face those trying to make a living in today’s journalism industry. Just this month, three Star-Tribune employees were laid off, including the 2017 Wyoming Young Journalist of the Year. However, as we argued in complaints filed to the National Labor Relations Board, we believe these moves stemmed more from anti-union sentiment than economic reality. Again, our desire to unionize is very much in line with the desire to make the Star-Tribune a more profitable institution. As company executives themselves told us not long ago: Content is king. And there is no content source more sustainable than a newsroom that is both well-staffed and incentivized to make a long-term commitment to that newsroom.

To reduce a newspaper to a dollars-and-cents operation is, at best, a disservice to the community it represents. That does not change the fact, however, that investing in the journalists of the Star-Tribune is investing in the long-term profitability of the Star-Tribune. We expect that Lee Enterprises would be amenable to such an idea.

04/11/2018

Casper News Guild Files Labor Practice Complaints, Reporter's Suspension Revoked

Wednesday, April 11, 2018, Casper, Wyoming — Shortly after the Casper News Guild filed two Unfair Labor Practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, Lee Enterprises has allowed state politics reporter Arno Rosenfeld to return to work at the Casper Star-Tribune.

Arno was suspended for an email he sent to colleagues Thursday morning informing them that award-winning reporter and editor Elise Schmelzer had been terminated. One of the complaints alleges Arno’s suspension was an attempt to intimidate union members and discourage them from exercising protected rights. After the Guild requested a union attorney serve as Arno’s Weingarten representative, the company cancelled the planned interview and extended his suspension before finally allowing him to return to work without an investigatory interview.

In total, Lee Enterprises fired three Star-Tribune employees in retaliation for the newsroom’s recent unionization. In addition to Elise, Lee Enterprises fired two advertising employees last week. None of the dismissed employees were members of the Casper News Guild and thus lacked the same protections as its members.

However, firing them in order to retaliate against or intimidate the union is still illegal. A second complaint seeks remedy for Lee Enterprises’ termination of those three employees.

Though publisher Dale Bohren has declined to address the newsroom regarding these actions, the employees were all told that their positions were being eliminated for “financial reasons.” As we noted in our statement last week, that explanation appears to be a lie — unless the “financial reasons” cited refer to Lee Enterprises’ apparent belief that busting unions is good for business. (It’s not.)

The firing of three employees and suspension of a fourth within a 24-hour period caused significant disruption at the Star-Tribune and has impeded reporters’ ability to cover news and serve their Wyoming readers. The actions come roughly one month after the newsroom voted to unionize and just weeks before we are scheduled to sit down at the bargaining table to negotiate a first contract. Until Lee Enterprises’ outrageous behavior last week, the Casper News Guild was resolutely positive in its public and private communications with the company.

The Guild has said repeatedly that collectively bargaining for more stable and better compensated employment will be a boon to both our readers and a positive improvement for the company. Good employees make a good product. Unfortunately, Lee Enterprises has decided to take the low road and attempt to intimidate us. It won’t work. Lee Enterprises can remedy this situation by taking the following actions in Casper:

• Offer to rehire Elise and the other two employees who were terminated last week. If they decline to return to the company, offer one month’s severance pay without requiring them to give up their right to speak about the company and hire new employees to fill their vacant positions.
• Openly address the newsroom regarding last week’s actions.
• Cease all efforts to retaliate against Star-Tribune employees for exercising their legal right to unionize.

04/05/2018

Casper News Guild Condemns Termination of Features Editor

Thursday, April 5, 2018, Casper, Wyo. — The Casper News Guild was informed Thursday night that Elise Schmelzer, the Casper Star-Tribune’s features editor and the 2017 Wyoming Young Journalist of the Year, was laid off via a late-night phone call from an out-of-state human resources representative.

This is not the standard means of dismissing Star-Tribune employees for financial reasons and blindsided the entire newsroom. The News Guild condemns this appalling and short-sighted move in the strongest possible terms. Elise is one of the state and region’s best journalists whose dedicated work has touched every corner of this state.

Publisher Dale Bohren told members of the News Guild that the decision was “financial.” That statement does not appear to be credible. During a staff meeting several weeks ago, Bohren and other Lee Enterprises officials attempted to discourage us from forming a union in part by telling us that there were no layoffs planned despite recent cuts at other newspapers in the company. This followed earlier meetings in which the newsroom staff was given concrete assurances that there were no layoffs on the horizon. Indeed, Bohren said Lee was investing in the paper, and several hours before Elise was laid off, it was announced that the Star-Tribune would be hiring to replace a departing reporter.

If the reasons behind her dismissal are truly financial, those promises appear to be either calculated lies told to discourage unionization, or they suggest incompetence in the financial management of the newspaper. Unfortunately, it appears to the News Guild that Lee Enterprise’s dismissal of Elise, who was recently named “Young Journalist of the Year” by the Wyoming Press Association, was in fact punitive retaliation for exercising our federally protected right to form a union. Though she was not involved in the organizing effort – and indeed did not learn about our petition for an election until the rest of management was notified – Elise was initially hired as a reporter alongside several members of the union and she remains a good friend to us all.

It has been five weeks since we voted to unionize. As an editor, Elise does not have the protections afforded to members of the union. The implications of removing Elise from this newsroom cannot be overstated. Her dedicated work is unique, invaluable and serves the public. She not only edits our revamped Arts and Culture section, but she continues to provide longform, deeply resonant journalism. Less than a week ago, she published a tremendous story illuminating domestic violence in rural Wyoming.

Her firing is a loss for the Star-Tribune. It is a loss for our readers, for the state, for the region and for the industry. It is unconscionable. No dedicated employee, especially one who has worked as hard as Elise, should receive a call at 9:30 p.m. to let them know their position will be eliminated.

We begin bargaining with Lee Enterprises on April 19. If the removal of Elise was an attempt to intimidate or demoralize the union or the newsroom at large, it has failed.

We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the dedicated journalists of this newsroom are protected. Throughout this process we have made clear that our goal was to improve the Star-Tribune and journalism in Wyoming by creating more stable jobs at the statewide newspaper. By taking steps that appear to be retaliatory in nature – and make no mistake that Elise’s dismissal will diminish the quality of journalism in the Cowboy State – Lee has unfortunately demonstrated what we feared all along: that company officials care more about generating high returns for their Wall Street shareholders than about covering the communities they claim to serve.

While Lee Enterprises officials may believe that taking punitive action against non-union members at the Star-Tribune will discourage employees across the company’s many newspapers from organizing, their apparently capricious actions in Casper serve only to highlight the need for staff to stand up for their rights.

Tomorrow, our brothers and sisters at the Missoula Independent will vote on whether to form a union in face of a concerted effort to stifle the move. We stand firmly alongside them.

02/27/2018

Casper Star-Tribune, Wyoming’s Statewide Newspaper, Votes to Form Union

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, Casper, Wyo. — The Casper Star-Tribune newsroom voted in favor of forming a union today, the first time Wyoming’s statewide paper has unionized in its 127-year history.

We at the Casper News Guild are pleased with the result of this vote. As we have said from the beginning, our goal is to protect and strengthen the future of the Star-Tribune, as well as Casper and Wyoming’s news, for many years to come. Since filing for an election earlier this month, communication between newsroom employees and management has been open and respectful. We look forward to furthering that cordial relationship in the months to come as we bargain with the Star-Tribune’s corporate owner, Lee Enterprises, to reach a collective agreement that benefits both the newsroom and the company.

The Star-Tribune is the first Lee Enterprises property to unionize while owned by the company, according to the Communication Workers of America.

Nine members of the 11-person unit voted in favor of forming the union, which will be the ninth unit of the Denver Newspaper Guild, Communication Workers of America Local 37074.

— The organizing committee of the Casper News Guild

02/25/2018

Here is an update on our progress and some FAQs about unionizing.

Where is the Casper News Guild in its campaign?

The nonmanagement staff in the newsroom have had productive and respectful meetings with management and corporate representatives. That group of staff members will vote Tuesday to determine if it will form a union. The vote will be held in person in Cheyenne and Casper, so the National Labor Relations Board will be able to count the votes and certify the election that day. It takes a simple majority to determine if a union will be formed.

What happens next?

Should we succeed, we look forward to sitting down at the bargaining table with Lee Enterprises and beginning to negotiate a contract.

Is the Casper News Guild affiliated with a larger union?

Yes, Casper News Guild is affiliated with the Denver News Guild, which is part of Communications Workers of America. While the organizing drive was initiated within the newsroom and any future bargaining would be dictated by the interests of local staff, further resources are essential for both protecting our rights during this process and assisting us during negotiations. There currently are no News Guild units in Wyoming.

How long does the initial negotiating phase take?

If both the company and the union are interested in and work in good faith to come to an agreement, the process can end relatively quickly. It can sometimes take months or a year, but we will work to settle on a speedy and beneficial agreement and hope that Lee Enterprises will do the same. Once a contract is set, the union as a whole will vote on whether to accept it.

What happens in the time between the union vote and the implementation of a new contract?

Until a contract is negotiated and accepted by the union, Lee Enterprises cannot change the terms of our employment, like salaries and benefits. But some changes can be agreed upon as we work toward a complete and full contract.

What happens if you don’t settle on a contract?

If the local union walks away during negotiations, the union and the contract efforts effectively will end.

Does a union guarantee changes to the newsroom’s working conditions?

No. The union guarantees solidarity and collective action by the newsroom staff, which we firmly believe is needed to protect the future of the Star-Tribune. We will endeavor to convince Lee Enterprises to meet us in good faith to settle on a deal that will benefit us all. They don’t have to agree to anything. Neither do we.

Will forming a union bring in some unknown representative from Colorado?

It’s important to note that while we would be underneath the umbrella of the Denver News Guild, the Star-Tribune newsroom staff will be the union. We will largely represent ourselves, which is our goal. We will work as the Casper News Guild to protect and strengthen Casper and Wyoming news.

Will a union protect the Star-Tribune from layoffs?

No. But the way in which the company handles any future layoffs will depend on what is negotiated between Lee Enterprises and us. For instance, we may negotiate prior notice or consultation before any of our coworkers are served pink slips.

Casper News Guild

12/15/2018

11/28/2018

07/25/2018

07/17/2018

04/19/2018

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