Does your “mainstream” hometown paper suck? Website clogged with ads, hard-copy paper thin and barely readable? Blame the vulture capitalists. They’ve been buying up local newspapers for years, just to gut them and run them into the ground.
Reporters — even people who’ve worked for decades to hold power to account — are making poverty wages, too little to support their families or pay the bills. And in Fort Worth and Pittsburgh, they’ve had enough.
CWA-NewsGuild is leading strike efforts. They’re a take-no-shit union with a track record of successful action. I’ve seen it up close.
But these strikers have had their livelihoods revoked and (in the Star Telegram’s case) their health care access cruelly cut off. They need all the help they can get.
If you can, donate to strike funds. The Fort Worth Star Telegram’s strike fund is here. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s strike fund is here. Please only DONATE ANONYMOUSLY — many cannot afford to be associated with leftism if they want to avoid being fired outright. Don’t say Reddit sent you.
If you want to contribute in a non-monetary fashion and you’re a union worker in Fort Worth or Pittsburgh, show your solidarity at the picket line! Even a high-five or a smile is worth something from one worker to another.
Solidarity always.