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Buffalo Newspaper Guild members overwhelmingly ratified the tentative agreement with The Buffalo News and Lee Enterprises in a 57-3 vote on July 19.

With the three-year contract ratified, members will get wage increases of 3% in each year of the contract, with the first pay bump coming Aug. 1.

In addition, there will be a one-time bonus of $600 for full-time members and $300 for part-time members, payable in the first payroll period of December 2024.

The Guild also was able to maintain quality, affordable health care options in the contract. While members will take on a little more health care cost, we maintained the bulk of the medical credit system as well as high-quality health care plans that far exceed the coverage offered by the Lee plans.

There were many wins in this contract, which will run through July 31, 2027. Among them: artificial intelligence language; improved digital language; 15 hours of remote work per winter for full-time district managers; improvements on floating holidays for new hires; increased cellphone reimbursements; higher wages for interns; the first night differential increase in 21 years; and the addition of Lee Enterprises’ name to our contract’s preamble.

While some concessions were unavoidable, the contract will put more money in our members’ pockets at a time when inflation remains high. It also provides long-term job security as a three-year agreement, giving members predictability and pushing out a next contract one year further than Lee desired.

Without a doubt, the largest concession in the contract surrounds skip language in the editorial department, an idea that was not popular or comfortable for many newsroom members. But the bargaining team was able to limit the damage and the company’s flexibility in deploying skips. The ratification vote total was a clear message that while many members did not like the idea of skips, there were too many good wins in this contract to vote it down.

The Guild’s bargaining team also agreed to the termination of the pension plan, but it put several conditions on it that will ensure the union plays a role in how the termination unfolds.

Guild leadership would like to thank the five-member bargaining team, who put in many, many hours on Zoom and in our favorite Lake Michigan room in Larkinville. The team, led by Guild Administrative Officer and Chief Negotiator Kim Leiser, included Rick Wiorkowski, Trey Wydysh, Steve Watson and Jon Harris.

The bargaining team also would like to thank the Guild’s mobilization team, led by Aaron Besecker and Sandy Tan. The mobilization team built crucial community support and also got the Guild involved in many community events that we had never participated in before, such as the Pride Parade and the Juneteenth festival.