NewsGuild Joins Lawsuit Challenging Shutdown of U.S. Agency for Global Media

Journalists, federal workers, and their unions last week sued the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), its Acting Director Victor Morales, and Special Adviser Kari Lake to challenge “the unlawful shuttering of the agency and silencing of global media.”

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the Southern District of New York in response to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on March 14 effectively shutting down Voice of America and killing grant funding for Radio Free Asia and for Radio Free Europe.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that the agency has failed to fulfill its legally required functions and violated both the freedom of journalists and the separation of powers when it ordered staff not to report to work, suspended contractors, turned off VOA’s news service, and locked the agency’s doors.

During a Monday news conference outside the U.S. District Courthouse in Manhattan, The NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss said that the Guild is “proud to join this lawsuit” seeking a temporary restraining order reversing the Mar. 14 action.

Schleuss said unions and workers have joined together to “fight this illegal action by the executive branch,” and called the USAGM shutdown “part of a long, troubling pattern by Donald Trump.”

“He has targeted journalists at CBS News for ‘60 Minutes’ reporting,” Schleuss said. “He has blocked Associated Press members from being able to attend White House events, he has blocked Reuters and Huffington Post and others, and he has also seized control of the Press Pool.”

Steve Herman, Chief National Correspondent and former White House Bureau Chief for VOA, called the USAGM dismantling “unconstitutional and unlawful,” and said that “defendants have maligned VOA journalists without basis as incompetent and even as terrorist sympathizers.”

Herman emphasized the risks that USAGM staffers from other nations face, saying that “journalists on J1 visas face imminent return to their countries, where some would certainly face prosecution and prison.”

Lead Counsel Andrew Celli explained that the parties will appear in court this Friday, and that he is seeking a ruling “to arrest and reverse the dismantling of the Voice of America.”

In addition to TNG-CWA, lawsuit plaintiffs include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and seven individual workers. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is the lead plaintiff.

Workers at Radio Free Asia are represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, Local 32035 of TNG-CWA. IAPE is also a TNG-CWA Local union.

REMINDER: Join us tomorrow for Contract 101

In light of recent layoffs, members may appreciate a deeper understanding of how the IAPE contract protects employees from arbitrary layoffs. It can also be helpful to be aware of your contractual rights when a manager delivers a surprise invitation to an investigatory or disciplinary meeting.

Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, March 19 at 2:00 p.m. EDT for IAPE’s Contract 101, where we will focus on just cause protections, layoffs, seniority and severance.

Visit the IAPE Events Page to register for this Zoom presentation.

Be a Steward!

And join us Wednesday, March 19 for steward training

IAPE is on the lookout for new stewards to join our ranks of volunteers. Stewards are regular union members who talk with fellow members, identify common issues and problem solve, all to create a more positive work environment.

We have some exciting training opportunities—starting Wednesday evening—to help you kick off your role as an IAPE steward. “Organizing Conversations” will explore how to talk to colleagues and keep people connected and engaged with IAPE in between contract negotiations. We’ll talk about the importance of listening, how to make new connections, and tips on moving colleagues to action. And, of course, we’ll practice!

This session will be held Wednesday, March 19 from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. EDT. Register for this Zoom event at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Wi-QQnrtSFSj6PNtpN8u0Q

Contract 101!

The IAPE Contract 101 series is a great way to learn more about the collective agreement.

The next edition of IAPE’s Contract 101 will be held on Wednesday, March 19 at 2:00 p.m. EDT and will focus on just cause protections, layoffs, seniority and severance.

Visit the IAPE Events Page to register for this Zoom presentation.

In light of recent layoffs, members may appreciate a deeper understanding of how the IAPE contract protects employees from arbitrary layoffs. It can also be helpful to be aware of your contractual rights when a manager delivers a surprise invitation to an investigatory or disciplinary meeting.

Join your colleagues and IAPE representatives next Wednesday!

COME JOIN YOUR FELLOW EMPLOYEES!

Have you wanted to get more involved in your union but weren’t sure how?  Becoming a steward is a great first step! We will be holding 2 more Steward Information sessions this week. Come learn what being a steward is all about. 

Sign up for a virtual info session! Hosted by current IAPE stewards and board members–the sessions will take place on Wednesday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m. EDT and 5:00 p.m. EDT. Join us to learn the answers to all your burning questions like “what even is a union steward?” and “how much of a time commitment is it?” (hint: not a lot!)

Register via this google form to lock in your spot today. Can’t wait to see you there!

WSJ Cuts News Staff Again

IAPE members are once again outraged at the news that several colleagues, including six IAPE-represented WSJ reporters, were laid off today in the San Francisco and New York bureaus.

Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones leadership continue to insist the waves of layoffs at bureaus across the country aren’t for cost cutting, but instead part of a restructuring—one which seems to have no end.

Earlier Tuesday, IAPE filed a grievance disputing the separation of some reporters in the San Francisco Technology Bureau into different departments, which may have improperly impacted seniority protection.

If Dow Jones violated our collective agreement with these latest layoffs, we’ll hold them accountable.

Your Dow Jones Colleagues Need Your Help!!  

Sign up to be an IAPE steward and:

  • mobilize coworkers

  • help answer questions about our rights under the contract

  • get involved with disciplinary, investigative meetings with management 

IAPE members who face disciplinary or investigative hearings have the right to have a union representative present. Under our new contract, management notifies IAPE of the hearings in advance, and members often opt to have a union rep to assist them through the process. Learn how this process works, and how to generally be a resource for your colleagues!

Want to learn more about becoming an IAPE steward? Sign up for a virtual info session! Hosted by current IAPE stewards and board members–the sessions will take place on Tuesday, March 4 and Wednesday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m. ET and 5:00 p.m. ET.

Register via this google form to lock in your spot today. Can’t wait to see you there!

Become an IAPE Steward!

Interested in joining the IAPE union steward network? Sign up for a virtual info session! Hosted by current IAPE stewards and board members–the sessions will take place on Tuesday, March 4 and Wednesday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m. ET and 5:00 p.m. ET. Join us to learn the answers to all your burning questions like “what even is a union steward?” and “how much of a time commitment is it?” (hint: not a lot!) 

Register via this google form to lock in your spot today. Can’t wait to see you there!

Join us for IAPE 101

If you were recently hired by Dow Jones, or if you transferred from a non-union position into your current role sometime over the past year, and if you ever wondered where you can go to find out more about this thing called IAPE, we have a suggestion:

Sign up for IAPE 101.

Tomorrow—Wednesday, Feb. 26—at 2:00 p.m. EST, join us for this Zoom presentation and learn more about IAPE. We’ll cover all the basic questions: what is a union? How did you end up in a union? And most importantly, what are the benefits of being in a union?

If you can stick around beyond the first half-hour, we’ll open the virtual floor for any questions you might have.

IAPE veterans, you’re welcome to join, too.

To register and receive your Zoom invitation, sign up through the IAPE Events page. While you’re there, feel free to enroll for the next installment of IAPE Contract 101, scheduled for March 19.

IAPE Joins SPJ Statement Calling on Trump Administration to Lift AP Ban

As an organization representing employees committed to journalistic values of fairness and objectivity, IAPE does not take positions on political issues. There is an exception, the same one that applies to Dow Jones’s general prohibition on news staff expressing opinions on political issues: Freedom of the Press, which, as if it needed to be said, both IAPE and the Dow Jones employees we represent unreservedly favor.

When an autocratic foreign government arrested WSJ correspondent Evan Gershkovich on bogus charges, we organized protests and took steps to push for his release and emphasize the broader principle that “journalism is not a crime.” Threats to that freedom have always existed within the U.S.; not for nothing does the First Amendment explicitly protect the press from government interference.

The Trump administration, you may have heard, has evicted the Associated Press from the White House and from Air Force One in retaliation for the news cooperative’s decision to retain the geographic descriptor “Gulf of Mexico” for a body of water the president directed the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to redesignate as “Gulf of America.” According to a 1954 Interior Department bulletin, the term “Gulf of Mexico” first appeared on a world map in 1550, and since the 17th century has been the internationally accepted name for the body of water.

IAPE takes no position on controversies of geographic nomenclature. But we do view it as a grave affront to the foundational principles of democracy for the federal government to coerce a news organization to alter its stylebook to promote the president’s agenda. Inane as the administration’s grievance may be, its retaliation, inflicting a serious disservice on the public the AP serves, is intolerable. Officials must be dissuaded from efforts to impress news organizations into promoting the president’s agenda, for intimidation of the press can only grow when the government has even greater objectives at stake—ones it may believe are better advanced by suppressing independent reporting of its actions.

On Thursday, the IAPE Board of Directors voted unanimously to join a statement of protest circulated by the national Society of Professional Journalists and signed by other media employee associations, including other NewsGuild locals. The statement is below.

— 

Joint statement of journalist-support organizations on government attacks on press freedom  

Fair, accurate and independent reporting is essential to a functioning democracy. Without it, corruption and misinformation flourish. As organizations that champion journalists and the public’s right to know, we strongly condemn the campaign underway in Washington to penalize independent reporting on the government and its activities.

In a protracted war over words, the Trump administration has banned the Associated Press from White House events because the news service continues to call the “Gulf of Mexico” by its long-standing name while acknowledging the president’s executive order renaming it the “Gulf of America.”

This disturbing challenge to journalistic independence is part of a troubling pattern that extends well beyond the White House press corps. For example, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission has taken extraordinary steps to investigate and intimidate broadcasters over their internal policies and constitutionally protected editorial decisions. These actions by the head of this historically bipartisan, independent regulatory body set a dangerous precedent and risk giving the government greater control over which voices are heard.

The administration also has evicted longtime news organizations from the Pentagon pressroom, giving their desks to news outlets that favorably covered the administration’s agenda.

President Trump and his congressional allies have long opposed what they viewed as government efforts to coerce speech. In 2023, for example. U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan and 44 other members of Congress said as much in a brief submitted in a U.S. Supreme Court case in which conservatives accused the Biden administration of coercing social media platforms to adopt pro-COVID vaccine policies. That brief in Murthy v. Missouri stated, “Official pressure to suppress speech violates the First Amendment.”

When leaders try to silence reporters through intimidation, legal threats and denial of access, they are not protecting the country; they are protecting themselves from scrutiny. This is how authoritarian regimes operate — by crushing dissent, punishing those who expose inconvenient facts and replacing truth with propaganda.

The First Amendment is an integral part of the U.S. Constitution that President Trump swore to “preserve, protect and defend.” He also signed an executive order on day one to "ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen." The president must abide by his oath of office and executive order and ensure that First Amendment principles are forcefully upheld.

In a nation founded on freedom of speech, regardless of party or ideology, the government can never compel agreement with its viewpoint as a condition of access to information. The administration must lift the ban on AP. And the administration must cease punishing news organizations based on their reporting.

Society of Professional Journalists

AAN Publishers (formerly Association of Alternative Newsmedia)

American Society of Magazine Editors

Asian American Journalists Association

Associated Collegiate Press

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

Buffalo Newspaper Guild - CWA Local 31026

Criminal Justice Journalists

Defending Rights & Dissent 

Denver Newspaper Guild - CWA Local 37074

Education Writers Association

Freedom of the Press Foundation

Inter American Press Association (IAPA) 

IAPE, Local 1096, TNG-CWA

Indigenous Journalists Association

iSolon.org

Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS)

Military Reporters & Editors

National Association of Black Journalists

National Association of Hispanic Journalists

National Association of Science Writers

National Federation of Press Women

National Press Photographers Association

National Scholastic Press Association

National Writers Union 

NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists

New Hampshire NewsGuild

Online News Association

Project Censored

Public Media Journalists Association

Quill and Scroll 

Radio Television Digital News Association 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW)

Society of Environmental Journalists

The Association of Health Care Journalists

The Media Guild of the West - CWA Local 39213

The NewsGuild-CWA

The News Media Guild, Local 31222, TNG-CWA (union representing AP journalists)

The NewsGuild of New York 

The NewsGuild of Philadelphia TNG-CWA Local 38010

Toledo NewsGuild, CWA Local 34043

Washington-Baltimore News Guild

Denying Credit Where it’s Due: WSJ Restricting Bylines Again

Have you heard the news?

For weeks, rumors of management plans to limit the number of bylines on stories have been swirling through WSJ newsrooms. This week, during several department meetings with staff, top Journal editors confirmed the message—no more than three bylines on stories, and no taglines. One editor apparently referred to this new “policy” as “non-negotiable.”

They must be new here.

Bylines and taglines are long-accepted practices in our newsrooms. IAPE considers them forms of recognition, perhaps even compensation for our union-represented News staff. Managers certainly aren’t shy about referring to bylines during performance evaluation and disciplinary meetings. A Journal byline is deserved credit for a job well done. Byline and tagline limits will reduce transparency about who and how many journalists contributed to work we are proud of. Members are also concerned about how the limits could undermine newsroom collaboration, as management’s message discourages reporters from helping each other. 

It’s as if management turned to AI with the question, what’s a way to further diminish newsroom morale while providing no economic or journalistic benefit to the company? Answer: gratuitously take from rank-and-file workers a small but long-established form of recognition that costs the company nothing. 

We would love to give credit to a member of News management, but it isn’t clear where this recycled–and more onorous–plan originated, or what supposedly justifies it. We understand that editors received a written edict imposing the restrictions, but it has been withheld from the affected employees. Yes, we’ve been down this road before, challenging claims of new byline limits in 2020, 2018 and 2017. Ten years ago, editors told reporters that then-EIC Gerry Baker was upset about “too many bylines” on smaller stories. When we approached the company’s Legal Department with a complaint about management implementing new workplace policies without approaching the union, management responded: “no new policy exists.”

So, we’ll complain to Legal again. Before we do, we would love to hear from you: have you been told that the Journal now has a limit on bylines, or that taglines have been eliminated? Have you lost a byline or tagline as a result? If you have any information you can share, send a note to union@iape1096.org. All submissions will be held in confidence.

Meanwhile, we’d suggest that reporters who believe a colleague deserves a tagline or a fourth byline include it in stories they submit and retain a copy for their records. Managers are free to delete those taglines and bylines, but they should know who has contributed to our news report even if Dow Jones prefers to conceal that information from our readers. 

Incidentally, since the company has decided to reuse old ideas, we might as well share the same guidance we had for members back in 2015: When it comes to bylines or taglines, nothing prevents an employee from asking: “Will I receive a byline/credit for this story?” It is also acceptable to inform a manager in advance that you would rather not perform work without receiving credit, if that is how you feel. Just remember: after stating their preference, employees should never refuse a direct assignment from a manager or supervisor.