ProPublica journalists walked off the job on Wednesday, for 24 hours, after more than two years of negotiations that failed to yield a deal for a union contract.
It was the first major labor action at ProPublica, one of the country’s largest nonprofit newsrooms. About 150 of its workers, including reporters, copy editors and communications staff, unionized in 2023 and have been negotiating a contract since.
The core disagreements were over wage increases, layoff protections and the use of artificial intelligence, said Katie Campbell, a video journalist who has worked at ProPublica for eight years. She said workers wanted a say in how A.I. was being adopted at the company, protections against being replaced by the technology and transparency for readers about its use.
“ProPublica is its workers, and when more than 100 people step away from their work for a day, that’s significant,” Ms. Campbell said, adding, “We want to get back to work, but we want a fair contract to do this work.”
Newsrooms around the country are grappling with similar issues over the use of A.I. in reporting, editing and disseminating journalism. Some embarrassing errors, such as Bloomberg’s corrections for A.I.-generated summaries or the inadvertent publication of A.I.-written articles, have raised the stakes. Collective bargaining agreements at unionized newsrooms increasingly contain language that offer protections against replacing jobs with A.I. and guardrails for its use.
ProPublica’s union is represented by the NewsGuild of New York, which also represents some journalists at The New York Times.
A ProPublica spokeswoman said the company had made proposals that mirrored those accepted by the NewsGuild at other news organizations. She said ProPublica had never had layoffs.
“ProPublica is committed to reaching a fair and sustainable first contract to cement the strong pay and benefits we’ve always provided our staff,” the spokeswoman said.
The unionized workers’ authorization for the strike took place on March 20, with 92 percent of members voting in favor. On Monday, the union filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against ProPublica, accusing it of failing to bargain with the union before putting in place an A.I. policy.
ProPublica’s policy says any work done with the assistance of A.I. will be reviewed by journalists and disclosed to readers.
Tyson Evans, ProPublica’s chief product and brand officer, said the company had shown the principles to the bargaining committee before publishing them.
The union has asked supporters not to visit the ProPublica website or read its content during Wednesday’s strike.
ProPublica, which was founded nearly 20 years ago, relies on support from philanthropic foundations and individual donors. Its investigative reporting has been awarded multiple Pulitzer Prizes.
Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: [email protected]
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