Journalists of Orlando Sentinel win union election

ORLANDO, Fla. — Journalists at the Orlando Sentinel won a resounding victory Tuesday in an election to form the Sentinel Guild. 

In a historic move, newsroom employees overwhelmingly voted 36-8 in favor of creating a union, which will finally allow photographers, reporters, editors, columnists and staff to have a seat at the table with Tribune Publishing, the newspaper’s Chicago-based parent company. The Sentinel Guild is a unit of Local 3108, a local chapter of The NewsGuild-CWA, the nation’s largest union for journalists and other news industry employees.

Jason Garcia, a 14-year veteran reporter at the Sentinel, said, “We’re in a period of unprecedented chaos but this much is now certain: The journalists of the Orlando Sentinel will have a voice in deciding the strategic future of our company. I’m so proud of my friends, colleagues and fellow journalists. We — and local journalism in Central Florida — have grown stronger today.” 

Mail-in ballots were counted at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday over FaceTime in a union certification election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board at the federal agency’s regional office in Tampa. The NLRB mailed ballots starting April 16 to 52 eligible employees. Six votes were challenged.

Nearly 80 percent of eligible staffers signed union authorization cards signaling their desire to be represented by the Sentinel Guild and publicly declared their support Feb. 25. Despite this supermajority, Tribune Publishing refused to voluntarily recognize the Sentinel Guild, and the election was delayed for weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As journalists risked infection to provide life-saving information for Central Florida, Tribune announced mandatory pay cuts for staffers earning upwards of $67,000 and three-week furloughs for lower-paid employees — at a time when our community depends on us most. 

Without the power to bargain over working conditions, the Sentinel Guild could not negotiate terms of the furloughs and pay cuts or prevent layoffs this summer, which other unionized Tribune papers accomplished. 

Gabrielle Russon, who has been a Sentinel reporter since November 2014, said, “Today feels really empowering. We're coming together to hold our company accountable and to demand a voice at the table. But it's a really dark time, too, for us at the Sentinel. My colleagues and I are taking furloughs or pay cuts. We need a union now more than ever.” 

For the first time, Orlando Sentinel journalists will have a hand in their future and a strong voice to advocate for themselves and the importance of local journalism for our region.