Cory's story on the survey results for  gender and race diversity 

Cory's overview of the class project

Cory's story on survey results for quality, ownership, and news coverage issues.

Charts

Pie Chart showing how many union members vs. non-union members answered

Bar Chart of salaries of all journalists

E-mail Stinebrink with questions or comments about this story.

Back to home page

Mixed bag of results for Newspaper Guild journalists

Click on image to see a chart showing benefit changes for journalists from union and non-union newspapers.

Journalists in the Upper Midwest who are members of the Newspaper Guild are receiving fewer benefits from their employment than when the first started working at their current Newspapers. 

This is according to a survey conducted by senior journalism students at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Of the journalists claiming to be union members, 15 percent also said that their benefits are better now than when they started at their current job.  This is in contrast to 31 percent of journalists working at a non-union newspaper saying that their benefits are better now than when they started.

Bob Helbig, copy editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and treasurer of the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild, says that the survey results are interesting, but don’t surprise him.

“Newspapers are no different from other companies nationwide that are looking to control health care costs,” Helbig said.  “Reduced benefits and higher employee costs are the way for companies to deal with that.”

Helbig concedes that benefits for union members may be lower than before but that it's to be expected. 

“I think if you look over past decades, (getting great benefits) is historically very true,” Helbig said.  “The problem might be, it was hard for them to get any better.”           

The reduction of benefits can be, in part, attributed to the increasing emphasis put onto profits. 

Of the union workers taking the survey, 43 percent say that there is a "much more" emphasis on profits now than when they started at their current job.  Another 44 percent of union workers say that there is "somewhat more" emphasis put on profits. 

Only 1 percent of union members said there is less emphasis on profits now than when they first started at their current position.

Newspapers without a union also feel a greater emphasis on profits, but not to the degree that papers with a union do.  Still, 29 percent of journalists at non-union newspapers say that there is a "much greater" emphasis on profits, along with 40 percent who say there is a "somewhat greater" emphasis on profits

Journalists for union newspapers are also more likely to feel less security in their jobs.  Of those journalists saying they have "much less" job security now, 49 percent are union members compared to 21 percent who work for non-union newspapers.

“I think it might be a case where workers have had it good for many years, and any changes are viewed as an erosion,” Helbig said.

Some survey results do favor the unions.  Journalists for unionized newspapers get paid better than journalists for non-union newspapers.

Of journalists working for union newspapers, 78 percent earn a salary greater than $50,000.  Among journalists working for non-union newspapers, 72 percent earn a salary of $50,000 or less.

In addition, 11 percent of union journalists earn a salary greater than $75,000.  Only 1 percent of non-union journalists who completed the question about their salary level earn a salary greater than $75,000.  If the non-union members who didn't answer the salary question were removed from the data, then 7 percent of non-union members would earn a salary greater than $75,000.  

Despite the appearance from the survey of the loss of benefits and job security among journalists of union newspapers, it isn’t all bad either.

“Yes, some benefits might be eroding, security might seem less in an industry that is under pressure to survive,” Helbig said.  “But there’s no doubt that benefits and security are better than if management had wholesale ability to make any changes and reductions it wanted.”

Helbig says that the merging of the formerly independent Newspaper Guild within the last decade with Communications Workers of America created a much larger and much more diversified union to counter the growing communications businesses, such as Journal Communications, which Helbig works for.

 “I think that will help ensure our survival,” Helbig said.