On Jan. 8, members of the Kingston NewsGuild, who have gone eight years without a pay raise, sent a message to Digital First Media that they “deserve a bigger piece of the pie” by posting flyers calling for a bigger piece of the pie and gathering in the break area to share a piece of Guild-bought pie.
Kingston NewsGuild President Patricia Doxsey hands out slices of pie to Guild members during a union activity intended to call attention to the fact that employees of the Daily Freeman have gone for eight years without a raise. They deserve a bigger piece of the pie.

The Kingston NewsGuild 31180, originally Kingston Newspaper Guild 180, has represented the employees of the Daily Freeman, located in Kingston, New York, since the early 1940, and signed its first contract with the newspaper company in November 1945.

Today we represent 21 employees in editorial, circulation, classified and outside sales, which is the entirety of the paper’s non-management/exempt staff.
At our height, we represented more than 100 employees, and had organized every department at the newspaper except the pressmen, who were represented by the Teamsters.

Over the course of the ensuring years, the company substantially reduced our workforce through a series of layoffs and the elimination of vacant positions. In 2010, the company shut down its press and outsourced delivery, causing us to lose roughly 50 drivers, mailroom, and circulation members.

In 2012, the Daily Freeman was purchased by Alden Global as part of the bankruptcy sale of the former Journal Register Co.

After a series of grueling bargaining sessions, the Kingston NewsGuild voted on a two-year contract with DFM (then called 21st Century Media) laid off 15 employees in the editorial and circulation departments. Since then we have had two more rounds of layoffs focusing entirely on the editorial department.

Our current contract expired in March 2015; we have had two extensions, with the most recent extension set to expire in February.

Local: Kingston Newspaper Guild / Facebook