Everett Daily Herald staff forms union, asks for fair pay and working conditions

The Everett Herald newspaper journalists have announced they plan to organize a union.

They're asking Sound Publishing, the Herald's owner, to voluntarily recognize their union in lieu of holding a vote through federal labor regulators.

A news release from the Everett NewsGuild says about 95% of the Herald's eligible newsroom employees have signed cards in favor of unionizing. According to the guild's Twitter account, the union represents 23 staff members, including reporters, photographers, page designers, and web producers.

According to statements from the guild:

"Our goal is to ensure fair working conditions, comprehensive benefits and a livable wage for the workers this union represents. We will engage in collective bargaining so newsroom employees feel represented and heard."

"We love our jobs, we love this community, and we love what we do. But Sound Publishing doesn’t pay all its employees fairly or equally. This needs to change if the paper is to survive and maintain its quality of coverage."

They join roughly a dozen other Northwest newspapers who have already unionized, including The Seattle Times and the News Tribune in Tacoma.

Sound Publishing is based in Everett where it also operates a printing press. The company is owned by Black Press, based in British Columbia. As the region's largest local news company, it hypes that it owns 43 independent media outlets, spanning Alaska to King County, Kitsap to Okanogan County.