Reporters, photographers, copy editors, and others members of the Seattle Times newsroom took to downtown streets on Sept. 30, just a block from the newspaper’s new office, to demand wage increases, as well as proper protections against AI replacing them and their colleagues.
The crowd of around 60 people, mostly Seattle Times union members alongside some labor supporters and former employees, picketed with signs of “Honk If You Hate AI” and “Fair Contract Now!” on Denny Way and Stewart Street, as passersby in their vehicles honked in support.
The picketers made their presence and dissatisfaction equally known with a giant inflatable dinosaur, stacks of Domino’s pizzas, and a custom sign station, where members scribbled down their own slogans, such as “Baddies Hate AI” and “Human Rights for Human Writers.”
Cost of living
According to the union, the Seattle Times’ most recent wage increase proposal would be less than 2% for most workers, or $48 per paycheck before taxes, despite inflation sitting at 4.4% — equating to an overall wage decrease.
“So many of our members here are experiencing the cost of living crisis that we’ve covered in our own papers,” said Amanda Zhou, a Times climate reporter and member of the union’s bargaining committee, “and we were very eager to address this on day one of meeting with the company.”
This comes also as the union reports that one in three of its members spend half of their monthly take-home pay on housing and that an equal number take on additional work outside the newsroom.
“It should be, at the very least, possible to live in Seattle, pay for basic essentials, and think about starting a family on Seattle Times wages,” said education reporter Ryan Nguyen. “For myself and many of my colleagues, that is far from the case. How can we report on Seattle — including its issues of affordability — when we can’t even afford to live here ourselves?”
AI in the newsroom
Another motivating factor for union organizers is securing AI protections for its workers across the board. Although the publication agreed during bargaining to not allow AI to write stories or interview people, positions in other elements of the paper’s production (including graphic design, copy editing, etc.) would still be at risk of replacement by AI.
“All of our members in the newsroom — reporters, photographers, copy editors, page designers, graphic artists, digital producers, and more — deserve job security against machines,” said race and equity reporter Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks during her speech at the picket line.
Much of Seattle’s recent tech layoffs this year, including 1,400 at Meta and 746 at Oracle, has been attributed to AI implementation. And with more threats of forced AI automation in other industries on the horizon, journalists like those at the Seattle Times have joined in the fight.
“AI will keep evolving, but it’s never going to have a gut feeling, and it’s never going to be something you can trust to have news judgment,” said multiplatform desk editor Brandon Foster. “The point of a newspaper is to tell stories that affect the lives of people in a community, and AI will never have that perspective. It’s not alive, and it’s not a part of our community.”
The Seattle Times Union is calling on members of the public to sign a petition to persuade Seattle Times management to accept their demands, and so far has collected over 1600 signatures. Sign the petition online here.
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