Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Workers in the newsroom at the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest newspaper, voted 13–4 for a new union. With the vote, the Anchorage Daily News becomes the only union newsroom in Alaska. The workers intend to advocate for fair wages, financial transparency and a sustainable workplace environment.
“My generation of reporters, I feel like we just kind of expected to be doormats, and my professors told me—they’re like, look, you’re taking a vow of poverty when you start this career,” said Kyle Hopkins, a longtime reporter. “Nobody expects to get rich or even be anything beyond kind of middle class or even lower middle class, but I just want the people I work with—and myself, if I lose the ProPublica connection—to be able to pay for child care and health care. Just the bare minimum.”