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CalMatters/The Markup Guild

@calmattersguild.bsky.social
38 followers 15 following 6 posts

We're the journalists, product and development staff of CalMatters and The Markup.

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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A solid blue background that includes a California poppy flower logo at the top and the following statement: We’re devastated to hear the news about today’s layoffs at various McClatchy-owned newspapers, especially those from our union siblings at The Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee. 

As a newsroom dedicated to covering the most populated state in our country, we know we can’t do it alone. Californians deserve a robust journalism landscape that covers both big metropolitan areas and the smaller and vibrant communities that are often overlooked. We all lose when this coverage is diminished.

We stand in solidarity with our colleagues. 

— CalMatters/ The Markup Union
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ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 08/04/2026
We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
We're on strike! Don't visit propublica.org on April 8
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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
This comes at a time when we need journalists holding truth to power more than ever. Our thoughts are with the hundreds of employees laid off, and in solidarity we share this effort to help them financially as they deal with the loss of their livelihoods. www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...
gofundme.com
Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund
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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Despite the words of WaPo management, this was not inevitable. This decimation is a choice, overseen by one of the world's richest men, and it is up to us to support these workers in the short-term, and to uphold our profession.
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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Like so many others who care about quality journalism, CalMatters/The Markup Guild is disturbed by the gutting of the once-great institution that is the Washington Post.
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ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 04/02/2026
1/ READY TO STRIKE: More than 80% of our members signed a pledge saying we are prepared to strike unless @propublica.org agrees to a fair contract. www.propublicaguild.org/updates/the-...
propublicaguild.org
The ProPublica Guild is Ready to Strike for a Fair Contract — ProPublica Guild
The ProPublica Guild is prepared to strike. We have shown up and compromised at the bargaining table for more than two years, but our newsroom’s management has slow-walked negotiations , offering w...
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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
All of our peers in journalism should have the same protections. It's more important than ever that newsrooms protect the integrity and quality of our work. 2/2
CNNU Logo
December 5, 2025
To the management of America’s nonprofit newsrooms:
We are writing to you as the nation’s first-ever caucus of nonprofit newsroom unions, which is composed of the media workers representing journalism outlets across the country.
Once again, our industry finds itself at an inflection point, facing the uncertainty of artificial intelligence. Like any new technology, AI can provide a potent new tool to assist us in our work if it is used responsibly, thoughtfully and ethically.
However, we have already seen numerous failures in the implementation of AI at for-profit news outlets, where the economic incentive to use AI recklessly has at times degraded the otherwise high-caliber product our colleagues produce. From Axel Springer to Gannett, major for-profit publishers have unveiled flawed AI tools that are hallucinating false news articles or synopses, slowing down journalists’ workflows and otherwise threatening their editorial product.
Nonprofit newsrooms can and must do better to uphold the mandates of our mission-driven organizations and ensure readers’ trust in our editorial product. Importantly, we are not calling for a ban on AI. Our message is simple — management must work with us to determine how to best implement this emerging technology and protect journalistic integrity.
To that end, we unequivocally demand that you commit to the following guardrails around AI in current or future collective bargaining agreements and in the implementation of such contracts:
● AI is rapidly evolving and most of its uses remain to be seen. Our unions will retain the right to bargain over its future implementation.
● Management will not lay off media workers as a result of implementing AI.
● Our members will not be disciplined if we decide AI is not the best tool for a job, and our members’ usage of AI tools will not be surveilled.● Our outlets will not publish work that is entirely AI-generated, including, but not limited to, text, photos, videos, audio, translations or artwork. When we publish AI-assisted work, it will be clearly labeled as such, will be checked by a human editor and will follow a public ethics policy.
● Management will not strike deals to use our work — or the work of freelancers or contributors — to train AI without both our consent and our compensation.
Many nonprofit newsrooms have already agreed to common-sense AI provisions, and we applaud them. Publications including Grist, the Associated Press, CalMatters/The Markup and the Chicago Reader enshrined contract language that included such guardrails as protecting unit members against being laid off as a result of AI and only implementing new AI tools when the unit consents.
But some nonprofit newsrooms appear set on racing to the bottom.
Management at ProPublica, which stands at the forefront of investigative journalism, has repeatedly refused in negotiations with its workers to agree to even the most basic limits on publishing AI-generated content or laying off media workers as a result. At The Marshall Project, the preeminent source for enterprise reporting on the criminal justice system, management has gone many months without responding to their workers’ contract proposal concerning AI. At VTDigger, which provides vital local news to Vermonters, management has offered insulting AI provisions that would allow them to lay off reporters as a result of AI and that include zero guardrails for unionized journalists on how AI impacts their editorial product. And at The Texas Tribune, a distinguished voice covering the Lone Star State, after previously agreeing to AI guardrails, including layoff protections, management recently rejected these provisions in favor of unchecked discretion to roll out AI.
Our newsrooms’ readers and small-dollar donors have already expressed their displeasure with the poor decisions leaders of t…Logos: The Freelance Solidarity Project, National Writers Union, Texas Tribune Guild, CVJC Guild, Salt Lake News Guild, New York Focus Union, Marshall Project Guild, Consumer Reports Guild, Jacobin Union, In These Times Union, CalMatters & The Markup Guild, VTDigger Guild, Edsource Guild, Sun-Times Guild, High Country News Union, Spotlight PA Union, MinnPost Union, ProPublica Guild.
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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
At CalMatters/The Markup union, we're proud of the AI article we ratified in our contract this year. It ensures that no union employee will be laid off because of AI, guarantees that humans are writing the news you read, and keeps our content from being used to train AI without our consent. 1/2
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