The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG) is the legally recognized union for more than 3,000 news, information and labor-organization workers at 25 different employers in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., Maryland and Baltimore area. In this role, the employers at Guild-represented workplaces are legally obligated to bargain with the union over the compensation, benefits and working conditions of their employees.
Our Washington office street address is:
The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild
1100 15th Street, N.W., Suite 350
Washington, D.C. 20005.
Phone: 202-785-3650
Fax: 202-785-3659
E-mail: local32035@wbng.org.
We
also have a Baltimore office that is not regularly staffed. Its
address is:
The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild
415 St. Paul Place
Baltimore MD 21202
Phone: 410-752-6930
Fax: 410-752-8340
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG)?
Originally
founded as a union for journalists, today the Guild bargains contracts
for and protects the rights of various workers throughout the news and
information industry and labor-related organizations. WBNG is the legally
recognized union for more than 3,000 news, information and labor-organization
workers at 18 different employers in the metropolitan Washington, D.C.
and Baltimore area. In this role, the employers at Guild-represented
workplaces are legally obligated to bargain with the union over the
compensation, benefits and working conditions of their employees.
2. Who runs the union?
Guild
members are the highest authority of the local, and the members run
the union. As a highly democratic organization, WBNG members determine
what to bargain for in contract talks, decide how the local's resources
are used, set local union policies and goals, and can run for union
leadership positions within their individual workplaces or for local-wide
posts.
Local 32035's Officers, Executive Council and Staff.
3. Who does WBNG represent?
WBNG
represents more than 3,000 journalists, classified sales reps, technicians,
computer programmers, accounting personnel, circulation workers, production
workers, researchers , public relations reps and other workers at the
Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, international news agencies, public
relations firms, and the staffs of other labor organizations, including
the staff of the AFL-CIO.
4. How was the local created?
WBNG
was founded in January 1934, just six weeks after the national Newspaper
Guild held its founding convention in Washington D.C.'s Willard Hotel.
The local was organized during the depths of the Great Depression to
improve the economic and working conditions of Washington-area journalists,
many of whom often worked more than 50 hours a week for as little as
$20. Founding WBNG members fought hard to get journalists covered by
then-emerging labor laws that guaranteed workers the right to organize
unions and the right to overtime pay. At the time, newspaper publishers
were lobbying the White House to exclude journalists from such protections,
arguing -- unsuccessfully -- that the proposed laws threatened their
First Amendment right to free speech. Since helping to guarantee journalists'
rights under federal labor laws, the Guild has worked, both locally
and nationally, to protect and expand the rights of workers in its jurisdiction.
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