Lost Muscle of the Newspaper Guild
Journalists from 21 cities gathered in Washington in 1933 to form a labor union. The Great Depression had taken hold. Nearly 13 million people were unemployedÛÓ38 percent of the non-farm labor force. That unemployment percentage today would mean 50 million people out of work.</br></br>You could hire a cub reporter in Wisconsin in that era for $6 a week. On suburban papers around the country, a fairly common wage was $1 a day. In the big citiesÛÓNew York, for exampleÛÓ75 percent of the reporters earned less than $4,000 a year.</br></br>"As a citizen, a workman, a human being,Û a Boston editor wrote, "the journalist is nothing but a wage-earning servant, as impotent and unimportant ... as a mill hand.Û Out of these conditions the Newspaper Guild was bom.</br></br>ItÛªs a different world now. I went into the business in 1947 at $25 a week. The impossible dream of the Guild at that time was a minimum wage of $100 a week for experienced reporters, editors and photographers. Today, entry level wages are not mind-bogglingÛÓ$20,000 or so a year on average. But on the big papers, $1,000 a week as a minimum for experienced people is not uncommon, thanks largely to the Guild. And for the big hittersÛÓthe celebrities and semi-celebrities of the tradeÛÓthat's a pittance.</br></br>Other things have changed. In years past, the Newspaper Guild, supported by its blue-collar brothers and sistersÛÓthe printing tradesÛÓcould strike and shut down newspapers as a major bargaining weapon. Today, that weapon has lost much of its sting. Computers have made most of the printing trades obsolete. Reporters and editors can set type with a keystroke. Wire services and non-union employees can fill up blank pages with news.