City Council Passes Resolution Backing Daily News Union

For the third time in four months, the Daily News Union and their feisty allies held a public rally standing up for the value of local journalism. The rancorous battle pits dozens of unionized Daily News reporters, photographers and editors, who have labored three years without a contract for hedge fund owners they accuse of not caring about their welfare, Alden Global Capital. This latest event took place near the fountain in City Hall Park on Oct. 29.

The first rally in this “Defend the Daily News” cycle occurred on Broadway, outside City Hall Park, on July 14 and highlighted the tangle of issues involved, besides the lack of a contract: low wages; no raises; no newsroom; substandard benefits; understaffing and asset stripping.

Founded by veteran investor Randall D. Smith in 2007, Alden bought the News’ parent company, Tribune Publishing, in 2021 and have since been branded “vulture capitalists,” with Alden’s managing director, Heath Freeman, the primary a target of derision.

The hedge fund after the buyout gutted nearly 50 percent of the journalism staff but since it subsequently turned down at least one overture to sell, it suggest the paper might be making a modest profit. subsequently turned down at least one potential suitor, suggesting it is squeaking out a modest profit. From a penny pinching strictly business standpoint, Freeman appears successful. Alden is said to be the nation’s second largest newspaper publisher by circulation, behind only USA Today publisher Gannett. It’s the economics of Alden’s stripped down enterprises that draw workers wrath.

The second rally was held on August 1 in Foley Square, in front of Lorenzo Pace’s monumental sculpture, “The Triumph of the Human Spirit.” This setting was an apt one for City Council Members Carmen De La Rosa, chair of Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor, and Julie Menin, to announce their co-sponsorship of the “Too Tough to Die” resolution—a name that echoing a 1986 album by New York’s hometown punk band, The Ramones. [And in a rather unfortunate aside, is the same slogan was distributed on buttons at the now defunct New York Newsday before it was killed in 1995.]

In addition to these rallies, the union has taken their grievances directly to the people, bringing a pro-Union billboard truck to the Hamptons, where Freeman owns properties; and handing out flyers outside Yankee Stadium and a SLT pilates studio, the latter fitness chain another business in Alden’s portfolio.

“It goes on, and on, and on, and on”

With hundreds of boisterous Laborers Union members and others lined up on Broadway preparing for their own imminent rally, the dozens of Daily News Union members and their allies from the NewsGuild and Communication Workers of America milled about City Hall Park. A small public address system played affirming music at a modest volume, including “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey (a song now insperarable from the final scene in the final episode of “The Sopranos”) and “I Will Survive” by recent Kennedy Center Award winner Gloria Gaynor.

Leading this event, as they had the previous ones, were the triumvirate of Daily News Union representative Evan Simko-Bednarski, Carmen De La Rosa, and NewsGuild New York President Susan DeCarava.

Observed seated on a bench writing intensely in his long reporter’s notepad before the rally, Simko-Bednarski diligence is matched by his plainspoken sincerity at the podium.

De La Rosa is more extroverted, with a tangy Dominican accent, skillful rhetoric and effective pacing. One highlight of De La Rosa’s speech was her description of avowed Daily News fanatic Gale Brewer—herself a rousing voice at previous rallies—carrying a physical copy of the paper around the Council chambers.

DeCarava is a deceptively powerful orator. “Journalists produce the first draft of history,” she exhorted. “We know what we know about the people who came before us because of the work that they do!”

Other speakers included Daily News sportswriter Antwan Staley, whose apparent Southern accent is no illusion, he’s from Winston-Salem, North Carolina; legendary street reporter Kerry Burke; and former Daily News journalists Ellen Moynihan, who left the paper this year to work for the Transit Workers Union; and Brooklyn boy Bob Liff, who was among the sharpest City Hall reporters of the 1980s and 1990s.

For the solons, Rebecca Lynch, Deputy Director of Workers’ Rights at the Comptroller’s office and Council Member Keith Powers also spoke.

At the rally’s conclusion, it was announced, that negotiations with Alden were resuming that afternoon.

Ballot Result

Meanwhile, Resolution 1015, a.k.a. “Too Tough to Die,” with the stated goal of “condemning Alden Global Capital cuts and managerial hostility towards unionized Daily News staff and calling on the hedge fund to reach a contract deal with the newspaper’s union,” was coming up for its vote.

Of the council’s 50 current members (the seat vacated by Carlina Rivera remains unfilled), three were absent: Kamillah Hanks, Darlene Mealy and Yusef Salaam.

When a voice vote was called, 40 of the 47 Council Members were in favor. Democrat Simcha Felder abstained, while Republicans David Carr, Kristy Marmorato, Frank Morano, Vickie Paladino, Irina Vernikov and Joanne Ariola voted no.

For its part, Daily News management remains unamused. Said a spokesperson, “The Daily News has made good faith efforts to speed up negotiations and move these talks toward a conclusion, but the Guild shows more interest in unfounded and inaccurate accusations.”