State Senator-elect Jo Comerford and others show support for the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. The group came with the hopes of handing a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Gazette employee Dave Eisenstadter, a member of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild, talks to a group including state Senator-elect Jo Comerford, who came to the Gazette to show support for union organizers and deliver a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Alicia Fleming, a member of Jobs with Justice, takes a picture of members of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild as well as others, including state Senator-elect Jo Comerford, who came to the Gazette to show support for union organizers and deliver a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

State Senator-elect Jo Comerford of Northampton and others show support for union organizers and hand a petition to Brenda Nelson, the Gazette’s receptionist and librarian, to be given to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also the president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Gazette employee Dave Eisenstadter, a member of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild, talks to a group including state Senator-elect Jo Comerford, who came to the Gazette to show support for union organizers and deliver a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

State Senator-elect Jo Comerford of Northampton and others show support for the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. The group came with the hopes of handing a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also the president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

State Senator-elect Jo Comerford and others show support for the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Tuesday. The group came with the hopes of handing a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also president and CEO of Newspapers of New England Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

State Senator-elect Jo Comerford of Northampton and others show support for members of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. The group came with the hopes of handing a petition to publisher Aaron Julien, who is also the president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, Inc. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

NORTHAMPTON — State Senator-elect Jo Comerford was among a group of about a dozen people who visited the Daily Hampshire Gazette Tuesday morning to deliver a petition asking the newspaper’s parent company to support the recently formed Pioneer Valley NewsGuild.

The Pioneer Valley NewsGuild consists of a group of employees from both the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Valley Advocate and seeks voluntary recognition as a union from Newspapers of New England, Inc, the company that owns both publications.

“The Daily Hampshire Gazette and Valley Advocate are essential watchdog organizations for our communities, and we ask that Newspapers of New England voluntarily recognize its employees’ union in order to develop productive dialogue with management,” the petition reads.

Rose Bookbinder, an organizer with the Pioneer Valley Workers Center in Northampton, said she created the petition two weeks ago after reaching out to the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild. The petition invokes Northampton City Council’s 2102 “Right to Organize” resolution, which calls upon employers to “respect that the question to unionize or not is for employees to decide” and for employers to refrain from expressing “an opinion either pro or con on the merits of unionization.”

“We are taking direction from the (Gazette and Advocate) workers on how best to support them,” Bookbinder said. Those that signed the petition, “believe deeply in solidarity,” she said.

Last week, Aaron Julien, the president and CEO of Newspapers of New England, told Gazette and Advocate employees in a letter that he and the company “strongly oppose” a union and expressed a willingness to work with employees to “restore a sense of shared goals” and “be more open about our mission at the Gazette,” with the intent on keeping the papers independent.

Bookbinder said she started collecting signatures about two weeks ago when she learned about the formation of the Pioneer Valley News Guild in the news. She said the goal was to collect signatures quietly, and to gather the names of major community leaders before going public.

The petition was signed by more than 200 people, many of them union supporters and activists. In addition to Comerford, an aide of state Representative-elect Lindsay Sabadosa, Northampton City Council member Maureen Carney, local clergy, and representatives from several unions such as the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Massachusetts Society of Professors, United Auto Workers, and New England Regional Council of Carpenters, helped deliver the petition.

The group entered the Gazette building at around 11 a.m. with the intention of handing the petition to Julien, who was not in the building at the time. The petition was left with reception.

Julien issued a statement later Tuesday that said: “The direct relationship that I have with the team here is very important to me and I’m focusing my energy on communicating directly with the employees here at the Gazette.”

Last week, Julien took over as publisher of the Gazette and Valley Advocate in Northampton, The Recorder in Greenfield and the Athol Daily News, replacing Michael Rifanburg, who was reassigned to another role in the company. Rifanburg had been publisher since March 2016.

The delivery of the petition Tuesday comes two weeks after a group of Gazette and Advocate employees delivered an earlier petition to Julien, seeking voluntary recognition by management of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild.