Colleagues,

This morning we’re taking the next step toward forming a union.

We have filed with the National Labor Relations Board for an election to have the NewsGuild-CWA represent our newsroom. We expect the vote to be held next month.

It’s been inspiring to hear your stories and reasons for supporting this historic effort. We’re excited to begin addressing the issues we’re fighting for: job security, regular pay increases, more competitive salaries, equitable pay for women and people of color, more workplace protections and other concerns.

We have a strong majority of union authorization cards from the newsroom and that number continues to grow. With such substantial support, we’d like to take this opportunity to formally ask Tronc to voluntarily recognize our union.

We are looking forward to a positive and productive relationship between our newsroom and management and are hopeful Tronc will put its anti-union campaign to rest.

You’ll hear more from us in the coming weeks about the process of negotiating a new contract. We want to hear from everyone about what is important to you: both the existing benefits you want to protect and the areas where you think we can negotiate a better deal.

We look forward to working with each of you to safeguard the future of the Los Angeles Times and its newsroom.

The Los Angeles Times Guild Organizing Committee