Union editorial members of the Chicago Tribune walked off the job for 24 hours starting on Feb. 1, 2024.
About 76 members of the Tribune staff, including writers, photographers and some editors, marched in front of 560 W. Grand Ave. in Chicago. They were joined by six other newsrooms across the country to protest for fair wages from their owner, the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
Saleema Syed, an editor at The Chicago Tribune since 2000, said, “In the 24 years I’ve been here my pay keeps shrinking because it hasn’t kept up with the cost of inflation. So, I’m making less in 2024 than what I made in 2000.” That seems to be the theme of the day.
Ray Long, a reporter with The Chicago Tribune said, “We run over punks like them who get in the way,” Long said. “We stand strong, we are not scared, we won’t back down. We haven’t had raises for five years.”
