



































Converging Media Unions: A Labor History of Newsworkers in a Predigital Age


    

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UNIONS AND THE NEWS: A HISTORY OF PROTECTING WORKERS AND 

PROMOTING DEMOCRACY  
  

 

John Smith  

University of Huddersfield, UK   

  

Abstract 

This article surveys the history of newsworkers' trade union formation in the United States and Canada from 1865 

to 1997. It argues that the digital-era "unionization movement" is part of a longer history of newsworkers 

organizing for better working conditions and a more democratic media. 

Keywords: Newsworkers' unions, Digital-era unionization, Predigital age, Trade union formation, United States, 

Canada  

  

 

 Introduction 

More than 7,500 news media workers organized trade unions in the United States and Canada between 

2015 and 2022, among them reporters, editors, and tech workers (Cohen & de Peuter, 2020; Fu, 2021; Salamon, 

2022a, 2023). They include workers at digital-first media outlets and traditional publishing and broadcasting 

companies, such as Gawker (now Gizmodo Media Group), MTV News, Vice, BuzzFeed, the Los Angeles Times, 

Hearst Magazines, Minnesota Public Radio, and WHYY. They have joined legacy unions that have been 

representing workers in publishing and broadcasting since the early 20th century: The NewsGuild (TNG); the 

Writers Guild of America, East; the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists; 

and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Canada. Some writers have reported an increase in 

newsworker union representation due to this digital-era “unionization movement” (Fu, 2021), especially since 

the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (Fischer, 2021), and suggest that “media unionization 3.0 is also a rebranding 

of an old story” (Chen, 2015, para. 12).   

This article surveys this longer history of newsworkers’ trade union formation in a predigital age. It is 

grounded in a case study of unions in the United States and Canada from 1865, when newsworkers first unionized 

internationally—until 1997, when newsworkers had formed cross-craft international unions.  

This article critically evaluates histories of journalism, labor, and critical political economy of communication  

Copyright © 2023 (Errol Salamon, E.Salamon@hud.ac.uk). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 

Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at http://ijoc.org.  

literature, integrating secondary research on newsworkers’ trade union formation. It identifies two dimensions of 

labor convergence that are underdeveloped in these studies: first, treating labor convergence as an ideology, a set 

of values, rather than only a range of trade union processes; and second, accounting for a long historical 

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perspective on trade union labor convergence. First, researchers typically refer to labor convergence as the 

merging of workers’ unions across different crafts, industries, and countries while uniting organized and 

unorganized workers (McKercher, 2002; Mosco & McKercher, 2008). Conversely, researchers refer to labor 

convergence as a temporary organizing tactic, uniting community groups and leveraging public support (Salamon, 

2022a, 2022b). This article contributes a new conceptualization of labor convergence as a set of trade union 

ideological values linked to newsworkers’ organizing processes.   

Second, this article addresses the lack of a comprehensive long historical perspective on newsworker 

unions’ labor convergence in the context of cross-border tensions between American and Canadian unions during 

international organizing efforts (Deck, 1988; Glende, 2012; Leab, 1970; Mari, 2018; McKercher, 2002; Mosco 

& McKercher, 2008; Nerone, 2022; Örnebring, 2020; Salamon, 2022a, 2022b). Extant research has focused on a 

specific union, a particular occupation, or a short period of time, leaving gaps in understanding newsworkers’ 

trade union-organizing efforts across various occupations and industries over time. This article aims to fill these 

gaps, providing a more comprehensive analysis and proposing a new framework for periodizing labor 

convergence of newsworkers’ unions in the United States and Canada between 1865 and 1997. By adopting a 

broader scope, the article provides insights into the complex dynamics and transformations of newsworkers’ 

organizing processes among newspaper print workers and journalists over time.  

To better understand how and why newsworkers organize in the present and their relationship with trade 

union ideological values, this article aims to understand the continuities and discontinuities over time in 

newsworker union histories (Nerone, 2022; Örnebring, 2020; Salamon, 2022a). It asks the following research 

questions:   

RQ1: How can we periodize labor convergence in the United States and Canada based on histories of 

newsworkers’ union formation and reformation between the 1860s and 1990s?   

RQ2: What trade union ideological values are associated with the processes of labor convergence?   

Next, this article considers how newspaper print workers’ craft unions converged internationally across the United 

States and Canada in the 19th century. Second, it traces a history of the converged blue-collar printers and white-

collar journalists’ unions, attempting to build industrial unions in these countries from the 1890s to the 1930s. 

Third, the article traces a shift to divergence in the 1930s, when North American journalists formed autonomous 

unions and converged with other white-collar front-office newsworkers through the 1980s. Fourth, it outlines the 

process of union reconvergence in the news industry between the mid-1980s and 1990s, reuniting blue-collar and 

white-collar newsworkers who were previously members of the same union, and union divergence among some 

Canadian newsworkers. The conclusion discusses how a new framework for periodizing labor convergence, and 

understanding the associated ideological values, could offer a necessary framework for future research on media 

workers’ union-organizing efforts at digital media outlets.  

The Rise of Newsworkers’ Convergence: Craft Unionism Versus Industrial Unionism  

This section contends that newspaper print workers first organized craft unions in particular locales in the 

United States and Canada, converging internationally in the 19th century and then diverging based on specialized 

craft interests within print work (Demers, 1988; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Nerone, 2022; Salamon, 2022b). A 

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craft unionism ideology refers to a collective organization of workers who share a particular trade or skillset 

within a particular industry, such as printers or journalists. By contrast, an industrial unionism ideology refers to 

a collective organization uniting workers within and across industries, regardless of craft or skillset. Until the 

20th century, the United States–based International Typographical Union (ITU) was the parent craft union 

representing newspaper printers in various cities across the United States and Canada. The ITU was founded in 

1852 as the National Typographical Union (NTU). It was renamed in 1869 to accommodate Canadian union 

expansion, which included locals in Saint John (1865), Toronto (1866), and Ottawa and Montreal (1867; Kealey, 

1986). Print workers unionized before other professional news employee roles had become firmly established 

(Nerone, 2022). For instance, by 1830, newspapers employed correspondents who worked for more than one 

publication, were amateurs, or had other occupations, rather than full-time professional reporters. Thus, there was 

not yet a common craft identity to facilitate unionization beyond the printers.  

By contrast, the Knights of Labor, founded in 1869 by tailors in Philadelphia, represented the first 

successful attempt to establish a proconvergence “class-based” industrial union in North America, aiming to unite 

various unorganized occupations (Mosco & McKercher, 2008, p. 96). The Knights of Labor started as a secret 

organization that criticized craft unions like the ITU, which aimed “to create a better society by reforming the 

workplace rather than the other way around” (Mosco & McKercher, 2008, p. 101). Over time, the Knights 

expanded to Ontario, Canada, in 1875, playing a vital role in workers’ struggles regardless of their union 

affiliations (Kealey, 1980; Kealey & Palmer, 1982). Moreover, the Knights of Labor was significant for being 

first to organize journalists in Canada and the United States. For example, the Knights Victor Hugo local in 

Toronto (1886–1895) was predominately composed of journalists. However, the Knights struggled to effectively 

counter the power of rapid industrialization, the concentration of capital, and a backlash against organized labor, 

contributing to factionalism and leading to membership decline in the 1890s (Mosco & McKercher, 2008).  

Despite benefiting from cross-border craft convergence, the ITU’s control over print workers was 

challenged during this period. In the late 19th century, printing companies integrated new technologies, including 

the linotype machine (Kealey, 1986; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Nerone, 2022). The linotype, introduced into 

newsrooms in 1886, enabled faster mechanical typesetting, creating the potential to displace printing jobs. 

However, rather than resisting this change, the ITU adapted its strategy and advocated for a new hourly pay rate 

system, shorter workday, and reskilling on the new machines, thus maintaining relative control over printing 

labor. Nevertheless, technological advancements also led to craft diversification and specialization among 

printers, fostering internal divisions within the ITU.   

In response, some printers seceded from the ITU and asserted their autonomous professional identity 

(Kealey, 1986; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Salamon, 2022b). For example, 13 ITU press workers’ union locals 

established the International Printing Pressmen’s Union (IPPU) in 1889. Bookbinding workers formed the 

International Brotherhood of Bookbinders (IBB) in 1892. Over the next two decades, more print workers left the 

ITU and organized autonomous unions, including the Lithographers and Photoengravers of America and the 

International Stereotypers’ and Electrotypers’ Union. These developments marked a process of labor divergence 

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among print workers’ unions. Nevertheless, amid these shifts, some unorganized newsworkers unionized in the 

late 19th century, leading to more convergence within the industry.  

Newsworkers’ International Labor Convergence Across Crafts  

This section asserts that newsworkers converged in one big craft union in the late 19th century across the 

United States and Canada, bringing together the ideologies of white-collar and blue-collar unionism. While some 

journalists had briefly organized with the Knights of Labor (Kealey, 1980), journalists remained mostly 

unorganized until then. Journalists’ drive to unionize was marked by tensions between their white-collar 

professional ideology and class consciousness, which manifested in a professional orientation and economic 

orientation (Salamon, 2022a). The characteristics of journalists’ professional ideology included individualism, 

competitiveness, and a commitment to the craft of journalism rather than the collective interests of other workers. 

Journalists typically identified as “middle-class professionals” or “craftsmen” (Leab, 1970, p. 8) whose 

professional commitment to their “mental labor” superseded an interest in monetary gain (Mosco & McKercher, 

2008, p. 46). Journalists also desired fame, enjoying “the romance of newspapering” (Leab, 1970, p. 8) and “the 

glamor of the industry” (Deck, 1988, p. 17).   

Yet, newsworkers set off a wave of labor convergence in 1891 when editorial workers joined the ITU. 

Journalists eventually realized they were also distinct class with similar economic interests (Leab, 1970; Salamon, 

2015, 2022a, 2022b). In unionizing, journalists advocated for higher wages and better working conditions. By the 

1890s, a wage disparity between unorganized journalists and the organized newspaper print workers initially led 

journalists to organize in Pittsburgh, Denver, Sacramento, and New York. Additionally, newspaper work was 

insecure, as editors and publishers would fire employees at will. This white-collar unionism of aspiring middle-

class journalistic workers was typical of other aspiring middle-class professionals. However, white-collar 

unionism stood in contrast to the blue-collar unionism of working-class printers, who prioritized their manual 

labor, fair pay, and other workers’ collective interests, potentially contributing to wider economic justice and 

increased political influence (Kealey, 1980; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Salamon, 2022a).  

With this growing recognition of their employment conditions, the ITU organized 59 newswriters’ locals 

in more than 40 cities in the United States and Canada between 1891 and 1923, suggesting that newsworkers 

were shifting toward industrial unionism (Leab, 1970; Murasken, 1937; Nerone, 2022; Salamon, 2015). The ITU 

organized journalists to prevent them from doing replacement work during strikes and to get the union favorable 

press coverage. Additionally, newspaper employees tended to shift jobs from newspapers’ mechanical 

departments to editorial departments, so they were familiar with printers’ long tradition of unionism and urged 

the ITU to organize newswriters. Most newswriters’ locals were formed in the United States and lasted fewer than 

five years. Spreading to Canada, the ITU initially chartered newswriters’ locals in Ottawa (1902–1903), Dawson, 

Yukon Territory (1903–1906), and Montreal (1904– 1906). However, ITU newswriters vice-president John F. 

O’Sullivan had reported in 1901 that newswriters sought to withdraw from the ITU to form an independent 

organization to better serve journalists’ interests. By 1906, the ITU demonstrated that its interest in the 

newswriters had also waned when members voted to amend the union’s constitution to remove newswriters from 

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the union. These feats perpetuated the tensions between white-collar and blue-collar unionism, solidifying the 

self-perceived differences between newswriters and print workers.  

Such union-organizing efforts were based on newsworkers’ narrow articulation of industrial unionism. By 

contrast, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) demonstrated a clearer and explicit expression of industrial 

unionism. Founded in Chicago in 1905, the IWW expanded into Canada in 1906, aiming to unify the working 

class across the globe and overthrow capitalism (Cole, Struthers, & Zimmer, 2017; Mosco & McKercher, 2008). 

The IWW pledged to replace craft unionism and organize workers neglected by other unions affiliated with the 

American Federation of Labor (AFL), regardless of their craft, skillset, or ethnic, racial, gender, or national 

identities. While ITU newswriters locals expanded to Canada, it became clear that such labor convergence was 

based on newsworkers’ prevailing parochial craft ideology and the tensions between white-collar and blue-collar 

unionism, rather than the IWW’s expansive iteration of industrial unionism.   

Nevertheless, the ITU amended its policy to resume granting charters to newswriters in 1911, but it 

arguably reinforced the ITU’s narrow craft unionism and the tensions among different newsworker crafts 

(Demers, 1988; Murasken, 1937). Fearing jurisdictional disputes over the newswriters with the AFL, the ITU 

chartered Canadian newswriters’ unions in Vancouver (1913–1916), Montreal (1919–1923), and London, Ontario 

(1919–1921). Despite their efforts, these newswriter locals faced staunch employer opposition to unionization, 

leading some employers to form nonunion company associations. According to an ITU report, the employers 

argued that union organizing would “result in the writers developing class prejudice and distorting the news in 

favor of the labor movement, thus curtailing the freedom and fairness of the press” (as cited in Murasken, 1937, 

p. 13). To gain support, the newswriters collaborated with ITU printers’ locals. Yet, ITU’s larger membership 

generally favored relinquishing jurisdiction over the newswriters because they were unwilling to adapt their rules 

and membership requirements to journalists’ unique needs, including hours of work, seniority, and 

apprenticeships. These struggles exemplified the tensions between white-collar unionism, represented by 

professional journalists’ skilled and mental labor, and blue-collar unionism, prevalent among manual laborers in 

other craft-based unions.  

In response, the AFL attempted to form a national newswriters’ union. In 1923, the ITU relinquished 

jurisdiction of newswriters to the AFL, except for locals in Milwaukee and Scranton, which remained ITU 

affiliates (Bernstein, 1969/2010; Leab, 1970). The AFL chartered newswriters locals in seven cities between 1923 

and 1930, but by 1933, only Boston and Chicago locals had survived. Many locals had ties to the labor movement, 

contributed to the labor press, or were labor news reporters seeking access to other unions’ members and events. 

Notably, the AFL chartered only one newswriters’ union in Canada, a local in Montreal (1926–1927; Murasken, 

1937). Despite these developments, journalists in North America eventually recognized they needed to organize 

autonomous unions to address their unique issues as white-collar mental laborers.  

International Labor Divergence and Convergence Among White-Collar Newsworkers  

This section affirms that journalists facilitated labor divergence by forming autonomous unions in the 

United States and Canada. They also gradually adopted white-collar international labor convergence as an 

organizing strategy, uniting more groups of white-collar newsworkers between the 1930s and 1950s. Journalists 

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had faced challenges in building solidarity with blue-collar pressroom workers (Denning, 1997/2010; Leab, 1970; 

Salamon, 2022a). However, Great Depression economics contributed to market instability, leading New Deal 

legislation to facilitate a wider industrialization and unionization of cultural workers in the United States. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 contained codes of fair competition 

to aid the country’s economic recovery during the Depression. The Act also supported employees’ rights to 

organize trade unions and bargain collectively. Yet, the New Deal exempted some editorial workers from 

maximum work hours and minimum wages legislation, regarding them as professional workers. In response, 

journalists founded the American Newspaper Guild (ANG) in the United States in 1933 due to their shared 

individualistic professional ideology. The ANG’s successful early organizing efforts were also fueled by the 

passing of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. This legislation guaranteed employees’ rights at 

privatesector workplaces to organize trade unions and engage in collective bargaining. By forming the ANG, 

journalists illuminated that autonomous “white collar unionism” (Leab, 1970, p. 3) could address their unique 

demands, including better pay, hours of work, and job security.   

During its early years, though, the ANG’s union-organizing efforts revealed tensions within journalists’ 

white-collar unionism ideology, reflecting broader divisions in the labor movement between craft unionism and 

industrial unionism. The ANG initially became a site of conflict for left-wing activists who envisioned labor 

organizing as part of larger social movements and political initiatives during the 1930s and 1940s (Denning, 

1997/2010; Glende, 2012; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Salamon, 2022a). The ANG joined the larger labor 

movement, becoming members of the craft unionism-oriented AFL in 1936 and the more militant Congress of 

Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1937. As the rival labor federation to the AFL, the CIO pushed an industrial 

unionism ideology. Notably, ITU’s president was the CIO’s first secretary. The ITU had been barred from the 

AFL until 1944 for espousing industrial unionism. Nevertheless, such leftist politics in the ANG created 

intraunion tensions, becoming a barrier to the union’s growth until radical CIO-affiliated leaders were removed 

from ANG office by the 1940s. The CIO’s defeat in the ANG solidified the ANG’s white-collar ideology and 

identity as a middle-class professional organization that aligned with the AFL’s craft unionism ideology. Despite 

these tensions, the ANG’s longstanding white-collar unionism demands became clearer through its international 

craftoriented organizing efforts throughout the 20th century.  

However, white-collar international labor convergence was tenuous during the ANG’s early years. In 

1936, the ANG started organizing editorial workers in Canada (Deck, 1988; Murasken, 1937; Salamon, 2015). A 

small group of editorial workers at Toronto newspapers, many of them women, initially aimed to unionize the 

city’s four dailies, launching the Toronto Newspaper Guild (TTNG). Editorial workers at Montreal newspapers 

also formed an ANG local in 1937. Yet, unions had limited legal protection, allowing companies to use pressure 

tactics and intimidation to resist unionization. In 1937, for example, a Toronto newspaper fired 41 union members. 

Due to strong employer opposition, the TTNG and Montreal locals failed to negotiate contracts, leading the ANG 

to revoke their charters in 1943.  

Journalists and other white-collar newsworkers eventually played a pivotal role in broadening the scope 

of newsworkers’ union convergence throughout the 20th century. Labor legislation made possible union 

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certification and compulsory collective bargaining, such as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 in the United 

States and British Columbia’s Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1947 and Ontario’s Labour Relations 

Act of 1948 in Canada (Deck, 1988; Denning, 1997/2010; Leab, 1970; Salamon, 2015; Stonebanks, 1986). This 

legislative framework enabled the ANG to resume organizing editorial workers in Ontario by 1947, leading to 

significant progress for the union. The union revived TTNG in 1948, garnering strong support at the Toronto 

Daily Star. In 1949, the union achieved its first successful contract for Star reporters and photographers, securing 

a monumental pay increase that underscored the profound impact of newsworkers’ convergence. Throughout the 

1950s, the ANG extended its organizing efforts to editorial workers, for instance, at the Toronto Telegram, the 

Globe and Mail, and other Toronto Star departments, encompassing circulation, delivery, advertising, accounting, 

and maintenance employees. These developments transformed journalists’ unions into organizations with diverse 

memberships, marking a notable shift toward white-collar labor convergence and espousing newsworkers’ craft-

oriented industrial unionism ideology.  

As the ANG’s membership continued to converge internationally outside the United States, the union’s 

Canadian members sought special recognition. In 1951, Canada was established as a “region” in the union (Deck, 

1988, p. 29). In the 1960s, the Victoria Newspaper Guild (VING) mobilized ANG members to remove 

“American” from the union’s name to reflect its Canadian membership (Stonebanks, 1986, pp. 26–27). The VING 

submitted several motions to the ANG’s international conventions to adopt a new name, including the “North 

American Newspaper Guild,” “International Newspaper Guild,” and “The Newspaper Guild.” In 1971, the ANG 

convention adopted The Newspaper Guild (TNG). As a result, the union committed to opening a Canadian office 

and appointing a Canadian director (Deck, 1988). This special recognition was a significant step toward 

international labor convergence, aiming to address the longstanding tensions between newsworker union 

members in the United States and Canada.  

Meanwhile, newsworkers’ unions in the United States faced unique struggles, with government legislation 

such as the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 limiting collective bargaining and labor convergence (Marjoribanks, 2000). 

In the 1970s, publishers capitalized on such labor legislation and First Amendment arguments to thwart 

unionization, citing concerns about press freedom. Strikes in the 1980s became emblematic of a broader 

“corporate offensive against unions” (Rhomberg, 2012, p. 7), eroding collective bargaining and New Deal–era 

worker protections. Concessions from TNG-represented publications resulted in wage cuts, benefit reductions, 

and no-strike clauses in contracts. A decline in newspaper union representation, from 21% in 1983 to 10% in 2000 

(Stanger, 2002), raised questions about unions’ collective bargaining power and the uneven paths toward 

convergence.  

By contrast, some newsrooms in Ontario, Canada, became unionized only in the 1980s (Deck, 1988; 

Salamon, 2015). In 1979, TTNG adopted a new name, the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild (SONG), signifying 

its expanded subnational organizing goals beyond Toronto. A year later, the SONG aimed to organize (1) 

unorganized departments in workplaces where it already had members, (2) unorganized workplaces in regions 

where the union had bargaining units, and (3) new locals. The SONG successfully unionized white-collar 

newsworkers at various daily and weekly community newspapers, including the Hamilton Spectator, Maclean’s, 

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Metroland, and Thomson Newspapers, leading to convergence and expansion throughout the 1990s. They 

embraced a white-collar ideology, aiming to attain higher wages and professional standards for newsworkers. The 

SONG’s union-organizing efforts illuminated that labor convergence could refer to organizing unorganized 

newsworkers at the subnational level. These developments in Canada further indicated that the process of labor 

convergence was not uniform across the newspaper industry, the United States, Canada, or within a local region.  

Labor Union Reconvergence and Divergence  

The aforementioned TNG organizing campaigns unfolded as newspaper unions formally adopted a labor 

convergence strategy in the 1950s, which this section calls labor reconvergence. This section is also focused on 

how some newsworkers’ unions in Canada wanted more national autonomy, adopting a labor divergence strategy. 

As media chains grew, became more powerful, and implemented a strategy of corporate convergence, newspaper 

unions merged with other media and communication workers’ unions, consolidating their contract negotiations 

to strengthen their collective bargaining power (McKercher, 2002; Mosco & McKercher, 2008). TNG, the ITU, 

and the CWA—a 600,000-member media and telecommunications workers union—discussed plans to formally 

merge and organize workers across industries. Their newspaper and broadcast news members worked in editorial 

and production departments in the United States and Canada, illuminating newsworkers’ expansive industrial 

unionism ideology that could unite white-collar and blue-collar unionism internationally.  

This attempt to form one big union of newsworkers initially failed, arguably due to the enduring tensions 

between white-collar and blue-collar unionism. TNG and the printing trade unions had informally discussed plans 

to unite at AFL-CIO conventions in 1957 and 1959, but in 1960, TNG and the ITU formally announced their goal 

of forming “one big union” (McKercher, 2002, pp. 58–62). These merger plans fizzled by 1962 because they 

were unable to agree on what “one big union” would mean in practice. Different principles and policies guided 

each union’s organizational structures, which would have been difficult to reconcile. These challenges resembled 

newswriters’ struggles with ITU print workers in the early 20th century.  

Newsworkers’ unions had two additional concerns between the 1960s and 1980s, limiting their ability to 

adopt an industrial unionism ideology. First, they thought their jobs would be displaced when companies 

introduced new technologies (Deck, 1988; McKercher, 2002). The ITU was a craft union that had been losing 

members due to the introduction of computerized typesetting. Automation was streamlining the production 

process and deskilling newspaper workers’ labor. In 1975, the unions issued a joint declaration of principles 

outlining their common interests in the face of a changing news industry. In 1982 and 1983, merger committees 

proposed deals to their respective unions, agreeing that the unions should establish a new Media Workers 

International Union—ITU/TNG. At the 1983 TNG convention, delegates voted to support the proposed merger, 

but ITU members were divided on the deal. Some ITU members wanted their union to merge with the Teamsters, 

which had organized about 150 printing companies, claiming it could offer them more benefits and bargaining 

power. The ITU held a referendum in 1985 to merge, with most members voting against it. These outcomes 

reinforced the longstanding divide between the mental labor underpinning white-collar unionism and the manual 

labor guiding blue-collar unionism. Second, the newsworkers’ unions were concerned that increasing media 

ownership concentration would limit their collective bargaining power in the early 1980s, which was facilitated 

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by relaxed government regulation on cross-media ownership (Hébert, 1981; McKercher, 2002; Mosco & 

McKercher, 2008; Salamon, 2022b). Bigger media companies might have more resources and leverage in contract 

negotiations, giving employers more control over wages but leaving workers with fewer alternative job 

opportunities outside these companies. Accordingly, the CWA initiated a labor convergence union strategy around 

1980, attempting to increase their collective power to put pressure on employers by including more members 

across occupational lines and industries. ITU members finally voted to merge with the CWA in 1986 and 

established the CWA’s Printing, Publishing, and Media Workers Sector in 1987. This labor convergence strategy 

demonstrated that printing newsworkers could unite with other media workers due to their shared commitment to 

manual labor and blue-collar unionism. However, their craft-oriented and reformist iteration of industrial 

unionism was still different from the IWW’s expansive and radical industrial unionism that also targeted the 

capitalist economic system itself (Cole et al., 2017).  

Left on its own, TNG explored other merger and divergence options between the mid-1980s and mid-

1990s, raising questions about how newsworkers could reconcile a cross-craft industrial unionism ideology with 

an international convergence strategy. In 1993, TNG acknowledged it was losing bargaining leverage due to its 

small membership in the face of increasing multimedia ownership and newspaperinformation publishing industry 

convergence (McKercher, 2002; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Salamon, 2022b). In 1995, TNG members endorsed 

a merger with the CWA. TNG retained its autonomy but benefited from the expertise and enhanced power of a 

bigger union, which had become vital due to technological and corporate convergence. TNG also granted its 

remaining Canadian members autonomy, founding TNG Canada (now CWA Canada), which could still access 

TNG benefits, including the union’s defense fund. TNG officially became a CWA sector in 1997. This labor 

convergence strategy confirmed that newsworkers could overcome the deep-seated divisions between white-

collar and blue-collar unionism and the perceived American domination over Canadian unions. It further 

illuminated that newspaper unions had shifted from articulating an autonomous craft unionism ideology, 

exemplified by the ITU and the ANG/TNG, to espousing a collective craft-oriented industrial unionism ideology 

as captured by the CWA.  

Likewise, some unions adopted autonomous Canada-made labor reconvergence and divergence strategies. 

In 1992, three unions merged, forming the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP): the 

Communications and Electrical Workers of Canada; the Energy and Chemical Workers Union; and the Canadian 

Paperworkers Union (McKercher, 2002; Salamon, 2015; Swift, 2003). The CEP had 15,000 members in its media 

section. Notably, the ANG’s pioneering Canadian union local, TTNG, left TNG in 1994, affiliating with the CEP. 

This national union strategy further demonstrated that labor reconvergence and cross-craft industrial unionism 

extended beyond the news industry. By leaving a United States–based union, one big national union could 

potentially leverage more collective power to not only put pressure on employers but also advocate for prolabor 

legislation in the country.  

Conclusion  

This article took a long historical perspective on the formation of newsworkers’ trade unions, developing 

a novel framework for periodizing the processes of labor convergence in the United States and Canada from 1865 

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to 1997. Additionally, it introduced an innovative conceptualization of labor convergence, defining it as a 

collection of trade union values associated with newsworkers’ organizing processes. This article argued for two 

key propositions, addressing how unions’ labor convergence has been underdeveloped in communication and 

journalism studies literature. First, labor convergence should be examined from a long historical perspective to 

better understand its evolution as a process. Second, labor convergence should also be understood as an ideology, 

encompassing a set of values that go beyond the nature of unionorganizing processes.   

Regarding RQ1, four dominant periods of labor convergence were revealed through the long historical 

perspective of newsworkers’ international union organizing and formation. The first period (1865– 1892) 

witnessed newspaper print workers organizing autonomously and forming the NTU/ITU across the United States 

and Canada. However, some print workers later left the ITU to establish autonomous unions. In the second period 

(1891–1933), journalists formed newswriters’ union locals in the ITU in both countries. The third period (1933–

1986) saw journalists seceding from the ITU to create autonomous unions, initially the ANG/TNG, and later 

organizing other noneditorial white-collar workers internationally. During the fourth period (1987–1997), 

newspaper print workers, journalists, and other noneditorial white-collar newsworkers reunited in the CWA, with 

TNG becoming a CWA sector and TNG/CWA Canada becoming autonomous within the union. Yet, the SONG 

joined the Canadian-based CEP/Unifor. These findings illustrate the varied processes and paths that newsworkers 

have adopted in labor convergence, highlighting the close connections between convergence, divergence, and 

reconvergence (McKercher, 2002, pp. 6–11). They also illuminate the cross-border union tensions shaping 

international organizing efforts.  

Concerning RQ2, labor convergence should be redefined as not only an organizing process but also a 

collection of craft-oriented trade union ideological values closely intertwined with newsworkers’ organizing 

processes. Newspaper print workers’ and journalists’ unions initially struggled to converge into one big union in 

the 19th and 20th centuries due to the tensions between print workers’ blue-collar unionism ideology and 

journalists’ white-collar unionism ideology (Glende, 2012; Kealey, 1980; Leab, 1970; Mosco & McKercher, 

2008; Salamon, 2022a, 2022b). Blue-collar unionism was embraced by the working-class printers, who 

emphasized manual labor and issues such as fair wages, workers’ collective interests, and the pursuits of economic 

justice and political influence. White-collar unionism was adopted by the middle-class journalists, who privileged 

mental labor over material gains, individualism, competitiveness, and a dedication to the craft of journalism rather 

than workers’ collective interests. In the 20th century, newsworkers’ unions merged in response to broader 

institutional and technological changes in the news industry. These mergers aimed to decrease the level of 

separation between printers, journalists, and other front-office workers, espousing a craft-oriented industrial 

unionism ideology. However, their version of industrial unionism still prioritized craftmanship and individual 

professions, diverging from the IWW’s more radical international industrial unionism, which also sought to 

challenge the capitalist economic system directly (Cole et al., 2017; Mosco & McKercher, 2008).  

Researchers should situate contemporary digital media organizing actions within this historical context 

and organizing ideologies of workers’ continuous efforts to improve working conditions, defend their rights, 

advocate for social justice, promote journalistic professionalism, and respond to technological change (Cohen & 

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de Peuter, 2020; Mosco & McKercher, 2008; Salamon, 2022a, 2023). As shown in this article, international unions 

in the United States and national unions in Canada have adopted diverse organizing strategies and ideologies. 

Some newsworkers have organized by craft, whereas others have organized craftoriented industrial unions. Future 

research could test the historical framework and conceptualization of labor convergence outlined above to gain 

insights into media workers’ union-organizing efforts in a digital age, identifying continuities and changes in 

labor experiences and institutional and structural conditions.  

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