SEATTLE, WA (October 14, 2026) — On the last day of September, the corner of Denny Way and Stewart Street echoed with chatter and car horns as about 60 Seattle Times workers in light blue t-shirts gathered for their first picket in at least 20 years. The journalists and newsroom staff of the city’s paper of record took this rare public action after months of negotiations with Seattle Times’ management that have failed to produce a new collective bargaining agreement.

More than six months into bargaining, workers and management are still far apart on wages. In fact for months, Seattle Times management refused to even bring a wage proposal to the table, forcing the union to file an unfair labor practice charge in June. When Times management finally passed an offer across the table, it fell far short of workers’ needs: a measly increase of $1,250 a year, just $48 extra per paycheck — before taxes. For a bargaining unit where a third of the members are already working second jobs that wage offer just won’t cut it.

“So many of our members here are experiencing the cost of living crisis that we’ve covered in our own papers,” said Amanda Zhou, a reporter and bargaining committee member with the Seattle Times Union, affiliated with NewsGuild-CWA. With inflation rising 4.4% in the Seattle-area over the year, agreeing to management’s wage offer of less than a 2% raise for most union members is effectively agreeing to a pay cut.