CHICAGO — Workers at the nonprofit journalism lab City Bureau are forming a union and seeking to become a part of the Chicago News Guild, TNG-CWA Local 34071, joining the nationwide labor movement for a stronger media system.
It is as urgent as ever that journalists and practitioners working to address information gaps have a voice to advocate for fairness, accountability and equity. As of July 1, 2025, eligible City Bureau staff—across every department that plays a role in editorial work, programming and the organization’s operations—unanimously signed cards and a mission statement showing their support in forming a union with the NewsGuild-CWA.
The City Bureau Workers Guild has requested the organization’s leadership to voluntarily recognize the union and work with staff to create its first-ever contract. If not recognized voluntarily, workers are seeking an election monitored by the National Labor Relations Board by mail.
In its mission statement, the City Bureau Workers Guild outlined the following organizing principles that are guiding their efforts:
Sustainability & Responsibility
We want to secure a stable future for City Bureau's staff and programs. We advocate for a supportive work environment that equips us to do our best work with pathways to grow, invests in staff wellbeing for the long-term, and includes our inputs to make responsible decisions for the health and sustainability of the organization.
Ethics & Accountability
We recognize that collective action is a meaningful tool to ensure we hold ourselves accountable to the communities we serve. We advocate for robust standards of care that uphold the integrity of our work, and fair and clear mechanisms for staff and community voices to shape organizational decisions that impact us.
Anti-Racism & Intersectionality
We as workers honor City Bureau's founding principles based in racial justice, and we work together through an intersectional lens to dismantle the pillars of white supremacy in the workplace that enable complicity, bias, and unfair treatment. We advocate for policies and systems across the organization that are firmly rooted in anti-racism to further diversity, inclusion and equity.
Respect & Solidarity
We are committed to our collective power. We collaborate with empathy and care to make decisions that enable us to serve people most impacted by oppressive structures. We advocate as a unit to protect the dignity of every worker.
Happy hour with City Bureau Workers Guild.
When: July 1, 2025, starting @ 6 PM
Where: NIghthawk, 4774 N. Kimball
Join us to celebrate our union, show you rsupport and get your own City Bureau Workers Guild merch (available on a sliding scale)!
Linktr.ee/cbworkersguild
new: workers at city bureau, a nonprofit journalism lab, are forming a wall-to-wall union with the chicago news guild.
@cbworkersguild.bsky.social are hosting a community happy hour for supporters and press this evening at nighthawk in albany park.