I want a Guild with Jon's spirit of fight on my side

My name is Peter Nickeas. I'm a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and I helped organize the Chicago Tribune Guild. For the health of our industry and for our newly organized colleagues across the country, I'm asking you to vote for Jon Schleuss.

We organized Chicago in three months. Close to three hundred members, 85 percent signing cards, in three months. We couldn't have done that without Jon's guidance.

Before we were public, and before our first all-call meeting, Jon met with Chicago organizers to explain the work he and others did in LA. The timing here is important: LA had organized, but the wave that was to follow hadn't started yet. And Jon had pressing work in LA but still made time to help us learn from their mistakes.

You’re leaders, he told us. Stand strong for your people. Plant your feet. It's your newsroom, it's not Tronc's newsroom. Put your name on your work. Fight for your journalism. Your colleagues will see the strength of your group and be emboldened - your group needs to move as one, as one force of nature through your newsroom.

The morning we went public, it was a proud morning for me. There were a lot of moving parts, but it was like Chicago Tribune Guild was born into the world a fully-formed organization. We anticipated in the neighborhood of 65% support when we went public, but we ended around 85%. Our going-public plan, and messaging, were both informed by Jon's guidance, and developing that plan with Jon's guidance led to greater support in our group.

We were voluntarily recognized in the spring of 2018. We recently started bargaining. The nature of union work and advocacy for our members is too serious to demand anything less - the quality of our organization has financial and career implications for our members. The ability to stay in this industry depends on the strength of first contracts for newly organized shops across the country.

I want a guild with Jon's spirit of fight on my side. We're fighting our companies, and often fighting a lack of transparency. We need a strong advocate for our work. The importance of this is too serious to demand anything less.