The vast majority of newsroom employees in the Rockford Register Star newsroom signed authorization cards last week seeking representation from the United Media Guild.
The UMG asked Register Star to recognize our union and begin collective bargaining. We expect GateHouse Media will opt for a National Labor Relations Board- supervised election this summer.
This process will give these journalists their opportunity to vote in Guild. Once that happens, we will begin bargaining a first contract for the Register Star and its associated publication, the Freeport Journal-Standard.
The UMG represents employees at three other GateHouse newspapers, the Peoria Journal Star, the Pekin Daily Times and State Journal-Register in Springfield. We are currently negotiating a first contract with at the Journal-Register, when journalists voted in the Guild by a 26-4 margin.