Workers at local newspapers owned by Hearst allege the company is trying to “destroy unions” amid claims of widespread anti-union tactics, including violating union contracts and bad-faith bargaining.

The Albany Newspaper Guild, which represents the Times Union newspaper in Albany, New York, said it’s been more than 17 years since the union had a contract and there has been little progress toward reaching a new one.

Wendy Liberatore, president of the Albany Newspaper Guild and the Saratoga county reporter at the Times Union, said the lack of pay increases at the newspaper has burdened employees who struggle to afford a higher cost of living, including higher deductibles for their healthcare plan. She also said that workers are concerned about Hearst eventually outsourcing jobs to AI.

“What bothers me is the effect on our members. It really hurts our members,” she said.

Liberatore noted the issue is seen across Hearst publications across the country. “Hearst newspaper management – in Albany, Connecticut, Austin and Dallas – is doing its best to destroy unions at its papers,” she said.

The Hearst Corporation owns 30 daily newspapers and 50 weekly newspapers across the US, and is one of the largest media companies in the world. The company reported record revenues and profits in 2025, with revenue growing 3% to $13.5bn. Hearst employs about 2,500 workers at its newspapers.

The Albany Newspaper Guild is one of five guilds representing workers at local newspapers in Connecticut, Texas, New York and California that have filed formal complaints against Hearst for unfair labor practices.

In a statement, Hearst said the company cannot comment on pending unfair labor practice complaints but is “committed to good faith bargaining and have actively met with union representatives across our properties for years”.

“Hearst Newspapers stands out among peers for maintaining competitive and sustainable wages and benefits. We have maintained an annual merit cycle for many years, and all union-represented employees who meet performance expectations have received increases even during contract negotiations. Claims of stagnant wages are simply inaccurate,” a spokesperson for Hearst Newspapers said.

The spokesperson also noted that Hearst has “a strict policy governing the use of artificial intelligence in our newsrooms, and it always operates with human oversight”.

When Hearst acquired the Austin American-Statesman in Texas in February 2025, the company discarded the contract that the workers with the Austin NewsGuild had reached with Gannett, the paper’s previous owner, in 2024.

Nicole Villalpando, chair of the Austin NewsGuild and a health reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, said that after the acquisition, workers lost the pay raise guarantees and bolstered benefits they had in their contract with Gannett.

Hearst “basically took the worst parts of our Gannett contract and the worst parts of Hearst policy” when setting out new terms with employees, Villalpando said.

Workers with the Austin NewsGuild have been raising money for a potential strike as the union has not reached a new deal with Hearst.

In a statement, the company said it gave Austin American-Statesman employees a sign-on bonus, along with increasing the newsroom minimum salary and other benefits, after the acquisition.

Meanwhile, workers with the Dallas News Guild, which represents the Dallas Morning News, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming that Hearst violated the union contract after it laid off 26 employees in November, two months after it acquired the publication. The Dallas News Guild contract remains in place but is set to expire 30 June.

“These Hearst units, we talk to each other, we know what each of us are proposing and what the responses have been like, and it hasn’t been very encouraging,” said Zaira Perez Viera, a Dallas News Guild member and journalist at the Dallas Morning News. “It takes a lot of heart and strength to be able to stand up with your co-workers to say you want something better for yourselves, just to be able to continue to do the work that you’re doing, and hope that you build a place where others of the future can still be coming here to do journalism.”

“Realistically, how many of us can keep doing this if we don’t make enough money to be able to thrive in a place like Dallas-Fort Worth?” she added.

In a statement, Hearst said the layoffs “involved roles that were affected by the integration into our centralized page design and pagination team”, and that the company opened 18 new positions that the affected employees were encouraged to apply for.

In Connecticut, more than 100 workers at Hearst Connecticut Media Group unionized in May 2025, with nearly 80% voting in favor, though Hearst initially delayed the union election by challenging the scope of the unit.

Though the NLRB dismissed Hearst’s objection to the election results in March, the board has not yet responded to numerous unfair labor practice complaints the Connecticut guild filed against the company alleging refusal to bargain, retaliation and unilateral changes to working conditions.

“It’s been a lot of stalling,” said Brian Zahn, unit chair of the Connecticut News Guild and a municipal government reporter at the Hearst Connecticut Media Group. But he remains hopeful that workers will be able to fight for a contract.

Zahn noted their first bargaining date is scheduled for 1 June, “almost two years after we had first went public with our union drive”, he added. “Since then, our unit has remained strong. We’re very excited to bargain a first contract.”

In a statement, Hearst said it will “come to the table in good faith” with the Connecticut NewsGuild in June.