Idaho Statesman staffers go on strike

BOISE — More than a dozen members of the Idaho Statesman picketed outside their Boise office Tuesday in a one-day strike as union members of the Idaho NewsGuild walked off the job over what they described as a yearlong stalemate in contract negotiations with publishing company McClatchy Media. 

The reporters, photographers and columnists present for the strike marched up and down Park Boulevard, the street outside the Idaho Statesman office, with signs that read "AI guardrails now," "Honk if you hate AI," and "Idaho Strikesman." The group also led chants of "Hey, hey, ho, ho! AI slop has got to go" and called for a fair contract.

The demonstration organized by the Idaho NewsGuild represents 19 Idaho Statesman members. Four Washington-based newsrooms that are part of the Washington State NewsGuild: The Tacoma News Tribune, Bellingham Herald, The Olympian and Tri-City Herald, joined in the Idaho Statesman one-day strike.

Both the Washington and Idaho NewsGuilds have had their previous labor contracts expire for just over a year and are engaged in joint collective bargaining with McClatchy Media, with similar aims to address compensation and the use of artificial intelligence.

Kevin Fixler, an investigative reporter for the Statesman, said the newsroom was operating under the "status quo" of its expired contract while it sought a new three-year contract.

Fixler said the current cost-of-living adjustment hasn't kept up with inflation (the previous contract implemented a 2% wage increase on the anniversaries of ratification), and the union was seeking added "guardrails to ensure a human is always involved" in the reporting process as AI use and investment grow.

The Idaho Statesman staffers began their initial unionization campaign in 2020 after McClatchy filed for bankruptcy. At the time, Statesman journalists cited turnover, pay disparity and rising costs as key concerns that needed to be addressed through unionization.

It was not until 2022 that a three-year contract was agreed upon to address these concerns. That contract expired after May 23, 2025, and Statesman reporters said, just over a year later, negotiations remain at a stalemate.

After a sustained period of high inflation since their first contract, union members said Tuesday they were seeking to address similar cost-of-living concerns while also responding to the growing prevalence of AI in newsrooms. This trend hadn't yet fully emerged when their prior contract was signed. 

"We've tried to tell them that reporters need to pick up second jobs just to get by," Michael Lycklama, a sports writer and chair of the Idaho NewsGuild, said. "Despite all this, McClatchy continues to reject our very modest demands, which are wages should keep up with inflation and that ethics and standards apply to AI too."

Lycklama and Fixler said McClatchy leadership has yet to come to the bargaining table. The Idaho and Washington state NewsGuilds have said the refusal to bring forward or identify decision-makers for bargaining violates federal law, and both unions have filed Unfair Labor Practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. 

Earlier this month, the Statesman joined other news organizations under McClatchy Media — including the Miami Herald and the Sacramento Bee — to withhold bylines from AI rewrites of news stories, a development previously reported by the New York Times. 

"We refuse to let them use our names to launder credibility to this AI tool that we are finding errors in constantly," Lycklama said. "And historically we have published false information in the Idaho Statesman because of AI. We said a local brewery closed when it had not and we never ran a correction for that, we just deleted it."

Rather than remove AI use entirely, Lycklama said a central aim of the contract negotiation is to ensure content published with AI assistance is held to the same ethical standards as reporters: that this content receives fact-checking, corrections and other oversight expected with standard reporting. 

Lycklama said the strike also arrives as reporters have been asked to increase their byline output by 20% compared to the previous year, a request he said is being attached to a proposed 2% wage increase. While there has been progress in certain areas of the negotiation process, Lycklama said wages were the main area where the company has "dug in its heels" and been unwilling to acquiesce.

The union is currently seeking a wage increase that roughly tracks inflation, since the previous contract was signed in May 2022. Lycklama said one of the union's asks is for $53,000 in pay for current employees, with a 7% increase at signing, an increase he said is intended to make up for the gap in take-home pay lost to inflation since then. 

"The Idaho Statesman dates back to 1864 before our state was even founded," Lycklama said. "... We are striking today to tell McClatchy that this newspaper matters, this community matters and we matter."

A McClatchy representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the one-day strike and the status of contract negotiations.