The ongoing clash between newsrooms and their unions over the implementation of artificial intelligence escalated Wednesday as workers at ProPublica staged a 24-hour strike.
The union — which includes roughly 150 journalists and business-side staff — has been negotiating its first contract with the company since December 2023. The strike marks the culmination of an increasingly public campaign the union has been waging out of frustration over what they say is ProPublica’s unwillingness to agree to “fair” proposals.
“The decision to strike at all was not something that the unit rushed into,” said environment reporter Mark Olalde. “This was something that only happened because of the absolutely wild length of time that we’ve been negotiating, and, frankly, the intransigence from our senior management to agree to a fair contract.”
The union is seeking seniority protections in the case of layoffs — which it says are increasingly likely in an AI-driven industry — and “just cause,” a basic stipulation that prevents companies from disciplining or firing workers without sufficient reason.
Olalde, who is on the union’s bargaining committee, acknowledged that ProPublica, unlike many media organizations, has never had layoffs. But he said the union wants a system in place to handle layoffs if they do happen, especially since they are a “reality of modern journalism.”
“The reality is, this is journalism in 2026,” Olalde said. “I’m not naive enough to believe that layoffs won’t happen, especially with the industry doing its latest pivot to artificial intelligence.”
That pivot to AI has been a major sticking point in negotiations with ProPublica, mirroring conflicts across the country between newsrooms and their unions. On Tuesday, union leaders at The New York Times sent top leadership a letter over concerns that the company’s AI policies were “woefully inadequate” and had led to errors like a book review that was found to have similar language to that of a Guardian review. The day before, in the wake of news that The Associated Press would be cutting less than 5% of its staff, the wire service’s union representing workers in the U.S. alleged that the company had ignored a request to bargain over AI.
In the past year, unions at McClatchy and Politico have also publicly taken issue with their companies’ AI policies. In the latter case, journalists at Politico won an arbitration case in December that found that Politico had violated the union’s contract by launching two AI products without notifying and consulting the union.
The ProPublica union has made “concession after concession” on AI, Olalde said, yet the company has still not agreed to proposals that would allow the union to have a say in how, why and when AI is implemented.
“I’m asking for things like the ability for my members to say no to using a certain AI tool and not be disciplined for it if they in good faith believe that it would introduce factual inaccuracies into their work, slow down the workflow or break ethical guidelines that the company itself has written,” Olalde said.
A ProPublica spokesperson said that the rapid advancement of AI has made it difficult for the company to agree to certain proposals.
“It’s too soon to know exactly how AI will affect our work. Rather than make promises we can’t responsibly keep, we are exploring how these technologies can create more space for investigative reporting and thinking deeply and creatively, not less.”
The spokesperson added that the company’s proposals on other issues, including just cause, mirror those found in contracts at The Atlantic and The New Yorker.
“ProPublica is committed to reaching a fair and sustainable first contract to cement the strong pay and benefits we’ve always provided our staff.”
Last month, ProPublica published a list of its principles and guardrails regarding the use of AI. The company said it sent those principles to the union’s bargaining committee before publication, and “they offered no meaningful edits.”
But Olalde said the union was not given the ability to actually change or bargain over the policy. On Monday, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, which is responsible for enforcing federal labor law.
“The (ProPublica AI) policies speak not at all about worker protections, job protections, worker input or bargaining ability,” Olalde said. “So that’s a glaring hole.”
The union is also advocating for higher wages for its members, especially those on the business side who tend to make less than the outlet’s journalists and are often required to live in New York City, where ProPublica’s headquarters is. It is also seeking to address pay disparities between national reporters and local reporters, who tend to have lower salaries.
The ProPublica spokesperson said that the outlet’s salaries and benefits “already exceed those of many other news organizations.”
As part of the strike, the union is asking readers not to visit ProPublica’s website. Members also organized picket lines in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Olalde said union members were originally scheduled to appear on a virtual panel ProPublica hosted Wednesday called “How to use our News App of Disclosures from Political Appointees,” but due to the strike, they will not be attending.
“Scabby the Rat” made an appearance at a union picket outside ProPublica’s headquarters in New York City. Unionized ProPublica workers staged a 24-hour strike over the company’s unwillingness to agree to certain worker protections, including those against artificial intelligence and layoffs. (Courtesy: ProPublica Guild)
The Wednesday strike will last just 24 hours, and negotiations are ongoing. But the union has not ruled out the possibility of taking additional strike action in the future if necessary. Last month, 92% of union members voted to give the bargaining committee the ability to call a strike.
Before Olalde joined ProPublica, he was an environmental reporter at USA Today Co., formerly known as Gannett. There, he helped unionize The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California, in December 2020.
Arriving at ProPublica, Olalde thought that dealing with a nonprofit on labor issues would be “vastly different.” While there have been notable differences — and he much prefers dealing with ProPublica — he said he has been “disappointed” in how management at ProPublica have handled some of the negotiations. Other nonprofits, like Grist and CalMatters, have agreed to stronger protections than ProPublica has, Olalde said.
Olalde said some of ProPublica’s positions on AI and job protections closely resemble those of for-profit chains like USA Today Co.
“So they’re not fighting us the same way on wages. They’re not fighting us the same way on benefits, and I’m grateful for that,” Olalde said. “But ProPublica management is not acting like a number of other nonprofit newsrooms, which has surprised me.”