The Chicago News Guild
Who We Are
The Chicago News Guild
The Chicago News Guild is a union made up of more than 600 members! Many work at the Chicago area’s top news outlets. Others work as interpreters in the Cook County court system. Some work as staff at unions and progressive non-profit organizations across Chicagoland. You might have seen some of our members at public events.
The Chicago Guild is a member-led union: officers in each unit of our local and the local itself all are elected directly by members. We offer training and workshops to empower members to fight for themselves in their shops, with robust support from our local staff, the staff and officers of our international unions; The NewsGuild and the Communications Workers of America.
Our members all do essential work in mission-driven fields: helping the needy; building a just and equitable society; and informing the public and holding the powerful to account— and in our roles as union leaders in our community, we strive to do the same.
Your workplace would be a better place to work if you and your co-workers have a collective voice and stand together to fight for the things you need.
CNG leadership & staff at 2023 retreat.
TNG-CWA
The Chicago Guild Local 34017 TNG-CWA is one of 1,200 independent locals of The NewsGuild and the Communications Workers of America.
The NewsGuild (TNG), is one of the fastest-growing, hardest fighting unions in North America, having added more than 7,000 members in 145 new shops in the last five years! Most of this growth was lead by trained member-organizers who are eager to share the Guild’s vision of a member-led union.
Chicago News Guild delegates at the 2023 Sector Conference.
TNG shops don’t stop fighting after an organizing drive. Guild shops have gone out on strike more than 50 times in just the last two years— and our union provides a slate of skill-building workshops, led by actual members who have put their training to the test in their workplace and on the picket lines.
Being part of the 700,000 members of CWA gives our members access to the resources of one of America’s largest labor unions: corporate research and policy advice; legal advice and litigation support; union grants for organizing and bargaining that brought more than $2 million in support to our local over the last five years. CWA has a strike fund of nearly $400 million and counts among its members some of the most dynamic figures in the labor movement, including Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants..
The Chicago News Guild is part of Region 6 of TNG and District 4 of CWA. Every two years, Chicago News Guild delegates participate in the Sector Conference and the CWA Convention where democracy is the key feature.