Solidarity TK

Solidarity TK is a community memory project and digital archive that aims to tell the story of the last decade of labor organizing within New York City-based news publications. Developed in collaboration with journalists and media union members, this website will include photographs of objects like posters, buttons, T-shirts, and other ephemera along with oral history-style interviews with organizers about their experiences, memories, and reflections on the movement.

Over the past decade, a slew of newsrooms have unionized, creating a historic wave of labor organization in the journalism field. More than 200 union drives have gotten off the ground since 2015, and around 90% of them have been successful. At the same time, news producers face unprecedented challenges in the industry: inadequate funding models, waning public trust, encroaching tech platforms and companies, and attacks on First Amendment rights. In the current media landscape, labor issues could not be more pressing. Journalists are unionizing not only to protect themselves as workers, but ultimately to protect journalism itself. In news lingo, “TK” is shorthand for “to come.” In developing this archive, I hope we can document the solidarity that has already been forged among media workers and speculate on coalitions yet to be built.