The state’s largest news organization, VTDigger, and the union representing its newsroom have agreed on a new contract providing substantial pay raises for journalists and strict rules on the future use of AI.
The two sides reached a tentative agreement last month but announced the details of the deal on Wednesday in a post on the online news site.
Highlights of the four-year contract include a 33 percent increase in pay for the newsroom’s lowest-paid workers, an increase to 34 paid days off per year, and up to $300 per employee for professional development.
But one of the biggest issues and the main sticking point during the lengthy negotiations was whether VTDigger management could decide to use artificial intelligence — and if so under what conditions.
Managers wanted to retain the right to use AI in the future, but union members, fearing job losses and damage to the site’s credibility, took a hard line against it.
Facing an impasse over the issue earlier this year, newsroom employees went public with their concerns, warning of “AI slop” replacing human-generated news stories and urging people to reach out to VTDigger’s leadership to express opposition.
Reporters, photographers and editors even handed out literature about their concerns in front of the Vermont Statehouse.
VTDigger CEO Sky Barsch, reportedly exasperated by the union’s tactics, announced at the end of January that she will step down in June. Editor in chief Geeta Anand announced in early March that she, too, will step down in June.
Both had been named in union literature pressuring management over the AI issue.
The final agreement contains a number of terms on the future use of generative AI. This includes giving the union 60 days’ notice of any plans to use AI if it will have a “meaningful impact” on the employment of guild members.
The union will also have the right to negotiate AI usage with management, and journalists will be able to withhold their bylines from stories or raise ethical objections to the use of AI in their stories.
A committee will also be formed to make recommendations for VTDigger’s AI usage policy.
“The policy will include an editorial review process to determine which editorial content is subject to the policy and an acknowledgement that generative AI tools do not adequately substitute for human judgment in the creation, distribution and promotion of journalism,” the site reported in its story on the agreement.
“We’re proud to reach an agreement that reflects our shared commitment to fair pay, professional growth, and a strong newsroom,” Barsch said in a statement. “As a nonprofit newsroom, every dollar we raise is reinvested in our work — including supporting the people who make our journalism possible and serve Vermonters every day.”
The contract is between the nonprofit Vermont Journalism Trust, which runs VTDigger, and the VTDigger Guild, a unit of the Providence Newspaper Guild.
“We’re grateful to VTDigger’s leaders for meeting us at the table so we could arrive at this deal together,” said Erin Petenko, cochair of the guild. “This package will support the reporters who produce VTDigger’s journalism every day by building on the important rights and benefits included in the first contract. Because of that, it will make our journalism stronger.”
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