McClatchy refuses to give reporter paid parental leave — even when employees offer to donate sick days

Last year, after weeks of pressure from Herald journalists, McClatchy promised to rectify its decades of neglect of the needs of parents who work here: Finally agreeing to grant paid parental leave, years after most in our industry had already done so.

Today, on Mother’s Day, we’re still waiting for McClatchy to keep its promise. But this has now become urgent. A new mother who works in our newsroom is being denied paid family leave and has been forced to go on short-term disability after recently giving birth.

At a recent bargaining session, McClatchy explicitly acknowledged that it was choosing to withhold this benefit from our colleague because it sees her as a bargaining chip — an attempt to divide us and pressure us into accepting the company’s harmful proposals as we negotiate our first contract.

Faced with this injustice, 94 of us offered to donate 1,424 hours of our accrued sick leave and other paid time off, a total of almost 6 months, so this new mother could spend time with her baby. But McClatchy rejected our proposal.

The company claimed our offer to donate paid time off did not fit within its “policy,” even though newspapers in the McClatchy chain that are not unionized are now benefiting from the parental leave One Herald Guild members advocated for.

McClatchy is playing games with people’s lives with its overbearing bargaining tactics. For more than a year, as we have been negotiating our first contract, their tactics have increasingly involved this kind of bullying at the expense of union members — all while the company drags its feet in responding to our wage proposal and numerous other items.

McClatchy CEO Tony Hunter said last year that supporting new parents was a top priority for him. But actions speak louder than words. Denying our colleague the leave she needs to spend time with her new baby, and openly admitting it’s just a negotiating tactic, is nothing short of cruel and hypocritical.

Sadly, this is nothing new. For decades, new parents at McClatchy have had to use their sick time or short-term disability to spend the crucial first few months with their newborns. Historically, the decision to have children while working at McClatchy has disproportionately affected women and their careers. Some have been forced to leave journalism altogether.

Many women have taken their talents to other media companies that have better, more competitive benefits than McClatchy does. We lose young, diverse talent this way. It has to stop.

And now, a veteran reporter at McClatchy has used all of her sick and vacation time and may have no option but to take unpaid leave after McClatchy refused to give her a benefit that our CEO claimed was a top priority.

Happy Mother’s Day, McClatchy! #PayOurParents