The Los Angeles Times Guild is the labor union representing the employees of the Los Angeles Times. Founded in 2018 in response to changes in the paper’s employment policies and management, the Guild negotiated a contract for its members that gave employees an average raise of $11,000. ¹ However, since then, the Times has steadily laid off staff despite resistance from the Guild at the behest of owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who subsidizes the paper’s operations with his personal fortune. ²

The Los Angeles Times Guild is a chapter of the Media Guild of the West, officially called NewsGuild-CWA 39213. ³

Founding

The Los Angeles Times Guild was formed in January 2018 when Los Angeles Times journalists voted to unionize. ³ In 2016, the paper had instituted a new policy that effectively eliminated accrued vacation days. In early January 2018, Times CEO Ross Levinsohn faced two sexual harassment allegations from workers at other companies, and numerous Times employees (who formed the Guild) organized to advocate for his dismissal. Finally, the Guild was aware of attempts by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong to purchase the Times, which he successfully did in June 2018 for $500 million. ^{4 3 1 2}

Union advocates reportedly campaigned on pursuing higher pay, equal pay for women and minorities, and lower health care costs. ⁴

According to the New York Times, the unionization was strongly opposed by the Los Angeles Times’ management, which had historically opposed unionization all the way back to the 1910s when labor agitators bombed the paper’s headquarters. ⁴

2019 Contract

In October 2019, the Los Angeles Times Guild voted to approve its first collective bargaining agreement. The agreement brought an average pay raise of $11,000 per employee, higher pay minimums for all positions including higher minimums based on experience, limits on the company’s ability to outsource to non-union labor, restrictions on work quotas, public transport subsidies, and protections against health care cost increases. The agreement also instituted “a stronger version of the NFL’s Rooney Rule,” which requires managers to conduct at least two job interviews for each position with women, racial minorities, ethnic minorities, or LGBT persons. After the agreement was signed, the Guild’s co-chair, Anthony Pesce, described the Guild as starting as a “small rebellion,” but with its first victory, he saw “many other newsrooms across the country join our fight.” ¹

Intellectual Property Dispute

During contract negotiations, Los Angeles Times management proposed a policy that the intellectual property of its journalists would be owned by the Times, effectively giving the paper ownership over any books or blog posts written by Times journalists outside the purview of their employment. The proposal was strongly opposed by the Guild and ultimately rejected. ^{5 6}

2023-2024 Layoffs

In June 2023, the Los Angeles Times launched a round of journalist layoffs. By the end of the year, 70 positions, or 13 percent of the journalist staff, had been cut. ²

In January 2024, the Times announced to its employees that it was initiating another round of layoffs, this time of a “significant” number of its journalists, likely around 20 percent. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong requested that the Los Angeles Times Guild relax its seniority employment protections so the paper could lay off more experienced and higher-paid staffers; in return, Soon-Shiong offered more generous buy-out packages. ²

According to Times reporting, the layoffs were designed to cut costs to balance “losses that owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family […] absorbed since acquiring the paper nearly six years ago.” Soon-Shiong has acknowledged that his personal wealth subsidizes the Times’ operations, which lost $30 to $40 million in 2023. ^{7 2}

Shortly before the cuts were announced, executive editor Kevin Kerida resigned “amid tensions with Soon-Shiong,” though the resignation was likely also motivated by a dispute between Kerida and a group of Times staff that Merida removed from Israel-Palestine coverage after they criticized the paper for being biased in favor of Israel. ²

In response to the announced layoffs in January, the Guild organized a one-day walkout involving 300 employees that stalled production of the Times newspaper for the first time in its 142-year history. ⁷

Soon after, 115 employees were laid off. ⁸

2025 Layoffs

In May 2025, the Los Angeles Times laid off 14 members of the Los Angeles Times Guild, representing six percent of the newsroom. The Guild blamed the cuts on “a stubborn reliance on ever-declining print revenue; a leadership team without a business plan; and a subscriber exodus.” ⁹

1. “L.A. Times journalists ratify groundbreaking first contract.” Los Angeles Times Guild. October 31, 2019. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://latguild.com/news/2019/10/31/la-times-journalists-ratify-groundbreaking-first-contract.
2. James, Meg. “L.A. Times Guild calls for one-day strike to protest looming staff cuts.” Los Angeles Times. January 18, 2024. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-18/la-times-guild-calls-for-one-day-walkout-to-protest-looming-staff-cuts.
3. “About Us.” Los Angeles Times Guild. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://latguild.com/about.
4. Ember, Sydney. “Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave.” New York Times. January 19, 2018. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/business/media/los-angeles-times-union.html.
5. “Los Angeles Times Wants Rights to Books Written by Staff.” The Authors Guild. February 27, 2019. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://authorsguild.org/news/los-angeles-times-wants-rights-to-books-written-by-staff/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20nation’s%20leading,works%20belong%20to%20their%20authors..
6. “An open letter to Los Angeles Times management about its intellectual property proposals.” Los Angeles Times Guild. February 13, 2019. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://latguild.com/news/2019/2/13/open-letter-intellectual-property.
7. Zhu, Christine. “L.A. Times union walks out in protest of ‘substantial’ coming job cuts.” Politico. January 19, 2024. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/19/la-times-union-walkout-00136655.
8. “L.A. Times to lay off at least 115 people in the newsroom.” Los Angeles Times. January 23, 2024. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong.
9. “Guild statement on more layoffs at the L.A. Times.” Los Angeles Times Guild. May 2, 2025. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://latguild.com/news/2025/5/2/guild-statement-on-more-layoffs-at-the-la-times.