The NewsGuild settled a lawsuit it was facing, agreeing Thursday to donate $10,000 to a nonprofit resource center for Latino immigrants.
That money will be used to train young Latino journalists in Pittsburgh, said independent labor reporter Mike Elk, who sued the guild and its top officers in 2021. In his lawsuit complaint, he alleged that the union and its leaders harassed and assaulted him after he notified them of sexual misconduct allegations against former Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh president Michael Fuoco.
The NewsGuild has repeatedly denied retaliating against Elk. The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability.
“The suit has been a distraction from our work to improve the working conditions of our 26,000 members across North America,” NewsGuild president Jon Schleuss wrote in an email. “With that in mind, we have settled, with no admission of any liability, the suit with Elk and will make a $10,000 donation directly to Casa San José, a nonprofit Elk selected. We are happy to move on and focus our time and efforts on winning contracts and protecting our members.”
Elk said he has partnered with Casa San José to create a fund that will train college journalists and allow them to gain work experience at his online outlet, Payday Report. The Latino population in Pittsburgh is growing, Elk said, and he hopes the money will serve as seed funding for a larger project.
“This lawsuit was about inclusivity,” Elk said. “Being able to take this money and go out and make the media more diverse helps everyone, not just workers of color,” but women, immigrants and people with autism as well, he said.
The settlement came several weeks after the NewsGuild tried to compel Elk to give up his communications with confidential sources who had told him about sexual misconduct issues within the guild. The union also asked for Elk’s correspondence with former New York Times columnist Ben Smith, who broke the news about the allegations against Fuoco. Elk refused both requests for documents, citing the First Amendment and the Pennsylvania Shield Law.
Elk credited Communications Workers of America president Claude Cummings Jr., who was elected in July, for facilitating the settlement. (The CWA is the NewsGuild’s parent union.) Elk said that Cummings told him he had asked the NewsGuild to settle the suit.
“Having to fight this for three years, having to fight to get people to believe you for three years is really challenging,” Elk said. “We took the money, and we did something good. It feels very empowering. It feels like I can move on with my life now.”
