The Salt Lake Tribune’s management and the union that represents its employees have negotiated the first labor contract in the newspaper’s 155-year history.
Members of the Salt Lake News Guild — which includes employees of The Tribune, and the Tribune-owned Times-Independent of Moab and the Southern Utah Tribune — ratified the two-year agreement, and The Tribune’s Board of Directors voted to approve the contract. Both votes were unanimous.
Guild members and Lauren Gustus, The Tribune’s executive editor and CEO, officially signed the contract Monday.
In a joint statement released Monday, management and the Guild said the collective bargaining agreement came about through “a respectful and thoughtful bargaining process.”
The joint statement, which expressed gratitude “to all employees of The Salt Lake Tribune for the dedication they bring to our journalism every day,” said both sides “look forward to diving in on critical work together, ahead of The Tribune removing its paywall in 2026.”
Andy Larsen, Tribune sports and data reporter and a member of the Guild’s bargaining committee, said in a statement Monday that the Guild believes “this contract adds significantly to the long-term strength and stability of The Tribune and for the workers who make independent news in Utah possible.”
Gustus said in a statement that “this agreement reflects our shared commitment to The Tribune’s mission and to the people who make that work possible. We appreciate the time, care and professionalism shown by representatives on both sides of the table throughout negotiations.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Tribune bargaining committee signs the union contract for employees on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.
The agreement provides a $60,000 minimum annual salary for all bargaining unit employees, according to the annual report, except for staff at the Times-Independent in Moab, where the minimum is $54,000. More tenured employees will receive higher minimum salaries.
Other employee benefits in the contract include:
• Guaranteed cost-of-living raises, with an additional merit pay component — with the opportunity of pay increases up to 5% a year if all goals are met.
• Employee protections in the use of quantitative metrics — meaning, for example, that reporters cannot be fired or disciplined based solely on the number of pageviews their stories get.
• Limits on the use of A.I. in creating news content, and that employees will be involved in the decisions about how to implement A.I.
• A seat for a Guild representative to attend Tribune Board of Directors’ meetings.
Tribune reporter Paighten Harkins, another member of the Guild’s negotiating committee, said in a statement that Tribune workers “wanted to ensure a supportive workplace, where talent is nurtured and cultivated and staff is paid enough so that our chief concern is how to best cover Utah — not how to afford to live here.”
Harkins added that “we rejected discipline over page views, and we wanted a seat at the board table where decisions are made. With this contract, we got all that and more.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Members of the Salt Lake News Guild’s Bargaining Committee, including reporter Paighten Harkins, pictured. met with Salt Lake Tribune CEO Lauren Gustus on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, at The Tribune offices to sign and ratify The Salt Lake Tribune’s first union contract. The signing marked a milestone in The Tribune’s 155-year history and was unanimously approved by newsroom staff and The Tribune's Board of Directors.
In a message to staff Monday, Gustus said that while the agreement only covers Guild members, “many provisions of the contract will be implemented across The Tribune.”
In a statement, Gustus expressed thanks to the Tribune’s Board of Directors, “whose guidance and encouragement helped us reach a constructive outcome.”
Tribune employees announced in July 2024 that they intended to form a union, in a letter to management that 70% of eligible employees signed. The new Salt Lake News Guild asked management to recognize the union voluntarily — eliminating the need to ask the federal National Labor Relations Board to conduct a union election. Tribune management recognized the union a week later.
Representatives on both sides talked for 16 months — usually meeting early in the morning, so negotiations wouldn’t cut into work shifts.
Larsen said the Guild thanked Tribune management “for working in good faith at the bargaining table with us. These negotiations never fell to impasse or disarray thanks to a commitment to fair discussion and give-and-take from both sides.”