A collaboration beer between FlyteCo Brewing and the Denver Newspaper Guild is launching to grow support for local journalism at a release party on December 8, 2022, at the FlyteCo Brewery Denver location at 4499 W 38th Ave. #101.
Join newspaper personnel, craft beer brewers, and beer lovers to quench your thirst and raise awareness about local journalists’ vital role in communities. Journalists deserve fair wages for their work and continue to negotiate for the work they do.
Why Are They Collaborating?
The collaboration with FlyteCo Brewing and the Denver Newspaper Guild’s beer release called The Thirst Amendment is a black IPA that will be available a week before the guild’s next bargaining session on December 14.
Happy hour pricing on pours of the specialty release start at 5 p.m. on December 8, and you’ll have access to the Denver Post’s journalists to talk about their work.
The Thirst Amendment Collaboration seeks to raise awareness about the vital role journalists play in keeping people informed of what is happening in their communities. From the reporters who dig and write stories to the photographers who show first-hand accounts of breaking news and feature stories, to the editors and supporting staff that ensure the content is accurate and clean, the people who deliver news are generally woefully underpaid for the work they do.
In May, representatives of the newsroom and non-newsroom guild negotiated a new employment contract with corporate management asking for higher compensation. They have failed to reach an agreement on wages to this date.
As a society, most of us agree that wages in the United States have not kept pace with the cost-of-living or inflation. The pandemic, rising health care costs, staggering inflation, slow Fed-tightening policies, and a lack of care for workers by employers have left many professional employees, like those in newsrooms scraping to survive.
The last time the Denver newsroom received across-the-board raises was in 2016.
For Denver journalists or newspaper workers, where the cost of living outpaces salary, the negotiations are necessary. The median price of a single-family home is up by 71 percent and the average cost to rent an apartment is up by almost 37 percent. With added increases in inflation, rising health care costs, the lack of matching 401Ks, and other expenses, journalists are surviving rather than surviving.
Support Journalism? Why?
“In the eight years I’ve been at The Denver Post, our staff has covered wildfires across Colorado, gone to active crime scenes near our homes, inhaled tear gas, entered COVID wards and so much more. My colleagues’ dedication to covering this city and state has never wavered and it’s well past time for those efforts to be rewarded with raises that allow us to keep up with the cost of living here,” said Joe Rubino, Denver Post reporter and chair of the newsroom bargaining unit. “We hope the community will come out and support us as we ask for a fair contract. And enjoy some great beer too.”
Morgan O’Sullivan, co-owner of FlyteCo Brewing said, “Journalists play an invaluable role in our communities, and we wanted to collaborate with this bargaining collective to give them an even bigger platform in getting their message out. This campaign goes beyond politics – these writers and photographers deserve to be fairly compensated in order to continue to tell the stories of Denver and beyond.”
FlyteCo Brewing opened in March 2019 in the Berkeley neighborhood with five beers at the aviation-themed brewery that support people to strive for aviation jobs. The owners, O’Sullivan, Eric Serani, and head brewer, Jason Slingsby bonded over an equal love of homebrewing and aviation.
Email the Denver Post Management to show support for the Denver Newspaper Guild through the Action Network and consider subscribing to the Denver Post to show that you share these community values and the work of local journalists.
The Denver Newspaper Guild Local 37074 is a union of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska newspaper employees working for unions and nonprofit organizations in the state. The Denver Newspaper Guild includes the Pueblo Chieftain, The Casper Star-Tribune, The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions, United for a New Economy (UNE), Denver Area Labor Federation (DALF), and Colorado Jobs with Justice (COJWJ).
FlyteCo Brewing now has two Denver locations and is known for supporting local causes through collaborations and scholarships.
Support local journalism.
Cheers!