LaborPress

LaborPress is an independent labor news network based in New York City, publishing daily coverage of workers, unions, and the world of work at laborpress.org. Founded in 2009 by educator and union advocate Neal Tepel, it has grown from a scrappy city outlet into a national platform producing articles, podcasts, radio segments, and events. LaborPress holds a distinction it says is unique in American journalism: it operates as a union-shop newsroom, with its staff represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). In October 2025, the organization marked its 15th anniversary, celebrating a decade and a half as what it calls America's voice of working people.

What Is LaborPress

LaborPress describes itself as an independent news organization dedicated to workers, unions, and the world of work. Its coverage centers on the issues that shape working life — jobsite safety, contract negotiations, organizing drives, apprenticeship and training programs, pensions and benefits, and the workplace effects of public policy — subjects it argues are routinely overlooked by mainstream outlets. The network publishes daily news stories alongside video features, podcasts, and on-air radio content, and it hosts events that bring together labor leaders, workers, and policymakers. Its tagline, "the voice of labor," reflects an editorial stance that is openly pro-worker rather than neutral.

Founding: Neal Tepel and New York City in 2009

LaborPress was founded in 2009 by Neal Tepel, a longtime educator and union advocate. Tepel started the publication in New York City, a city where, in the organization's telling, union roots run deep and the stakes of fair work are always high. The founding premise was straightforward: working people deserved a news outlet that showed up for them every day, listened carefully, reported faithfully, and amplified both the victories and the challenges of unions and workers across every industry. From that local beginning, LaborPress expanded its ambitions and its audience, becoming a national platform while keeping its editorial focus on labor.

The Union-Shop Newsroom

The organization's signature distinction is its labor practices: the LaborPress network is a union shop, with its newsroom staff represented by OPEIU, the Office and Professional Employees International Union. LaborPress says it is the only labor news organization in the country that operates this way. The point is both practical and symbolic — a publication that reports on labor standards, contract fights, and workplace rights holds itself to the same standards it covers. For readers, advertisers, and union partners, the union-shop status functions as a credential: the newsroom does not merely report on the labor movement, it participates in it.

What LaborPress Covers

LaborPress's beat is the world of work in its full breadth. Its reporters cover strikes and picket lines, union organizing campaigns at companies large and small, contract ratifications and rejections, workplace safety enforcement, and disputes over wages, benefits, and pensions. The outlet also covers the institutions of the labor movement itself — union conventions, leadership elections, apprenticeship programs, and labor-backed legislation. Coverage extends across industries, from construction and manufacturing to health care, education, public employment, and the service sector. The through line is a focus on how policy and economic decisions translate into kitchen-table reality for working people.

Multiformat: Articles, Podcasts, Radio, and Events

Over its fifteen years, LaborPress broadened from a text-based publication into a multiformat news service. In addition to daily articles on its website, it produces podcasts and radio segments carrying labor news to audio audiences, video features profiling workers and union campaigns, and live events that convene the labor community. This multiformat approach reflects both the fragmentation of media consumption and the organization's ambition to reach workers where they are — on the job site, in the car, or at union halls — rather than expecting them to come to a single website. The events business also gives the outlet a convening role within the labor movement beyond journalism.

Reaching Millions

LaborPress says its reporting connects millions of readers, listeners, and viewers with the people and ideas shaping work in America. The outlet's growth from a New York City startup to a national platform tracked the broader resurgence of labor journalism and labor activism in the 2010s and 2020s, a period that saw high-profile organizing drives at Amazon and Starbucks, major strikes in autos and entertainment, and renewed public approval of unions. LaborPress positioned itself as the dedicated chronicler of that resurgence, offering unions and workers a sympathetic press at a moment when mainstream coverage of labor was expanding but remained episodic.

Fifteen Years: The 2025 Milestone

In October 2025, LaborPress celebrated its 15th anniversary, marking the occasion with special stories, podcasts, and events looking back on a decade and a half of labor coverage. Founder and publisher Neal Tepel used the milestone to restate the organization's founding promise: to show up every day for working people, report faithfully, and amplify the victories and challenges of unions and workers across every industry. The anniversary served as both a celebration and a statement of durability — independent labor media is a difficult business, and fifteen years of continuous publication represents a significant achievement for a niche outlet.

Why Labor News Needs a Dedicated Outlet

LaborPress's reason for existing is a critique of mainstream news priorities. General-interest outlets cover strikes when they disrupt commutes and contracts when they involve famous companies, but the day-to-day machinery of the labor movement — local union elections, apprenticeship graduations, safety grievances, pension fund stewardship — rarely makes the news. LaborPress argues that this coverage gap leaves workers without the information they need and leaves the public with a distorted picture of unions. A dedicated labor press, in this view, is not a luxury but a democratic necessity: workers cannot participate fully in economic debates without journalism that treats their concerns as central rather than marginal.

LaborPress in the Broader Labor Media Landscape

LaborPress operates within a wider ecosystem of labor-focused media that includes long-running publications, union-produced communications, and newer digital outlets. What distinguishes it is the combination of editorial independence — it is not owned by any union — and its unionized newsroom, a pairing it presents as the best of both worlds: free to cover the labor movement critically, while practicing the solidarity it preaches. As debates continue over the future of work, from artificial intelligence to gig employment to the next wave of organizing, LaborPress has positioned itself to keep covering the story it was founded to tell — the story of working people, told from their side of the bargaining table.

How to Follow LaborPress

Readers can find LaborPress's daily coverage at laborpress.org, where the site publishes news stories, opinion pieces, and multimedia features. The outlet also maintains an active presence on social media, where it promotes breaking labor stories and event announcements to its national audience of union members and labor advocates. The organization also distributes its podcasts and radio segments through audio platforms and promotes its events to the labor community in New York and nationally. For unions seeking coverage of their campaigns, for workers wanting news that treats their issues as front-page material, and for anyone tracking the state of the American labor movement, LaborPress offers a dedicated, union-practicing newsroom that has spent fifteen years arguing that the labor movement's story is America's story.