This paper explores trade unions’ relationship to the notions of journalistic professionalism through a historical study of journalists and news workers unions in newspapers in the east Indian city of Kolkata. Much of the literature on the challenges that contemporary journalists face accords with experiences in India: the proliferation of digital ICTs; media concentration and conglomeration; and the rise of contractual employment and decreased collective power of journalists, which have been associated with a loss of bargaining power in newsrooms and the erosion of professional autonomy.