Author: NewsGuild of New York

Vote follows management illegally changing workers’ health care and a proposal in April to lay off 20% of bargaining unit

Insider Union announced today that a supermajority of union members voted in favor of authorizing their bargaining committee to call a strike. Members are calling for the company to bargain in good faith and are protesting management’s decision to illegally change workers’ health care. Members are also demanding a resolution to a proposed layoff that would reduce the newsroom by 20 percent, as they are bargaining for a fair first contract. The nearly 300 members of the Insider Union are represented by The NewsGuild of New York.

94 percent voted in favor of strike authorization on Tuesday afternoon after a bargaining session with Insider management. 80 percent of the bargaining unit participated in the vote.

Continue reading “Insider Union votes to authorize a strike”

Five-year contract includes immediate $65,000 salary floor, hybrid work options, a ban on NDAs, new investments in local news around the country

Agreement reached after a series of escalating collective actions by workers, including the first full work stoppage since the 1970s

NEW YORK — The New York Times Guild, a unit of The NewsGuild of New York, announced on Tuesday that it has reached a tentative agreement with The New York Times Company on a new collective bargaining contract after more than two years of negotiations. The tentative agreement, which must be ratified by members to go into effect, is a five-year deal that will be effective until March 2026.

The agreement will set new standards for working conditions, wages and benefits across the media industry. The deal addresses a majority of the provisions that Times workers have demanded since their previous contract expired in March 2021, at the height of the pandemic. 

Continue reading “New York Times Guild wins groundbreaking contract agreement”

The NewsGuild of New York released the following statement from President Susan DeCarava in response to an announcement from BuzzFeed News that it will be shutting down its operations:

“We’re deeply dismayed by the announced closing of this groundbreaking digital newsroom. Dozens of journalists represented by The NewsGuild of New York work at BuzzFeed News, and we are concerned both about their future and the broader impact of this announcement on the media industry at large.

The collective bargaining contract that the BuzzFeed News Union won in 2021 includes a number of protections to ensure workers aren’t left with nothing in case of sudden layoffs. We expect that BuzzFeed will honor those commitments now, and we are prepared to enforce the terms of that contract if they don’t.

Today’s news demonstrates why it’s so important for media workers to unionize. Corporate bottom lines privilege profitability all the time. As a union, our collective bottom line is to the workers who made BuzzFeed News the innovative news organization it is, and to the communities and public interest that the newsroom and our members serve. There are real life consequences when management favors short-term returns over long-term investments. That’s why we fight hard for contracts that provide protections and support for workers unfairly left holding the bag from a company’s questionable decisions.”

Continue reading “NewsGuild of New York responds to the shutdown of BuzzFeed News”

For immediate release: February 8, 2023
Media contact: communications@nyguild.org, 646-761-1991

Workers call out NBC Universal for repeatedly breaking the law, most recently illegally laying off union members 

Along with illegal actions, workers are fighting back against bad-faith bargaining

NATIONAL — This morning, NBC Digital News Guild, a union representing just under 300 workers across NBC News, MSNBC, and TODAY Digital, sent a letter to management announcing that a supermajority of workers in the unit are committed to walking out on Thursday, February 9, unless the company walks back their unlawful actions. 

On January 12, NBC illegally laid off seven bargaining unit members, and informed several others that, while still employed, they were no longer protected by the union. The union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the company at the National Labor Relations Board on January 13. 

Under well-settled NLRB precedent, employers cannot conduct layoffs without bargaining with the union during negotiations for a first contract. NBC knows this precedent well, previously having been found by the NLRB to have violated federal law by cutting union salaries in 2020 without bargaining. The NLRB was affirmed by the DC Circuit, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars of back pay delivered to union members this year.

Continue reading “Over 200 Journalists at NBC News, MSNBC, TODAY Digital Plan to Walk Off the Job”

Nearly 300 journalists at Reuters, the global news agency, walked off the job today for 24 hours in protest of management’s slow-walking contract renewal negotiations, the first major labor action by journalists at the company in more than 30 years. Reuters journalists, photographers, videographers, copy editors, producers and technicians are represented by The NewsGuild of New York. 

Continue reading “Reuters journalists walk off the job, demand better pay”