BuzzFeed News Union members walk out, demanding a fair contract – on the day shareholders take the company public

BuzzFeed News Union members walked off the job Dec. 2 to demand a fair contract, the same day shareholders will vote to take the company public. 100% of union members are participating in the 24-hour work stoppage.  

After two years of fighting for a fair contract, they are calling on management to negotiate adequate pay raises, affordable health care, a sensible policy on “outside work,” and a prohibition on using traffic and revenue metrics as a basis for issuing discipline to workers.

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Guild leaders urge Lee board to continue the fight against Alden

The 12 unionized newsrooms of Lee Enterprises implored the Board of Directors to reject any offer by Alden Global Capital to acquire the company in a letter dated Nov. 29.

Calling Alden’s claim that it is committed to the newspaper industry a “bald-faced lie,” they urged Lee’s board to, “Stand up for us. Stand up for your investors. Stand up for your communities. Stand up against Alden.”

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Alden’s sleight-of-hand bid demands a closer look

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on the website of DFMworkers.org on Nov. 23, 2021.

The executives at Florida-based hedge fund Alden Global Capital must be restless. 

No longer content with extracting the lifeblood from two of the nation’s largest local newspaper chains, it’s now stalking Lee Enterprises.

Alden announced, via a Monday-morning press release, that it wants to buy all of Lee Enterprises for $24 a share, in cash.

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NewsGuild denounces Alden’s continued bid to destroy local news

The union is calling on Lee’s board to reject Alden’s takeover bid.

The NewsGuild-CWA denounces the purchase offer made yesterday by Alden Global Capital for Lee Enterprises. If advanced, the deal would give Alden control of three of the four largest chains of newspapers in the United States. Such industry concentration would have a negative impact on consumers who depend on local news, employees who work for Lee papers and on our democracy.

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NLRB: Return-to-Office Plans are a Mandatory Subject of Bargaining

While dismissing a charge by the NY Guild, the agency gave workers a big win.

The National Labor Relations Board dismissed an Unfair Labor Practice charge by the NewsGuild of New York on Wednesday but upheld the union’s most important claim: Management has an obligation to bargain with the union over return-to-office plans and vaccine mandates.

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Staffers at Warehouse Workers for Justice are forming a union

Update: Warehouse Workers for Justice Union won voluntary recognition from management of the organization on Jan. 14, 2022.

Staffers at Warehouse Workers for Justice announced Friday that they are forming a union as part of the Chicago Local 34071 of The NewsGuild-CWA.

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