Workers at Forward, a source for news, opinion and culture “through a Jewish lens,” won a new contract after 14 months of bargaining.
Among the improvements:
- Minimum salaries increase from $44k to $52k for new hires and $55k+ for current employees
Fellows’ minimums increase from $37k to $46k - Annual raises of 3%
- Longest-tenured members get immediate raises up to 18%
- Average ratification bonuses of $4k
Staffers codified their dedication to fairly cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the new agreement. It
- Requires management to recruit workers from a Palestinian background
- Removes a policy allowing special leave for service in Israeli Defense Forces
- Creates protections against arbitrary social media restrictions
They wrote some of their other values into the contract as well, including a commitment to diverse recruitment and hiring, a prohibition against requiring remote workers to relocate to N.Y., and improved safety measures and better.
“There is no good reason it should have taken more than a year for the company to grant these improvements,” workers tweeted. “Nor should @jdforward have spent its limited resources on @Littler, a union-busting firm that stands against our organization’s core values.”