(Bloomberg) -- BuzzFeed News employees, citing mismanagement, pay disparities and job cuts, are holding a walkout in the hopes of getting the online-media company to voluntarily recognize their union.
BuzzFeed journalists in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco are leaving their newsrooms on Monday afternoon, according to the NewsGuild of New York. Plans for the walkout were first reported by Bloomberg News.
The staffers are taking a page from employees at Vox Media, who staged a similar protest earlier this month and soon clinched their first labor agreement.
Despite four months of negotiations, BuzzFeed News employees and management still can’t agree on which workers are eligible to be part of the new bargaining unit -- a question that unions and companies frequently spar over.
“Throughout the process, BuzzFeed has attempted to exclude workers they claim are managerial, supervisory or confidential despite the fact that these journalists neither manage employees nor are privy to confidential information,” according to the statement.
Job Cuts
BuzzFeed News staffers agreed to unionize in February, saying they would seek better benefits and fair pay after seeing some colleagues lose their jobs the prior month. Since then, they’ve been calling on BuzzFeed’s management to recognize their union.
“We have legitimate grievances about unfair pay disparities, mismanaged pivots and layoffs, weak benefits, skyrocketing health insurance costs, diversity, and more,” the BuzzFeed News Organizing Committee said in a statement.
A BuzzFeed representative said Friday the company has made an offer to voluntarily recognize the union, but the terms haven’t been accepted: “It has been on the table since last week. We hope they’ll accept it.”
In January, BuzzFeed eliminated 15% of its headcount, part of a wave of layoffs at media outlets this year. Publishers like BuzzFeed, once the darlings of the media industry, have struggled to find profitable business models.
The tumult has led journalists at several media outlets to opt for collective bargaining. While that hasn’t prevented layoffs, it has in some cases cushioned the blow. For instance, agreements can help ensure that workers who lose their jobs get severance pay.
Hundreds of Vox Media employees walked off the job earlier this month. A day later, they reached a tentative labor agreement. The union contract includes minimum salary guarantees and four months of paid parental leave, among other things.
--With assistance from Josh Eidelson.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gerry Smith in New York at gsmith233@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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