Condé Nast workers walk out after Pitchfork layoffs
Image credit: jenn pelly
After Condé Nast announced layoffs across publications including Pitchfork, GQ, and Vogue, workers walk out to protest their conduct.
Last week Condé Nast announced a series of layoffs across media publications that they own. The company promised to cut their workforce by 5% in November. This would happen broadly across the companies they own, including Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, and the music publication Pitchfork.
That promise was reneged and Condé Nast announced the layoff of 94 unionized members. That’s roughly 20% of the Condé Nast Union. The news was revealed alongside the decision to merge Pitchfork with men’s magazine GQ.
The union and workers are fighting back against what the NewsGuild of New York called “unlawful handling of layoff negotiations and bad-faith bargaining”. Over 400 members of staff at Condé Nast walked off their job on Tuesday for a 24-hour stoppage to work.
We will not tolerate their disrespect at the bargaining table over these layoffs
Ben Dewey, Vice Chair of Condé Nast Union’s CNE unit
Vice chair of the CNE unit of Condé Nast Union, Ben Dewey: “The last nearly three months of fighting for our co-workers on the company’s layoff list has led us to today. Our 24-hours walkout is about standing firmly behind our colleagues and showing Condé Nast management in the clearest possible way that we will not tolerate their disrespect at the bargaining table over these layoffs. It is time to start bargaining in good faith with us.”
As well as the aforementioned publications, Condé Nast are also responsible for Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Glamour, Self, Teen Vogue where workers also striked.
Dewey added: “There’s so much solidarity that everybody is really looking out for their co-workers and willing to go on strike for this unfair way that the company is engaging in bargaining.”
The strike was planned to coincide with the 96th Academy Awards, a significant day for Condé Nast’s brands. The strike mocked the awards ceremony with a red-carpet picket line.
Condé Nast haven’t responded for comment so far. The NewsGuild of New York have filed an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of the Condé Nast Union.
President of the NewsGuild of New York, Susan DeCarava said: “Frankly, we’re all tried of this endless cycle of layoffs, and then pivots, and then more layoffs. And the executives making these decisions – who don’t do the work, don’t produce the product, don’t report the news – their pay never gets cut, and their jobs are never in question.”
Staffers at the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post have also walked out of their jobs in recent months to protest layoffs and worker struggles.