Coronavirus-induced cutbacks at Condé Nast, which resulted in 100 US layoffs final week, seem to have stirred labor unrest on the glitzy however struggling writer.
Wired’s editorial union has fired off a letter to Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch blasting the corporate for its coronavirus severance packages after a majority of editorial staffers final month indicated that they need the NewsGuild of New York to be their bargaining agent.
“We had been deeply upset to be taught that lots of our laid off colleagues had been provided meager or nonexistent severance packages, regardless that in your letter to the corporate on Wednesday (5/13) you acknowledged that ‘supporting folks of their transition was of utmost significance,’” stated the letter, which drew help from three different unionized Condé manufacturers: The New Yorker, Ars Technica and Pitchfork.
The union additionally blasted the corporate for its therapy of freelancers:
“Our freelancer and subcontractor colleagues, a few of whom labored for WIRED full time for years in a shameful two-tier system, had been left with no severance pay or well being protection in any respect in the course of a pandemic that has induced the worst financial downturn in generations.”
After a primary spherical of cuts unveiled in late April that resulted in pay reductions, the journal writer adopted up final week by axing almost 100 workers within the US, the place about half of its 6,000 worldwide workers work
The Wired union additionally referred to as on Lynch “to instantly acknowledge our union by taking part in a card verify carried out by a impartial third occasion.” The 70-member Wired union stated on April 22 that the overwhelming majority of editorial staffers turned in playing cards asking for NewsGuild illustration, however the firm has but to formally acknowledge the union because the bargaining agent because it did for The New Yorker and the opposite two models on the family-owned journal big, which had been union-free till final yr.
The corporate, owned by the billionaire Newhouse household, had not responded to the letter by press time.