Bargaining Update

BuzzFeed News

Last Thursday, New York NewsGuild members at BuzzFeed News (TNG-CWA Local 31003) walked off the job to demand a fair contract, the same day shareholders voted to take the company public. All of the union members participated 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. They walked off the job to demonstrate how vital the reporters, editors, photographers, designers, and operations people are to BuzzFeed and to put pressure on management to meet the workers’ demands. Read more here.

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University of New Mexico

Last Friday, more than 200 workers, activists, and supporters rallied to tell the University of New Mexico (UNM) to end the practice of paying public workers poverty wages and stop union busting. The rally was organized by UNM workers, members of CWA Local 7076, to call attention to the fact that the UNM administration continues to line their own pockets while paying workers poverty wages, endlessly spending University funds on a third-party union busting law firm, and repeatedly ignoring health and safety concerns from custodial workers throughout the pandemic. Read more here.

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Cascade Public Media

Last Tuesday, members of the Crosscut Union, Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37082), representing workers at two nonprofit news outlets based in the Northwest, voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first contract with Cascade Public Media. Highlights of the contract include the Rooney Rule, which requires management to extend interviews to candidates from underrepresented groups; protection against discrimination for employees who are parents; a salary schedule that improves pay equity and transparency; a paid time off system that gives staff more flexibility; and more.