Vox Staff Walks Out for Day to Demand Union Contract Deal
Vox Staff Walks Outs for Day to Protest Stalled Contract Talks
(Bloomberg) -- Vox Media staffers are staging a one-day walkout on Thursday to pressure the online-media company to sign a union contract.
Hundreds of employees are participating in the action, according to the Writers Guild of America East, which represents the workers. They aren’t writing or editing stories, and no new articles have gone up on Vox.com.
On Twitter Thursday morning, the union said management was “still apart from us” on issues including wage scales and raises, severance pay and limits on subcontracting. “We’ve decided we’re not showing up to work today until we resolve these issues,” the union said. “Our unit members are taking their sites dark today to show management how important these issues are to us.”
Mike Prada, a union member and editor at Vox Media’s SBNation, said on Twitter the site won’t be providing coverage of Game 3 of the NBA finals on Thursday without “a fair contract.”
“This was a hard decision,” he said. “But securing that contract today is more important than an NBA finals game.”
‘Not Realistic’
In an email sent to employees, Vox Media Chief Executive Officer Jim Bankoff said, “I couldn’t be more serious about reaching a fair and highly competitive agreement quickly.”
Bankoff said he was disappointed that workers walked out while progress was being made in the talks. “From the beginning, through every stage of our company’s growth, we have invested in our employees, as much as or ahead of where our company finances and industry outlook have allowed,” he said in the memo.
However, he said, “While paying people a lot more than market wages sounds great on the surface, it’s not realistic or smart.”
Earlier this week, hundreds of TV and film writers petitioned Vox Media to hammer out a contract with editorial staff, who unionized more than a year ago.
Staff at Vox’s websites went public with their organizing campaign in November 2017, and the company agreed two months later to recognize the union. But the parties have failed to reach a collective-bargaining agreement after 14 months of negotiations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Eidelson in Washington at jeidelson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum
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