The editorial employees in Fortune Magazine’s union walked off the job Tuesday morning in an effort “to expose management’s bad-faith in negotiations,” according to a release from the NewsGuild of New York. The union also filed six Labor Board charges against management.
“We are withholding our labor for the next 24 hours to remind @FortuneMagazine management what our work is worth,” said a tweet from the union.
Commentary editor Jake Meth wrote, “I’m walking out today because @FortuneMagazine management needs to stop breaking the law and meet the @Fortune_Union at the bargaining table in good faith. If management believes in listening to its employees, why does it pretend our union doesn’t exist?”
A representative for Fortune did not immediately return a request for comment on the walk-out or accusations. Online, journalists from other publications quickly offered up their support for the Fortune employees, noting the editorial staffers had “no other choice.”
The NewsGuild release highlighted the complaints: “In addition to ignoring the impactful contract language the union has presented, the company has encouraged an environment of silence on pay, telling union members to keep their salaries secret. This has created a significant wage disparity, in which women make 84% of what men in the unit do on average, and workers of color make 78% what their white colleagues do.”
The union presented a diversity proposal in November 2019, but says management “refuses to commit to diversity and inclusion at the table by failing to bargain” with members and has implemented a new performance evaluation system without union negotiation. The union says this violates labor laws.