?Condé Nast employees won voluntary recognition of a union on Sept. 9, as the company agreed to unionization in response to nearly 80 percent of eligible employees submitting union cards. We’ve gathered articles on the news from SHRM Online and other media outlets.
Covered Employees
The Condé Nast union covers more than 500 U.S.-based employees. Condé Nast’s publications include Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ and Vogue. Four other publications, including The New Yorker, previously unionized at the company.
“After productive conversations with the NewsGuild over the past few months, we have agreed to voluntarily recognize four new editorial and business units,” a Condé Nast spokesman said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to working together on our collective bargaining agreements following successful contracts with The New Yorker, Ars Technica and Pitchfork unions and the pending contract with Wired.”
The new union also covers approximately 100 subcontractors.
Reasons for Unionizing
Employees companywide were seeking overtime compensation for long hours, pay transparency and salary floors, which previously unionized colleagues at The New Yorker obtained last year. Workers worried about layoffs without severance and meetings with too little minority representation.
A spokesman for Condé Nast declined to address specific grievances but said, “We plan to have productive and thoughtful conversations with [the unionizing workers] over the coming weeks to learn more.”
Call for Higher Salary Answered
Union members at The New Yorker argued that the magazine’s elite reputation contrasted with the reality of rank-and-file employees earning as little as $42,000 annually. The two sides agreed to a salary minimum of $60,000 by 2023. Condé Nast said the agreement reflected standards they had already been working to establish companywide.
Protest Criticized
The company criticized a protest last year at the home of Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s global content advisor, in an employee memo sent a few hours after it was announced. “At a time when journalists are being personally attacked, harassed and targeted for their work, to put a colleague in such a position is just irresponsible,” the memo read. Wintour also is chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue.
NLRB General Counsel Favors Card Check
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has called for employers to be required to recognize unions that organize through card check rather than secret-ballot elections.
Under current labor law, a union needs at least 30 percent of workers signing unionization cards to get an election scheduled with the NLRB, noted David Pryzbylski, an attorney with Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis.
When a union has acquired signed cards from over half of the employees, the employer may agree to recognize the union but often declines, triggering the NLRB union election process, said Robert Boonin, an attorney with Dykema in Ann Arbor, Mich.