Give A Little, Get A Little

As we passed the two-year mark in our journey for a strong first contract, we made significant progress over two fairly productive bargaining sessions that resulted in two new tentative agreements (TAs).

Like with any contract negotiation, we had to give management a little bit of what they wanted to win some key protections for our members. But after months of essentially refusing to meaningfully engage with our proposals on benefits, management is actually bargaining with us over the specifics on paid and unpaid leaves, health insurance, and our 401(k) plans.

Here’s the latest:

UNPAID LEAVES: We landed on what we’re calling a ~spiritual TA~ on book leave and other unpaid leaves! We’re still configuring the precise wording, but we’ve agreed on some major wins for union members. Among the biggest: Employees will not have to use their PTO before taking unpaid leave (though we did agree that our members will use comp time before taking leave).

We also got management to agree that after one year of working in the newsroom, employees will be eligible for three months of unpaid leave for academic, creative, or personal reasons. This leave can be taken in one-month increments and cannot be unreasonably denied.

TRAINING & CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Some more good news! We *finally* came to a TA on this proposal, which covers the intersection of discipline and traffic metrics. This was a central issue in our walkout and the pressure we put on management resulted in significant movement and an agreement that we are confident will protect employees. 🥳

With a minor exception for commerce writers, no union employees can be subject to performance-related discipline in connection with any revenue or traffic-related goals. We agreed to management’s language that commerce writers will not be disciplined “solely” as a result of revenue or traffic related goals or metrics, and we also got them to agree to language that makes it clear that meeting revenue and traffic goals is largely out of the control of the writer and that these metrics “shall not supersede the employee’s editorial ethical obligations.”

WAGES: Now time for the bad news: Management introduced an infuriating new concept in their latest counter on pay, splitting the salary minima between overtime-eligible employees and exempt employees. This only reinforces the hierarchical system we set out to dismantle in this contract! They’ve proposed a minimum salary of $50,000 for OT-eligible employees and $53,000 for exempt employees. (Notably, OT is not guaranteed and has to be approved by management!)

There is some good news, though. Management finally agreed to a graduated wage increase system with increases ranging from 3% for the lowest paid employees to 1% for highest paid employees (we have proposed higher increases ranging from 5% to 3%). They did, however, continue to push for a merit pool of 1% of the bargaining unit payroll at management’s discretion. This is something we feel is unnecessary to bargain over, as we’ve already agreed that management is free to give people raises beyond the contractual obligations.

REDUCTIONS IN FORCE: This is an area where we're continuing to argue over numbers. Should layoffs happen, management wants them to take effect within four weeks. The union is pushing for a minimum of at least six weeks. We're close on this one, though!

HOURS & OVERTIME: Management has proposed that comp time should only be awarded for work done on a scheduled day off, despite the fact that this is not how most employees actually earn comp time. This is frustrating, since it’s more restrictive than current policy, and our members tend to earn comp time for working extra long days rather than for working on a scheduled day off. We believe comp time should be awarded for additional work no matter when it occurs.

The current comp time policy is that it’s awarded in four-hour chunks, and management has been proposing to keep this, but we’re still pushing for comp time to be measured and granted hour for hour instead.

401(k): Management has really dug in about not wanting to improve our 401(k) in any way and offered in their latest counter only that our employer matching would be improved if it’s improved across the company. They did at least propose that they would not let the matching for the unit dip below the 2021 baseline — an abysmal 25% matching up to 3% of the employee contribution. That is still miles apart from our proposal of 100% matching up to 6%.

We find management’s position unacceptable and at odds with the story BuzzFeed wants to tell about itself. As the company has matured, the benefits it offers employees should grow in tandem. Our newsroom has new parents who have to think about their families’ futures. If this company is serious about retaining talent in a way that encourages people to spend their careers here, it must offer a competitive 401(k) plan.