Our letter to shareholders

To the board members and shareholders of BuzzFeed, Inc.:

We, the BuzzFeed News Union, are writing to you today because we feel it is vital you hear directly from us about the current state of our newsroom and the ongoing process of union bargaining.

As you are surely aware, BuzzFeed management recently proposed a voluntary buyout program intended to make major cuts to our investigations, inequality, politics, and science teams in what they say is an effort to make the news division profitable. This proposal came after more than two years of negotiations over our first Collective Bargaining Agreement and at a time when only a handful of critical proposals remain on the table.

We have been bargaining over economic proposals for a year, and the company’s decision to propose cutting a third of our bargaining unit after representing only a week earlier that they could afford the economic package they were proposing for all 62 of our union members was regressive and illegal. We had no choice but to file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board last month.

As you may also be aware, our union took an emergency strike authorization vote at the bargaining table on March 29, which passed with more than 90% approval from our members. That vote does not mean we are going on strike immediately, but rather that the membership of our union has authorized the union’s bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary to respond to BuzzFeed’s bad faith bargaining. We do not want to strike, but we are ready and willing to do so if we must.

Despite BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti’s frequent talk of subsidizing News, our division subsidizes his reputation. Our reporting has exonerated innocent incarcerated people, been cited in impeachment investigations, exposed corruption and abuse of power around the world, and has received the highest honors and recognition in the industry. That is part of how we attract a dedicated and ever-growing audience of readers, who can clearly see that BuzzFeed has been shamelessly engaging in bad faith, anti-worker actions. Our audience has repeatedly shown they will stand with us during union efforts, offering to boycott the site or cancel their memberships, and we are grateful to know they will have our backs if a strike becomes necessary.

We are incredibly disappointed in the company’s decision to gut our newsroom, and find it extremely worrisome that we have not been presented with any compelling vision for the future of BuzzFeed News. That is why the union has proposed expanding buyout eligibility to more of our colleagues, and are continuing to fight for a strong contract in order to protect the talented people who will stay with the company.

Compounding this lack of vision, BuzzFeed management is proposing a minimum newsroom salary of only $55,000. They have also dug into their position that employees of the News division should be required to seek approval even for unpaid outside work.

During our most recent bargaining sessions, the Guild made several major concessions. Perhaps most notably, though we had been pushing for significant improvements to our paltry 401k matching program, we accepted management’s last proposal — which only locks in the right to not have our 401k matching reduced or eliminated — as it has become clear to us that the company is not interested in investing in the future of our newsroom. 

BuzzFeed management, and particularly Peretti, have a major opportunity to win back the trust and goodwill of their employees by engaging in good faith with our union and securing a fair deal as soon as possible.

The company understands our priorities, and we hope this letter helps you understand them as well. We look forward to seeing the proposals BuzzFeed management puts on the table at our next bargaining session, and we hope to receive terms that demonstrate the company’s respect for our newsroom and the work we do.

We organized this union because we love what we do. That is why we were so devastated by the changes being proposed in the newsroom we’ve been so proud to be a part of. We do not want to strike, but we are running out of options. We are ready and willing to take further action if it becomes necessary — and whether it becomes necessary is BuzzFeed management’s decision.

Signed,

The BuzzFeed News Union

Addy Baird, Unit Chair

Tashween Ali, Bargaining Committee

Ema O'Connor, Bargaining Committee

Katie Notopoulos, Bargaining Committee

Julia Reinstein, Bargaining Committee

Pia Peterson Haggarty

Sarah Schweppe

Krystie Yandoli

Salvador Hernandez

Venessa Wong

Cody Corrall

Alexa Lee

Zahra Hirji

Loren Cecil

Sarah Mimms

Rosalind Adams

Kadia Goba

Joseph Bernstein

Kavitha Surana

Steffi Cao

Scaachi Koul

Katie Camero

Hamed Aleaziz

Richard Nieva

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Emily Baker-White

Ayanna Miller

Sydnee Thompson

Adolfo Flores

Derek Gardner

Michael Blackmon

Brandon Hardin

Sierra Tall

Alessa Dominguez

Zia Thompson

Rosie Gray

Shannon Keating

Stephanie McNeal Henry

Sarah Emerson

Lissandra Villa Huerta

Caroline O’Donovan

Peter Aldhous

Zoe Tillman

Otillia Steadman

Melissa Segura

Kelsey Weekman

Ellie Hall

David Mack

Scott Pham

Jason Leopold

Brianna Sacks

Katherine Miller

Dan Vergano

Nidhi Prakash

Paul McLeod

Stephanie Lee

Stephanie K. Baer

Emerson Malone

Christopher Miller