2 Years 2 Bargain

This month marks two years since our first bargaining session and (hopefully!) the beginning of the end of our fight to win a strong first contract for this newsroom.

After our very powerful walkout last month, management made notable movements on some of the key issues we organized around, like whether writers can face discipline for not meeting traffic or revenue goals. We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to make some progress on these proposals soon.

Here are the details:

OUTSIDE WORK: This is the proposal regarding the creative work we do outside of our BuzzFeed News jobs. In our latest version, we agreed to get management approval for things that relate to our actual jobs (freelance articles, speaking engagements on our beat, etc.). But for all things not related to our jobs — eg. makeup tutorials, stand-up comedy shows — we continued to insist that we do not need to seek management approval.

Management seemed more open than ever to our proposal, saying for the first time that they were open to a policy that, in some cases, did not require management approval for outside work. That unto itself is a huge win for us, and absolutely a result of our walkout. Still, in their counter, they held onto the idea that any work that is competitive with BuzzFeed as a whole (rather than just with News) would require management approval. We once again reiterated our stance and concerns with this expansive, undefined restriction.

WAGES: We held on our previous proposal of a newsroom-wide salary minimum of $70,000 and annual guaranteed wage increases from (GWI) 3% to 5%. Management has argued, however, that if we push for this system for everyone in the union, they won’t be able to give raises beyond what’s guaranteed in the contract. This is not true! And frankly it’s anti-union — and anti-millennial — propaganda! It also ignores the fact that they’ve already agreed to language that management can give raises beyond the GWI. Plus, they aren’t even arguing that they can’t afford to pay us more, just simply that they don’t want to. Oof.

TRAINING & CAREER DEVELOPMENT: In their latest counter, management changed only one word from our last proposal to say that commerce writers will not be disciplined “solely” in connection with traffic or discipline. This is significant movement on their part and comes after we made this a central issue in our walkout. It is the only outstanding issue left in this proposal, and we are hopeful we can come to a tentative agreement on this issue soon.

REDUCTIONS IN FORCE: We are still negotiating how and when people should be notified about layoffs— something that, unfortunately, we are no stranger to. We have proposed that affected employees should be given two weeks’ notice, but only after a 30-day discussion period with the NewsGuild. Management has proposed that these two notification periods should be concurrent.

We are also still negotiating the terms for rehiring employees who are laid off. Management has proposed that a specific employee, once laid off, could only be rehired from a recall list if their “specific” position is available again. That’s too narrow for us. We believe an employee should also be recalled for a comparable position for which they are reasonably qualified.

EXPENSES & EQUIPMENT: Even after nearly two years of working remotely because of the pandemic, management is still telling us that they anticipate a “normal” future of work. We believe our contract should reflect the ongoing situation and have proposed cementing our current monthly $125 remote work stipend. In management’s latest counter, they proposed a $45 cell phone stipend (which we received prior to the current stipend) and suggested remote employees could expense up to $65 of home internet costs.

They also proposed that if any employee outside the bargaining unit received a monthly stipend that was greater than $45 + the possible additional $65, then that would be guaranteed for everyone in the unit as well. In our last counter, we accepted the stipend equity for those inside and outside the unit, but we proposed that all employees should get a $60 cell phone stipend, plus a $65 stipend for remote employees (rather than force them to file a monthly expense). We also proposed that the WFH stipend should be locked in until most office-based employees return to working in person.

DERIVATIVE RIGHTS: Management recently gave us their first response to this proposal, which we first presented in * checks notes * ... April 2021. 😕

The issue at hand is what level of control employees have over their intellectual property when BuzzFeed or a third party wants to turn it into a movie, TV show, podcast, etc. The company has proposed barring employees from soliciting derivative productions, meaning that if you wanted to pitch an article of yours as a podcast episode or a book, for example, you couldn’t email your friend at This American Life or send it to an agent you’re in touch with. The company would have to do it for you. Pretty wack!

The company also presented specifics about how much money employees would receive if their work is optioned for production, but the specifics weren’t great. They proposed that authors receive only 10% of option payments and stated that they wouldn’t get any royalties. It’s nice to finally see some details from them on this, but their proposals are well below what we believe employees are entitled to.

(If the story of a business where the executives amassed a fortune while the people who did the day to day work only saw a fraction of those proceeds interests you, check out the documentary The Rise and Fall of LulaRoe, based on an investigation by BuzzFeed reporter Stephanie McNeal. Watch it on Discovery+!)