After two years of stalled negotiations and legal battles, the bargaining committee for Hearst Magazine’s union has released an open letter through Writers Guild of America East demanding that the company enter good faith negotiations on a contract.
“Your counter-proposals on our salary minimums are 10s of thousands of dollars lower than our initial proposals. And like your initial proposals on annual salary increases, they are also woefully behind industry standards,”Let the letter be read. “We know what we are worth, and we will not continue to settle for subpar wages at one of the country’s preeminent magazine publishers, especially given Hearst Magazines’ record profits over the past few years.”
Hearst Media Union has approximately 500 employees and 28 publications including Esquire and Cosmpolitan. The union was formed in July 2020 after a National Labor Relations Board election. This was after a nine month legal battle in which Hearst refused voluntarily recognition of the union. Hearst also moved to separate the union into six bargaining units.
But since then, contract negotiations have remained strained, with Hearst Media Union listing multiple criticisms of the company’s proposed economic package. The union says that Hearst Magazines’ proposal pays workers not living in New York or California 10% less, refuses to pay more to workers filling in for staff on parental leave or include extra pay for sensitivity reads or translations, which are key to the union’s push to expand diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the company.
“Today, our committee members are presenting a complete version of our economic proposals in response to management’s counters. We have meticulously crafted this language to move in your direction whenever possible in the spirit of reaching a deal by this fall. We demand that you do the same,”The letter ends. “We cannot create this contract alone and need management to meet us in the middle to push us toward a fair, equitable contract in a timely fashion.”
Hearst Magazines was contacted for comment. We will update you with any response.
WGA East has significantly expanded its organizing of digital media outlets since negotiating its first contract with Gizmodo Media Group — then known as Gawker Media — in 2015. Vox Media, Vice Media Group, Huffpost and Slate have all been organized by the guild.
Currently, negotiations are also underway at several other media outlets, including at Bustle Digital Group, where contract negotiations have been ongoing since November 2020 with Bustle’s union and management at an impasse over the extent to which the contract’s proposed economic package adheres to part-time writers, whom make up a significant portion of the staffs of BDG’s sites. BDG has stated that it is committed to completing a contract with good faith.