The Ugly Insider Battle Ends With a New Union Deal
The union at Insider, the digital news outlet dedicated to business and tech news, has reached a deal with its management, ending a historic 13-day strike that almost completely shut down the newsroom after the company laid off dozens of employees.
“Insider is a great place to work, and we're proud that the CBA formalizes many of our existing practices, policies, and benefits, including freedom to work from anywhere in the US, top of the market pay, 16 weeks of parental leave, and a commitment to building a diverse and equitable workplace,” the company’s president Barbara Peng wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday. “Over the past two years we have worked diligently to develop a contract that works for our union members, as well as the entire Insider team. That's why we're extending some great new benefits to all of our employees as well, including funds to put towards mental health and prescription costs.”
Staffers will return to work on Thursday, the guild announced.
“To those of you coming back: Welcome back,” editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson emailed staffers. “We missed you. Our audience missed you. Congratulations on your excellent CBA.”
He later added: “We have bright days ahead.”
The tentative deal includes a $65,000 salary floor, a 3.5 percent immediate raise for those who haven’t received one this year (with a 3.75 percent raise for all employees next year), and a commitment to not lay off any more employees for the rest of 2023. The agreement also addressed the Insider’s decision to change its healthcare providers, a charge the union claimed was illegal, by setting up a reimbursement account for employees that will pay out $2,200 over three years to spend on mental health and prescription costs.
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As part of the contract, the union also agreed to settle its unfair labor practice charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board over the company’s move to switch its healthcare provider from United Healthcare to Cigna, a decision staffers said made their prescription costs skyrocket.
The road to ending the longest open-ended strike in online news was not so simple.
The agreement comes after the strike was called on June 2, following weeks of bargaining over both the union’s long-stalled contract and the company’s decision in April to lay off dozens of staffers, including 60 unit members. The two sides eventually agreed to a tally of 44 staffers getting laid off, including some not originally on the proposed list, just before the strike began.
The first few days of the strike were marred by an effective stalemate between the union and the company, with employees publicly calling for the outlet to come to the table at all. Jessica Liebman, the company's chief people officer, told staffers on June 6 that some points on professional development and wage issues had been agreed to, but conceded it was not enough.
“We still have a ways to go,” she wrote.
Eventually, the two sides moved to off-the-record bargaining sessions, hashing out the terms of the deal—and leaving striking staffers demanding for more money instead. The union also launched a strike publication, aptly titled “Business Outsider,” which gave some reporters the chance to publish pieces related to the strike—including getting the White House to praise the striking workers and grilling Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith.
The strike brought out all forms of support—and criticism from certain media villains. Elon Musk urged workers, perhaps facetiously, on Wednesday to continue striking (“Fight on, comrades!”), and Insider foe Dave Portnoy—whose lawsuit against Insider over two stories alleging Portnoy committed sexual misconduct was dismissed last year—tried to crash the union’s picket line.
Still, the solidarity seemed to waver at times. The union repeatedly warned staffers against leaking to the media, including after a video of union members confronting Carlson as he took down union-made posters, featuring his photo, that were plastered around his Brooklyn neighborhood. The video was posted in the union’s Slack channel last week.
“I think we should think very carefully before sharing the Nich video publicly,” a union member wrote in the chats reviewed by The Daily Beast. “Ultimately, we do need to work together productively as a newsroom after this is all over, rebuild trust, etc. Putting this out there may make that harder. Just something to think about.”
"Plz dont leak the video just [because] you want it out there,” another member wrote. “I know we’ve had some issues with leaks and that’s really not cool.”
Some staffers seemed not to care. The video ended up in the New York Post on Tuesday, prompting the company to declare Carlson was a “big boy” who was “not annoyed at the union — after all, it was only a handful who participated in the stunt.”
The leak enraged a plethora of staffers, who argued on Slack that it diminished their fight and risked eventual consequences with management. Some wondered if they should reach out to Carlson personally to apologize for the seemingly unauthorized leak.
“This is a super shitty thing tohave [sic] happened and if you want to leak stuff, you should honestly just log out of the union slack and go scab instead because it’s less harmful than this kind of shit,” a union member wrote. “In terms of damage control, what we’re worried about here is nich’s feelings and working with him moving forward.”
The leak seemed not to have impacted the union’s marathon, on-the-record bargaining sessions, with both unit chair Emma LeGault and Liebman writing staffers early Wednesday to announce a deal was imminent. After hours of bargaining throughout the day, the deal was announced just before 4 p.m. ET.
The strike was the first for a U.S. publication owned by German media empire Axel Springer, and the new deal becomes the first union contract since the company’s entry into the U.S. media market. Fellow Axel Springer-owned outlet Politico is also currently negotiating a contract.
The work stoppage at Insider, which is run by famed investor Henry Blodget, preceded other headline-grabbing walkouts like those at a number of Gannett newspapers (including the Palm Beach Post, Florida Times Union, and Arizona Republic), which occurred during the company’s shareholder meeting earlier this month.
A slumping economy and declining advertising revenues have resulted in industry-wide tumult, often culminating in layoffs, cuts to employee benefits, and other belt-tightening moves. In response, more and more media staffers have walked out in protest. Unionized employees at The New York Times, NBC News, and Reuters held walkouts over the last year, with the latter agreeing to a contract about a month after voting for a strike.
NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss told The Daily Beast on Monday that the organization has seen 27 one-day-or-longer walkouts so far this year, a marked jump from 21 labor stoppages in all of 2022.
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