The union employees of Buzzfeed News, the news division of digital media house Buzzfeed, walked out from their work today protesting against alleged anti-employee terms of contract proposed by the company management. The employees boycotted work on a day the shareholders of the company are voting to decide whether to take the company public.
The BuzzFeed News Union has been negotiating with the company over the contract of their employment, and are not happy with the terms and conditions proposed by the company. The union says that BuzzFeed management has offered employees only a 1% annual guaranteed salary increase, and has proposed a salary floor of $50,000. The union says it is not enough to live in major cities like New York and San Francisco where Buzzfeed has newsrooms, or “to attract truly diverse talent.”
We’ve been bargaining our contract for almost 2 years, but BuzzFeed won’t budge on critical issues like wages — all while preparing to go public and make executives even richer.
— BuzzFeed News Union is walking out! ✊ (@bfnewsunion) December 2, 2021
So TODAY, we’re walking out to send a reminder that there’s no BuzzFeed News without us. #BFNWalksOut pic.twitter.com/3xNDUVzwTh
“We’ve been bargaining our contract for almost 2 years, but BuzzFeed won’t budge on critical issues like wages — all while preparing to go public and make executives even richer. So TODAY, we’re walking out to send a reminder that there’s no BuzzFeed News without us”, the union said in a statement issued on social media.
The union also added that Buzzfeed management wants to regulate the creative works the employees do outside their work, which is not restricted under the current policy. According to the new proposed policy, employees will require to get approval for such outside “content work”, like freelance articles outside the staff’s newsroom beat, posting outfits on Instagram, writing a person blog on mental health, or even a makeup tutorial video on TikTok, the statement said.
It further added that the management has resisted the union’s proposal to not discipline employees over website traffic or revenue metrics. The union said that pageviews and clicks are beyond the control of individual employees, and are often influenced by social media algorithms and reader bias.
Joe Bernstein, a senior technology reporter at BuzzFeed News, posted on Twitter, “In my seven years at BuzzFeed News, I’ve never faced an “or-else” traffic quota. We’re walking off today, in part, to make sure our journalists never do.”
In my seven years at BuzzFeed News, I’ve never faced an “or-else” traffic quota. We’re walking off today, in part, to make sure our journalists never do. pic.twitter.com/BWavn6fndG
— Joe Bernstein (@Bernstein) December 2, 2021
“We deserve a strong contract that protects us and ensures a fair and equitable workplace for everyone in our unit,” said Katie Notopoulos, a senior tech reporter.
Reacting to the development, a BuzzFeed spokesman said the company would be back at the negotiating table soon. “There’s a bargaining session planned for next Tuesday where we hope the union will present a response on these issues,” the spokesman said.
Reportedly, BuzzFeed has offered to give its union employees a minimum 2.5% wage increase in total. Out of this, 1% will be guaranteed rise and the rest 1.5% will be distributed across the entire union based on merit.
Buzzfeed shareholders are voting on Thursday to take the company public through the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) 890 5th Avenue Partners Inc. The company is targeting a valuation of $1.5 billion, and if approved by shareholders, it will start trading on the stock market on Monday under the ticker symbol BZFD.
The Buzzfeed spokesperson said about the listing, “the company is gearing up for an incredibly exciting milestone: becoming the first publicly traded digital media company, and acquiring Complex Networks. We couldn’t be more excited about everything that lies ahead for BuzzFeed and its employees.”
