The New Yorker Union Reaches Tentative Contract Deal
It seems The New Yorker Festival may be picket-free this year.
The magazine’s union and management at Condé Nast reached a new tentative three-year agreement, the company’s human resources department told staffers on Monday. “This renewal embodies the many policies and practices that make Condé Nast and The New Yorker a great workplace and underpin our award-winning journalism,” Condé Nast chief people officer Stan Duncan said in the message.
Details of the agreement were not immediately available, though Duncan’s message said that the deal broached issues of healthcare, family leave, paid time off, diversity and career development. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to The New Yorker Union for comment.
Duncan added, “I want to thank the bargaining team for their hard work and efforts during the last few months as we reached agreements on these terms. We look forward to the ratification of the contract.”
The company’s message arrives a little over a week since The New Yorker Union threatened a strike in advance of the publication’s annual festival, which is scheduled to take place between Oct. 25 and 27. At that time, the union was advocating for a flexible policy on work that New Yorker staffers can perform outside the magazine, claiming that management had demanded “overly broad — and highly invasive — restrictions.” After more than six months of negotiations, the sides were additionally stuck on general wage increases, salary floors and layoff protections.
“We remember from our first negotiation that the thing that really got us the strong terms that we’re looking for this time around was direct concerted activity,” deputy poetry editor and The New Yorker Union unit chair Hannah Aizenman told THR at that time.
The New Yorker‘s approximately 100-person union consists of fact-checkers, story editors and photo editors, among other roles. (The magazine’s staff writers are not included in the union.) The union has said that its first contract initially expired on March 31, with its provisions lapsing on July 28.
