It's Tuesday: Unionize the Publishing Business? - Issue #63
Popular media usually portrays union members as very blue collar. Think of a bunch of oil rig workers, steel workers, or auto workers punching our doors and fenders. Membership in labor unions in this country peaked in the 1950's and is now at best about 9% of the total work force.
But there are white collar unions. You used to only see them for school teachers and for many state and federal office employees. My Mom was a school teacher and a whole host of local politicians made their bones berating the local teachers union and accusing them of all kinds of imaginary misdeeds.
An after effect of the Covid-19 pandemic that's gotten a lot of press is the "Great Resignation" and there's been a large number of what I think are bad takes about it. The worst accuse employees of being lazy, using Covid relief money instead of working, and other hot takes. As the pandemic wanes we now see the growth of unions in unlikely places like Amazon warehouses, Starbucks coffee houses and in newspaper newsrooms and magazine offices.
What's my hot, possibly unskilled take? Some jobs were pretty terrible and during the pandemic, at least pre-vaccine time, people realized that maybe they could go and do something else. I also think too many of the early layoffs were unnecessarily harsh, and when the companies tried to hire their former employees back, the employees said, "No thanks, I'm doing other stuff now and I really don't miss you."
Why do I think this is a good thing? For two reasons: 1. I don't think unions are the corrupt featherbedding, cigar chomping criminals of old. 2. There's more consolidation these days in the publishing world. So, if you're going to go to work for massive, consolidated magazine publishing giant, why not have a whole room full of people behind you when you go to sign your contract or negotiate a pay raise?
As a former youth soccer coach, I can tell you that a level playing field is a very good thing.
1___Conde Nast Recognizes Employee Union
Conde Nast Union Voluntarily Recognized – The Hollywood Reporter — www.hollywoodreporter.com Condé Nast has voluntarily recognized a worker union at a number of its remaining non-union publications as well as its production arm, Condé Nast Entertainment.
Condé Nast workers win recognition of company-wide union - The Washington Post — www.washingtonpost.com Employees at Vogue and other glossy publications join a wave of media unionization.
This is pretty incredible when you think about what Condé Nast was like back in the day. According to reports, nearly 80% of employees who were eligible to join, did so. Even better, the publisher agreed to accept the union. That will avoid the long, drawn out petition to the federal National Labor Relations Board.
Even better the union will cover subcontractors working for the publisher. And, I just learned a new word: “Permalancers”. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
2___New York Times Guild Employees Resisting Hybrid Office Work. Does A Strike Loom?
New York Times is giving out branded lunch boxes to get people back to the office—but over 1,300 staff are refusing to budge — fortune.com Staff have not received a pay rise in two years and have been without a contract since March 2021.
New York Times Staff Demands More Pay, Newspaper Offers Lunch Boxes — www.thedailybeast.com In this week’s edition of Confider, we reveal the latest drama at the Gray Lady, this time involving 1,300 irate staffers.
Over 1,300 New York Times employees pledge not to return to office — nypost.com
The New York Times expects employees to start returning to the office three days a week starting this week...
From experience, I can tell you that employees don't take kindly to having perks taken away. This is especially true if their productivity has been high and the company appears to be doing just fine.
People were told to stay home during the pandemic. They were told to work from home. And guess what, we all did and we still got the work done. Now some companies want people to come back to the office, during a global (not just in the USA) inflationary period, and people are saying, “Hey, that doesn’t work for me. Gas is expensive, transit is expensive, daycare is expensive."
Pro tip: Talk to your employees. Listen to your employees. Get to know how your employees live and work. And negotiate with the unions. You recognized it, not broke it. So now you have to work with it.
And if you're going to hand out lunchboxes while asking people to do something they really don't want to do, maybe put some snacks inside.
Just saying.
3___"These stats are so weird, the results will blow your mind!"
For media publishers, Twitter still dominates on social — www.axios.com
While some are finding quick success on TikTok, it yields fewer overall followers for publishers than other platforms.
As the article says, you need to keep in mind that follower count does not necessarily translate to engagement.
4___Dwell Magazine is Purchased by Recurrent Ventures
Exclusive: Recurrent Ventures acquires Dwell — www.axios.com Dwell rounds out Recurrent’s portfolio of home design media companies.
Recurrent Ventures Acquires Design Brand Dwell 09/16/2022 — www.mediapost.com Recurrent Ventures Acquires Design Brand Dwell - 09/16/2022
This appears to be one of those cases where the acquired title is a perfect fit. Recurrent owns Domino, Lonny and BobVila.com.
Fun fact: Condé Nast founded Domino Magazine.
5___Future, PLC Shows Records Profits and Still Lays Off Employees
Future makes editorial layoffs despite 'high' revenue projections | GamesIndustry.biz — www.gamesindustry.biz UK media outfit Future has announced a series of layoffs across its publications, despite the high profit margins forec…
Mmmm, hmmm.
For Your Moment of Magazine Zen...
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May your week be easy and filled with very short meetings where someone else takes the notes. Also, I heard that Damien's already broken into their Halloween candy so head down to the break room and see what you can find!