Journalists at The Root, Gizmodo, Jezebel and other G/O Media Sites Walk Out After Contract Talks Stall
GMG Union members strike in New York City. Image provided by Sarah Rense
Some 100 journalists across six G/O Media sites walked out and went on strike after talks for a new contract broke down on Monday night.
The Gizmodo Media Group Union represents the workers at popular sites Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku, and Jalopnik.
G/O Media, which was founded in 2019, has had a rocky relationship with its workers. As Poynter’s Angela Fu points out, “Just months after G/O Media’s formation, Deadspin’s editorial staff resigned en masse after its interim editor-in-chief was fired for refusing to obey an order to ‘stick to sports.’”
G/O Media also includes sports publication Deadspin, the satirical website The Onion, and The A.V. Club.
Fu notes that G/O Media has had a very high turnover in its staff since its formation and that “last year, roughly 75% of Jezebel’s editorial staff quit, including its editor-in-chief and deputy editor, due to what some claimed was a ‘hostile work environment.’ Meanwhile, at The Root, 15 of the site’s 16 staff also quit last year.”
Tuesday’s strike is the result of the union’s contract expiring Monday night after management and refused to meet demands for “trans-inclusive health care coverage, higher salaries, work-from-home flexibility, additional parental leave, caps on health care costs, a ‘robust diversity hiring initiative’ and protection against forced relocations,” according to Fu.
The union explains the reason for the strike on its website noting:
Since January 31, the Gizmodo Media Group Union (GMG Union) and G/O’s Media’s outside counsel have met five times. Every session, the company’s outside counsel sidestepped and delayed, refusing to provide written counterproposals to the union’s good-faith proposals. How can you bargain a contract when the people across the table won’t even clearly state what they’re advocating for?
The union also asks “If you’re in New York City, please don’t cross our physical picket lines at 1290 Avenue of the Americas. If you’re on the internet, please don’t read or accept freelance work for our six sites (Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku, Lifehacker, and The Root) for the duration of the strike.”
G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller wrote in an email Tuesday morning that he was “disappointed” that negotiations ended in a strike:
We are struggling to understand why terms agreed to by half the editorial union members last year are not acceptable to the other half now. Unfortunately, that puts G/O Media in an untenable position with regard to these current negotiations. Disagreements between unions and management are nothing new, and I am hopeful we will find a middle ground soon. We invite the GMG Union to return to the bargaining table so that we may reach a deal that satisfies its members while enabling G/O to operate profitably.
