On Friday, January 9, ICE arrested a member of our union, the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, as part of Operation Metro Surge.
He has been transferred to a detention facility in Texas, where he is awaiting action on his petition for habeas corpus.
newsguild.org/guild-member...
New: Heath Freeman is under investigation by the U.S. Senate for engaging in illegal activities related to his Homes of America housing business under Alden Global Capital. Attorneys general in Connecticut and Minnesota have also opened investigations. 1/
Recent cuts at Condé Nast blindsided some top editors who were not briefed in advance of the changes to their staff, @nataliekorach.bsky.social reports. www.status.news/p/conde-nast...
What is the current legal landscape for labor? What are the threats on the horizon?
Check out the report from ION to see where we go in a post-NLRB world.
The government called on the court to reverse an appeals court ruling that found most of President Donald Trump's tariffs are an illegal use of an emergency powers law.
Dear Katrice and Geraldine, We are deeply concerned about the manner in which The Marshall Project has been treating our members and approaching the bargaining process. Recently, The Marshall Project leadership has betrayed our organization’s values and compromised our position in the industry and the journalism we pursue. It’s time for that to change. The guild has worked tirelessly and in good faith on proposals that would keep high-quality health care affordable for Marshallers. We have also been steadfast in asserting that all recognized members deserve due process and fair treatment required under the law. The organization, in turn, has increasingly taken anti-worker stances that have eroded trust and created a culture that makes it difficult to do the work that makes us proud. Since the organization has taken such a hardline stance, refusing to work with the guild on the items listed below, we will be filing unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board and stepping up our public efforts to make it clear that we demand fair treatment.
The following recent actions by the organization have taken an immense toll on the workers of The Marshall Project: 1. The organization has repeatedly denied steward representation to a member facing a Performance Improvement Plan and possible termination, as well as denying another member representation in their termination meeting last week. This denial is illegal, egregious, and completely out of line with standards across our industry and the labor movement going back decades. We are shocked that the organization would take such a hypocritical and prohibitive stance on this, given our mission. The union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice about this illegal violation of members’ Weingarten rights and demands that members be allowed steward representation in any meeting they feel is appropriate. 2. The organization has caused a retaliatory ripple effect with its actions against one employee that has touched an entire newsroom in Cleveland with negative effects that go against the stated purpose of collaboration with local media and our ability to make good on promises we made to readers. When the organization recognized members it had a duty to follow the law and not proceed with layoffs without bargaining. We have filed an Unfair Labor Practice for the illegal layoff of employees and management retaliation.
3. The organization made a unilateral change to our outside employment policy without bargaining, changing expectations to require managerial approval. We have always maintained a workplace where outside work is permitted and the organization’s sudden termination of Chris Vazquez without a steward, without an opportunity to stop the freelancing project, and without severance is unjust and defies our values. 4. The organization is employing a strategic erosion of status quo through small changes to past practice while we bargain our first contract, including erasure of our cost-of-living adjustment, a significant change to our health insurance, and modifying the evaluation process. The organization has inconsistently complied with requests for information, which does not reflect good faith in bargaining. The Marshall Project, in retaining union-busting law firm Kauff McGuire & Margolis, is willingly participating in the erosion of worker protections across our industry, a project that takes advantage of the current anti-worker political environment. When The Marshall Project voluntarily recognized our union last year, it touted a “longstanding commitment to a fair, equitable and inclusive workplace, with generous benefits.” We are demanding a return to these values.
Today, we sent a letter to @themarshallproject.org leadership expressing concern about their denial of bargaining obligations. Management has repeatedly denied members Weingarten rights, engaged in an illegal layoff, and more — we need your help to demand that management bargain in good faith.
To say that seeing these kinds of concerns coming from journalists at **The Marshall Project** of all places is dispiriting to say the least.
But like…especially weird move to violate Weingarten given, uh, the name of the organization? Is one of the justices who joined the Weingarten opinion??
Shortly following these posts, Condé reached out to assert that a closed, last minute meeting last week between HR and a few union officers should have satisfied our members' desire to hear directly from Condé's chief executives.
Today, IGN Entertainment announced that it would be laying off eight members of the IGN Creators Guild. This is 12% of our bargaining unit, and comes just days after our sister union, the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, underwent similar layoffs impacting 15% of their members. It also comes just months after our multibillion-dollar parent company, Ziff Davis, instituted a company-wide buyout that shrunk our unit numbers, with the express intent of avoiding future layoffs. And it comes just a little over one year after three of our members were laid off almost immediately after our union went public. The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members' jobs. This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work. In just the last few months, our members have been absolutely essential to major events and livestreams, including San Diego ComicCon, Summer of Gaming, and IGN Live. Every single person impacted today was involved in and critical to the success of those events. Meanwhile, IGN Entertainment continues to spend money on costly acquisitions, only to turn around and gut those companies in the same way it is cutting away at IGN itself. For instance, last year, it acquired Gamer Network, and almost immediately laid off a number of staff critical to making those sites successful. The company has not responded to the union's questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts. At a time when it is more necessary than ever to support its creators, IGN Entertainment is choosing to eliminate the individuals who ensure IGN remains competitive as generative AI
threatens our reach. We have been told that expert opinion pieces, original interviews, and work that leverages our staff's deep knowledge of gaming, tech, and entertainment are all essential to combating AI summarization and regurgitation of our work. Management has responded by cutting several individuals who do that exact work, as well as others whose job it is to ensure that these written and video pieces are published in a speedy manner — another component of combating AI we're told is critical. This continued cycle of repeated, aggressive cuts to our staff and being asked to do more with less, only for management to continue to spend on new business it isn't interested in sustaining cannot continue. We will enforce our interim agreement that guarantees better severance and other protections to laid off members, as well as demand additional support for those impacted. We will continue to bargain over our first contract with the aim of enshrining even better protections against further layoffs, working conditions continuously degraded by understaffing, and the encroachment of generative AI. And we won't stop fighting to ensure IGN remains the best destination for trustworthy, original, exciting, and creative work covering video games, entertainment, and tech. While IGN Entertainment management may not value us, we value one another and the incredible work we can do together. Behind the articles, videos, social posts, playlists, and maps of IGN are human beings, not just numbers on a spreadsheet to be pushed around when some number at the top isn't big enough. Without us, there is no IGN.
Today, IGN laid off eight extremely valuable members of our union and workforce via directive from our parent company, Ziff Davis. This, after two incredibly successful live events IGN Live and SDCC, and yet another corporate acquisition.
Please take a moment to read and share our full statement:
ICYMI: Incredible story by The Morning Call www.mcall.com/2025/07/18/l...
Inside the Long Friendship Between Trump and Epstein www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/u...
President Donald Trump's strategy has been to downplay the uproar over the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case as his supporters demand the Justice Department release much-hyped records in the investigation.
At a global town hall, Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner delivered a blunt message—A.I. is here, and every employee must use it.
Details in Status:
www.status.news/p/axel-sprin...
For years, there have been loose ends, unanswered questions, unreleased documents, and an endless amount of fodder for future conspiracy theories bit.ly/4117Cre
"If this can happen to Colbert and a storied franchise, this can happen to anyone": www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
An executive order by President Trump seeking to punish people who work with the International Criminal Court is most likely a violation of the First Amendment, a federal judge found on Friday.
My colleagues and I are rallying at City Hall Park today to demand a fair contract from our private equity bosses.
Come join us and show your support for a free and working press in NYC
As our member @josiestratman.bsky.social points out, the official transcript of the mayor's presser today erases all evidence of the beef with @c-sommerfeldt.bsky.social
Where Josie and @katiehonan.bsky.social yield their time, the transcript just reads "crosstalk."
They built careers at NY’s Hometown Paper. Now, 130 former Daily News journalists have signed a petition, calling for mgmt at the News & execs at predatory hedge fund owner Alden Global Capital to recognize the staff’s value & agree to a fair contract.
nycclc.org/news/130-for...
As protests unfold in LA, journalists are reportedly being targeted with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The right to report doesn’t disappear in a crisis. That’s when it matters most.
⬇️Here are journalist safety tools from @pressfreedom.bsky.social
Read this important post by @propublicaguild.bsky.social signed by me and many of my colleagues.
I believe in ProPublica’s mission, and in my amazing coworkers who uphold those values every day. I hope that management will agree to our requests for basic union rights, like allowing stewards in performance meetings that could lead to discipline.
On this International Workers Day I am thinking about how we at @propublica.org work on investigative journalism with moral force & holding power to account while, at the same time, management denies basic union rights to staff.
I'm so proud of the work we do @propublica.org every day. And I signed this letter because we deserve a fair union contract with basic rights — like allowing stewards in performance meetings that could lead to discipline, and a standard approach to just cause.
Journalists at @sn-media-guild.bsky.social held a picket to tell @sciencenews.bsky.social that a fair contract isn't rocket science!
After 18 months of negotiations, it's time to listen to the workers and give them a fair contract!
News: Suspended journalists sue Kari Lake and Trump administration over shutting down Voice of America
My story for NPR
www.npr.org/2025/03/21/n...
Sign the petition!
Union busting is disgusting!
