Strike Averted: The New Yorker, Pitchfork and Ars Technica Unions Reach Agreement in Principle with Condé Nast

Members of the New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Ars Technica Unions announced this week that a strike has been averted and that they have reached an agreement in principle on their first contracts with Condé Nast.

The agreements include wage increases of up to 63 percent at The New Yorker, up to 58 percent at Pitchfork and up to 35 percent at Ars Technica. All three units will have a salary floor of $60,000 by the final year of the agreement. The agreements also include strict limitations on future health-care cost increases, defined working hours for salaried employees (a 40-hour workweek and an eight-hour day), a ban on nondisclosure agreements related to discrimination and harassment, and successorship provisions to help ensure that our members’ hard-won collective bargaining agreements will remain in effect if a publication is sold.

“Throughout two and half years of negotiations, our union remained steadfast in our commitment to improve the quality of life for ourselves and for future employees," said Natalie Meade, Natalie Meade, Unit Chair of the New Yorker Union. "Thanks to our members’ hard work, the era of at-will employment and wage stagnation at The New Yorker is finally over. To reach agreements in principle on the very first collective bargaining agreements at Condé Nast is a historic occasion, and we’re proud to have blazed the trail, setting a standard for compensation and establishing a framework of accountability that will benefit New Yorker and Condé Nast employees for years to come.” Read more in HuffPo, the NY Times, and the Washington Post.