Condé Nast employees form union with NewsGuild

Employees at the publishing giant Condé Nast announced on Tuesday the creation of a companywide union.

The Condé Nast Union includes over 500 employees across 11 Condé Nast titles at Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Glamour, GQ, Self, Teen Vogue, them, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Condé Nast Entertainment. The employees span full-and part-time editorial, video, and production workers, who are pushing for better pay, increased job security, and a stronger commitment to diversity and equity.

In a statement shared through the NewsGuild, which also represents editorial employees at The New York Times as well as other publications, said it had asked Condé Nast management for voluntary recognition.

"The current workplace culture at Condé Nast allows many people of color and women to be consistently silenced by management. It's no longer enough to play-act a commitment to diversity, or apply bandaid solutions to issues of discrimination,” said Kaylee Hammonds, senior manager, social media at Epicurious. ”We're unionizing today across the company so that this hypocrisy that currently thrives at Condé Nast can be remedied."

"There is no viable ‘future’ of Condé Nast if women and people of color continue to be used to fill a diversity quota,” added Cortni Spearman, senior manager, social media at Glamour. “The only viable future at the company, and for this industry, is one where all workers have a strong stake in decisions that directly affect them. I'm proud to take this step towards that future today along with hundreds of my colleagues."

Condé Nast employees are part of a growing wave of union organization efforts across the publishing industry, starting in 2018 with an organizing drive by editorial employees at The New Yorker. They announced their union publicly in June of 2018 with nearly 90% of the staff supporting the effort.

In March 2019, they were joined by colleagues at Ars Technica and Pitchfork, and in April 2020 by those at Wired. All four publications were voluntarily recognized by Condé Nast.

“Workers at Condé Nast have organized hundreds of their colleagues with one shared goal: to raise standards and fight for better working terms and conditions. This is an opportunity for Condé Nast management to work more collaboratively with employees and be held accountable in addressing long-standing concerns about equity, inclusion, fairness and diversity,” said Susan DeCarava, president, The NewsGuild of New York.

“I’m excited to welcome these workers into the Guild and proud to join them in their fight to improve their workplace.

Condé Nast employees form union with NewsGuild

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