Shop Paper #3: Last week's bargaining session & more on our latest proposals

August 18, 2022

Hello there, Shop F!

On Thursday, after a lengthy six-week interval, we were able to sit down, virtually, with Forbes management and its counsel. Thanks to Guild rep Anthony Napoli and Guild counsel Thomas Lamadrid for their tireless support in another grueling but productive bargaining session. And a big shout out to the 20 or so unit members who were able to drop in and join us throughout the day; your presence is critical in moving this campaign forward. 

The session, which ran for about 3 hours, kicked off with Andrea Murphy asking management about Forbes’ current hiring freeze. The bargaining committee wished to know how long the freeze would last, whether it extended beyond the newsroom, and how it could be reconciled with departures and open roles across the news organization. Forbes counsel Patrick Collins immediately went on the offensive, objecting to the questions and the manner they were raised, and refusing to make Ali Intres or Joyce Bautista Ferrari available to answer the questions. The committee painstakingly explained that these questions are of high importance to the unit and have not been answered by other means of communications, including when Joyce was approached for an informal meeting and rebuffed such a request.

Contradicting his previous position in the last session, Collins intimated that such a request would be more appropriate for informal, cooperative meetings to be bargained over (which the Unit has proposed, and to which he has not agreed). When it was noted that such meetings would be welcome, but are not yet agreed upon, Collins took a diversion to claim, incredibly, that he lacked clarity on who spoke on behalf of the unit. Such distractions aside, he eventually made clear management’s position that such questions must be put into writing and sent through him, dragging the bargaining process down and making it far more expensive for his client. This set a tone for the whole session as Ali and Joyce only spoke up on the Zoom in several post-break moments. (They never unmuted otherwise.)

To be clear: while Collins would often become reactive throughout the session, this isn’t a Forbes’ counsel problem. It’s a Forbes management issue. Company counsel acts on the behest of their client, not the other way around.  

The bargaining committee moved on to address 6 of the non-economic proposals sent to management and counsel, starting with Access to Content. Collins asked basic questions that reinforced his lack of any knowledge base about media operations – another reason we’ve been asking to have editorial representatives at the bargaining table. But several proposals, including Access to Content and a Social Media policy, were met with little meaningful pushback. Another, Access to Personnel Files, led to some concerns voiced by management about administrative burden that will require more negotiation, but wasn’t resisted in principle. Similarly with Privacy, Collins grandstanded about unlikely scenarios in which privacy would be bad, but ultimately didn’t have substantive points of disagreement.

The negotiation was more drawn out on the proposal on Prohibition on NDAs. We made it clear, through various arguments, that the unit considers this a key safety issue. Collins, in response, made it clear that he believes the #MeToo movement meaningfully started and ended with Harvey Weinstein. Collins said Forbes would return with a counter-proposal based on various state laws, but opposed a ban.

Again, Forbes management was silent on this deeply important issue.

Next was Just Cause, an important proposal for the unit. Collins argued against the notion of progressive discipline and several protections for terminated employees. Forbes said it would return with a counter-proposal, and Collins said the definition of Just Cause would need to be revisited.

After going through these new proposals, a previous proposal on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was revisited. Management and the unit were able to find common ground on one major sticking point in that proposal, and Collins expressed optimism of resolution of the proposal.

As a final act, management emailed and provided the bargaining committee with its own first proposal, for Management Rights: Compensation. The committee and union representatives agreed to consider the proposal in more detail, and encouraged management to provide the other pieces of its Management Rights proposal group to be reviewed in context.

Bargaining will resume on Tuesday, August 9, again by Zoom. We continue to believe this is the best and safest option for members, and had strong turnout in support of the session by our unit observers. We encourage everyone to register and join us for the next session. We expect to start receiving counter-proposals and more proposals from management soon, and will also be moving into economics-focused proposals moving forward, as the bargaining committee has now presented and discussed all our non-economic proposals at this time (subject to change).

Get Involved: We are looking for new people to join the bargaining committee. Contact Andrea Murphy: andreadmurphy@gmail.com to learn more. 

Cheat Sheet: Here’s a rundown of the 6 proposals we presented. 

Access to Content: This proposal details that employees shall have access to the CMS while employed, and free access to their own published work for two years after the date of termination of their employment. It also ensures Forbes would provide advanced notice before the deletion of any such published content within such a two-year window, and provide a digital copy of such affected content to the employee upon request.

Access to Personnel File: This proposal provides employees the right to review their personnel file upon request, as well as place a response in the file to anything deemed adverse found within.

Prohibition on NDAs: This proposal ensures employees have the right to Guild representation in any related meetings. It bars the company from including in settlement agreements related to claims or allegations of unlawful harassment and/or discrimination any NDAs that would keep them silent about the claim. It would also release any current or former employees from such NDAs should they already exist.

Just Cause: This proposal holds Forbes to follow principles of progressive discipline with discharge as the most severe form. It requires that the Guild receive 48 hours’ advance notice of any discipline or discharge meeting and Guild presence there. It requires two weeks’ notice for any discharge, or commensurate pay should an employee be terminated sooner.

Privacy: This proposal protects employees from the company tracking them and reviewing personal data on company-provided devices, and from the company punishing employees for incidental personal use of such devices. It prevents the company from requiring employees to use personal devices for work, and from surveilling, searching or tracking such devices. It also protects employees from search of their personal email and social media accounts.

 Social Media Accounts: This proposal ensures that the company has no claim over the intellectual property, contacts lists, usernames etc. of employee social media accounts, and that their use doesn’t constitute a trade secret or work made for hire. The company won’t direct employees to use their own accounts for any purpose, but if they do so voluntarily, the above doesn’t change. Company-operated or affiliated accounts and others to be agreed upon are excluded.

In solidarity, your bargaining committee:

Merrilee Barton

Katie Jennings

Alex Konrad

Andrea Murphy

Jon Ponciano