Breaking: The NewsGuild of New York files 3 new unfair labor practice charges against Insider on behalf of the Insider Union
Unfair labor practices ARE ugly! Lily Oberstein
Insider Union filed three new unfair labor practice charges, or ULPs, against Insider on Saturday.
One ULP claims that the company is illegally withholding information on employees’ health insurance.
The other two ULPs allege that Insider managers violated members rights’ to protest working conditions and participate in union activities.
The Insider Union filed three new unfair labor practice charges, or ULPs, against Insider on Saturday as about 250 union members entered their second week of a ULP strike.
Two of the ULPs claim that Insider violated union members’ rights to participate in union activities. One case involves a manager sending a message to two union employees via Twitter discouraging them from participating in Insider Union activities. The other claims that other managers blocked union members on social-media platforms, including Twitter and LinkedIn, after seeing their posts about the strike.
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act guarantees workers the right to join a union, collectively bargain, and take other actions that support those goals.
The third ULP claims that Insider’s management refused to bargain by failing to provide aggregate information, such as how often members went to the doctor, about union members’ healthcare usage. The ULP is separate from another filed by Insider Union earlier this year about management’s illegal switch from UnitedHealthcare to Cigna.
“It’s disappointing that Insider continues to violate labor law instead of reaching a fair agreement with Guild members that resolves the company’s unlawful changes to healthcare and establishes equitable wages, including a $65,000 minimum,” Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York, told Business Outsider.
“I encourage Insider execs to listen to the workers who power their newsroom and to come back to the table ready to bargain in good faith with contract terms that meaningfully address our demands,” she continued.
The Insider Union has been on strike since June 2. Maddie Renbarger
Blocking members, blocking rights
This week, Insider Union members posted comments to Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social-media platforms telling readers not to click on or engage with links to Insider stories. The Insider Union has said that reading or sharing Insider content during the strike amounts to crossing the virtual-picket line.
Some members commented on posts from newsroom leaders, including Insider’s Global Editor-in-Chief, Nich Carlson, and Insider’s Editor-in-Chief for business, Matt Turner, to raise awareness for both the strike and the digital-picket line. Carlson and Turner blocked some union members after they left those comments.
On Friday, both Carlson and Turner blocked Insider reporter Amanda Perelli on LinkedIn after she posted comments below story links that each had shared. Business Outsider confirmed the blockings with documentation Perelli provided.
“As journalists, and especially as managers, keeping an open line of communication should be a top priority,” Perelli told Outsider. She said she was also surprised that both decided “to block an employee at their own company on a website solely created for professionals to interact.”
“I hope Matt Turner and Nich Carlson reflect on what blocking myself and my other colleagues really means to them, and I’m hopeful they’ll reverse that decision next week so that we can continue to exercise our right to strike for a fair contract,” Perelli added.
Carlson and Turner declined to comment to Business Outsider.
Once the NewsGuild was informed that members of management had blocked Perelli and other members, the Guild discussed filing a ULP under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
The second claim filed under Section 7 says that an Insider manager sent a message via Twitter to Alex Nicoll and Emma LeGault this week, who are both on the union’s bargaining committee. The manager, who is not a member of the Insider Union, allegedly discouraged Nicoll and LeGault from being involved in the Union.
“I’ve seen this manager involved in discipline that I thought was really unfair while we’ve been bargaining,” LeGault, who is the chair of the Insider Union’s bargaining committee, said in a statement to Business Outsider. “From time to time, I copyedit work from this manager.” LeGault declined to provide the manager’s name to Business Outsider, but said that the NewsGuild has confirmed the manager’s identity and position within Insider.
“The message Alex and I got discouraged us from expressing our views about management’s actions at a time when we are fighting so hard to resolve a ULP and secure a fair contract,” she added.
The Insider Union has been on strike since June 2. Maddie Renbarger
Lack of healthcare information holds up bargaining, union says
The third ULP filed Saturday claims that Insider management has refused to provide information about how much its union employees have actually used company-sponsored healthcare coverage, which is a violation of Section 8(a)(5) of the NLRA.
That usage information is critical to securing a contract, DeCarava told Business Outsider. She said that Insider’s bargaining committee needs details on how its members use Insider’s health insurance to move negotiations forward.
DeCarava said that during bargaining, Insider’s representatives “continue to claim they cannot provide that information to the Guild, even though they have it or can easily get it, so that we may understand their proposals and make a counter — effectively trying to force us to negotiate in a black box without relevant information.”
By not providing that information, the ULP says, Insider is refusing to bargain in good faith.
Healthcare has become a contentious issue in negotiations between the Insider Union and Insider’s management. Union members’ costs for premiums, prescription drugs, therapy, and other treatments shot up after Insider switched employees’ health insurance from UnitedHealthcare to Cigna at the start of 2023, Business Outsider previously reported.
The Insider Union filed a ULP over the change in November 2022. In May, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint, indicating that it found merit in the union’s claims.
Insider did not immediately respond to Business Outsider’s request for comment.
Business Outsider is a strike publication of Insider Union, which is a unit of The NewsGuild of New York.
Follow our Twitter for updates on the strike, and if you enjoyed this content and would like to throw in some cash for our members who are losing wages every day that we strike for a fair contract, feel free to visit our strike fundraiser here. Want to help us tell the boss to reach a deal? Let Nich Carlson and Henry Blodget know you support us by sending a letter.