Conde Nast Upheaval Signals a New Level of Corporate War on Media Workers

"Last month, four journalists and prominent activists with Condé Nast's union, Condé United, were abruptly sacked after they protested a spate of layoffs at another celebrated Condé Nast publication, Teen Vogue. A group of roughly 20 editorial staffers from the union gathered by the human resources department at Condé Nast's 1 World Trade Center offices to confront the company's Chief People Officer Stan Duncan with pointed questions about the layoffs."

"Those two faces of corporate media were in the spotlight earlier this month, when red-clad members of the New York NewsGuild stood passing out flyers outside the Paris Theater, which was premiering the "New Yorker at 100" - a documentary paean to the magazine's history of pioneering journalism."

""Condé Nast's ham-handed union busting is an embarrassment to the celebrated magazines that it owns.""

Media executives are pursuing mega-merger deals while media workers confront job cuts and increased anti-union hostility. Old patterns of inequity are reappearing alongside corporate consolidation and technological disruption. Red-clad NewsGuild members distributed flyers outside the Paris Theater during the "New Yorker at 100" premiere to call attention to attacks on unionized staff. Condé Nast faced criticism for what a union co-chair called ham-handed union busting. Four journalists and activists with Condé United were abruptly sacked after protesting Teen Vogue layoffs; roughly 20 staffers had confronted Chief People Officer Stan Duncan and received no answers before firings and suspensions occurred.

Read at Truthout