Fortune staffers walk out at lunch

Staffers who are part of the News Guild of New York union, which represents digital employees of Fortune magazine, took a coordinated lunch break Thursday to the parent company slow-walking contract talks.

A supermajority of members left their desks at 1 p.m. and presented management with a letter with a demand for the company to step up and agree to a fair contract immediately.

Fortune management has not responded to the union’s last proposal, which members presented in May, on indemnification, a standard in the industry. The proposal, which memorializes a common practice in newsrooms across the country, provides journalists with legal and financial support and  protection against legal liability when reporting on behalf of Fortune.

Since Fortune Union’s certification in 2019, the News Guild has filed seven unfair labor practice charges, including one earlier this month challenging management’s unlawful directive to return to in-person work. Returning to the office is a mandatory subject of bargaining, a position that’s been affirmed last month by the National Labor Relations Board.

“We simply will not tolerate the company trampling on our rights as unionized workers nor its slow-walking contract talks,” said Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, unit chair of the Fortune Union, in a statement. “We are taking this lunch-out today to show the company we are not backing down and ignoring us isn’t going to make us stop. We are what makes Fortune work and they need to respect our rights as union workers.”