Pageant Media union files NLRB complaint claiming unfair practices

The Pageant Media Workers’ Guild, which represents business journalists working at publications such as HFM, Fund Intelligence and Real Estate Fund Intelligence, has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming unfair practices.

The union claims that the company has removed work from the unit by hiring freelancers to do union work or moving union jobs to non-unionized offices in the United Kingdom. These removals have meant that when a union member has departed the company for a new job, the company gets to replace the work, but the union does not get to replenish its membership.

As a result, the union says it has lost over 40 percent of its membership since it announced its formation on April 20, 2020. As a result of terminations, promotions, attrition, and not filling positions, the unit has fallen from 24 members to 14.

The union also says that the company is currently trying to lay off another production editor, and the union is currently negotiating with the company about that move. In July 2020, Pageant laid off an editor, a reporter, and a production editor. It also fired a reporter.  In October 2020, Pageant laid off another editor.

The company claims that all of the layoffs are justified as part of a years-long restructuring plan that predated the union.

The moves come as Kip McDaniel, Institutional Investor’s editor in chief, is set to join the company as the new president of the Americas, and Institutional Investor deputy editor Leanna Orr has been appointed as director of allocator content.