Categories: OLD Media Moves

Union files unfair labor complaint against Consumer Reports

The News Guild of New York has filed an unfair labor complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Consumer Reports.

The complaint, filed late last week, claims that the magazine has not provided information to the union about the reasons why it terminated workers and how their work is now being done.

The complaint states that Consumer Reports “has failed and refused to provide the Guild with relevant and truthful information regarding its reasons for terminating such employees; has misrepresented its reasons for terminating such employees; and has denied the Guild access to information relating to the replacement of these employees by supervisors, managers, subcontractors, and others>’

In June, Consumers Union, the parent of the magazine, laid off 17 employees, including 11 Guild members, after it cut its ShopSmart magazine.

Anthony Napoli, the Guild’s local representative for Consumer Reports, told Talking Biz News that the relationship between the union and Consumer Reports has become more adversarial in the past year. The Guild’s contract expires at the end of the year.

“It’s been very trying, to say the least,” said Napoli.

A Consumer Reports spokesman provided the following statement: “Consumer Reports has acted in full compliance with the law and we believe the charge should be dismissed.”

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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Joe says:
November 3, 2015 at 9:54 am
How about the countless Guild members that have been fired over the last 3-5 years? It hasn't just been the last year that management has been in conflict with the Guild; has the News Guild of New York thought about organizing all of the workers who have been dismissed by Consumers Union?