Union says Bloomberg Industry Group not willing to negotiate return to work

Jason Albright, the union chair of the union that represents journalists at Bloomberg Industry Group, sent out the following on Thursday to members:

Dear Colleagues,

Early this week, the Guild sent Josh Eastright our Return-to-Office Petition, in which fully 188 named colleagues called on INDG to embrace the reality that the workplace of the future will leverage many spaces of collaboration, both physical and virtual.

Acknowledging that we understand that Josh is not amenable to a full-time remote-work option for all employees, we asked him to come to the table now and bargain over our mutual visions for a hybrid workplace of the future.

HR responded on Josh’s behalf, indicating that “we discussed this topic in our recent Labor-Management Committee meeting two weeks ago.”

Asserting that INDG is “always willing to listen to employee concerns,” the note from HR indicated that “we don’t believe the matter is subject to bargaining.”

We are saddened by this deeply misguided approach, but we intend to take additional steps in coming weeks to communicate how overwhelmingly employees desire remote-work flexibility.

The Guild’s RTO Petition now has 193 signatures and counting.

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to sign it at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfi4_k4sMYny6itt0ujceRHv96Q1Ova6gglsSqclSTrFWiJmw/viewform.

We will keep you up-to-date about additional ways you can contribute to our efforts in coming weeks.

Many thanks!