The BuzzFeed Union overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a newsroom strike amid increased fallout with management at the bargaining table.
The vote, which closed at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, earned overwhelming support from 90 percent of the 61 person BuzzFeed union. The secret ballot vote further achieved a 90 percent participation rate among the union.
“People are fucking pissed, this was absolutely the most aggressive union-busting tactic our management has taken in the three years since this union pushed them to even recognize them,” BuzzFeed News Union chair Addy Baird told The Daily Beast.
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Baird added that the union is “deeply, deeply upset” over management’s decisions that have made the union feel “not valued” and “not needed.”
In light of the vote, BuzzFeed spokesperson Matt Mittenthal, who called the process “difficult” and “painful” told The Daily Beast that “the sooner the union agrees to a package that allows BuzzFeed News to be financially sustainable, the faster it can get to solid ground.”
Senior BuzzFeed reporter Julia Reinstein echoed the remarks of Baird, noting that the union isn’t afraid to strike.
“If we need to strike in order for management to take our demands seriously and to give our colleagues a fair deal, then they better know that is what we are going to do,” Reinstein told The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast newsletter Source Material was the first to report that the union was set to announce this step. A vote to authorize the escalated union tactic of striking comes after BuzzFeed management announced last week company-wide voluntary “buyouts,” which staffers say is barley better then severance.
“Jonah Peretti should be deeply ashamed and the fact that he didn’t show up today,” Baird said, of the the Buzzfeed CEO who failed to show up at the bargaining table on Tuesday. “He’s not going to be meeting with the newsroom collectively—I mean, he is a coward.”
