Vox Media Employees Walk Out Over Union Contract Dispute

Vox Media employees walked out en masse Thursday as part of a dispute over wages and benefits between the company and its unionized employees. The Vox Media Union, which represents employees at Vox Media sites including Vox, technology site The Verge, and the Eater websites, among others, has been negotiating a contract with management since forming a union months ago. On Thursday, the union said that it still did not agree with Vox on issues including fair wages, guaranteed raises, severance, and contracting work. “We’ve decided we’re not showing up to work today until we resolve these issues,” the union said in a tweet. In an email to staff on Thursday, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff said he was “disappointed that the union chose to take this course of action in the midst of good faith bargaining.” He also insisted that Vox Media would not pay employees “far above industry norms,” saying the pay rates could be “unsustainable.”