Our letter to shareholders

To the board members and shareholders of BuzzFeed, Inc.:

We, the BuzzFeed News Union, are writing to you today because we feel it is vital you hear directly from us about the current state of our newsroom and the ongoing process of union bargaining.

As you are surely aware, BuzzFeed management recently proposed a voluntary buyout program intended to make major cuts to our investigations, inequality, politics, and science teams in what they say is an effort to make the news division profitable. This proposal came after more than two years of negotiations over our first Collective Bargaining Agreement and at a time when only a handful of critical proposals remain on the table.

We have been bargaining over economic proposals for a year, and the company’s decision to propose cutting a third of our bargaining unit after representing only a week earlier that they could afford the economic package they were proposing for all 62 of our union members was regressive and illegal. We had no choice but to file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board last month.

As you may also be aware, our union took an emergency strike authorization vote at the bargaining table on March 29, which passed with more than 90% approval from our members. That vote does not mean we are going on strike immediately, but rather that the membership of our union has authorized the union’s bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary to respond to BuzzFeed’s bad faith bargaining. We do not want to strike, but we are ready and willing to do so if we must.

Despite BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti’s frequent talk of subsidizing News, our division subsidizes his reputation. Our reporting has exonerated innocent incarcerated people, been cited in impeachment investigations, exposed corruption and abuse of power around the world, and has received the highest honors and recognition in the industry. That is part of how we attract a dedicated and ever-growing audience of readers, who can clearly see that BuzzFeed has been shamelessly engaging in bad faith, anti-worker actions. Our audience has repeatedly shown they will stand with us during union efforts, offering to boycott the site or cancel their memberships, and we are grateful to know they will have our backs if a strike becomes necessary.

We are incredibly disappointed in the company’s decision to gut our newsroom, and find it extremely worrisome that we have not been presented with any compelling vision for the future of BuzzFeed News. That is why the union has proposed expanding buyout eligibility to more of our colleagues, and are continuing to fight for a strong contract in order to protect the talented people who will stay with the company.

Compounding this lack of vision, BuzzFeed management is proposing a minimum newsroom salary of only $55,000. They have also dug into their position that employees of the News division should be required to seek approval even for unpaid outside work.

During our most recent bargaining sessions, the Guild made several major concessions. Perhaps most notably, though we had been pushing for significant improvements to our paltry 401k matching program, we accepted management’s last proposal — which only locks in the right to not have our 401k matching reduced or eliminated — as it has become clear to us that the company is not interested in investing in the future of our newsroom. 

BuzzFeed management, and particularly Peretti, have a major opportunity to win back the trust and goodwill of their employees by engaging in good faith with our union and securing a fair deal as soon as possible.

The company understands our priorities, and we hope this letter helps you understand them as well. We look forward to seeing the proposals BuzzFeed management puts on the table at our next bargaining session, and we hope to receive terms that demonstrate the company’s respect for our newsroom and the work we do.

We organized this union because we love what we do. That is why we were so devastated by the changes being proposed in the newsroom we’ve been so proud to be a part of. We do not want to strike, but we are running out of options. We are ready and willing to take further action if it becomes necessary — and whether it becomes necessary is BuzzFeed management’s decision.

Signed,

The BuzzFeed News Union

Addy Baird, Unit Chair

Tashween Ali, Bargaining Committee

Ema O'Connor, Bargaining Committee

Katie Notopoulos, Bargaining Committee

Julia Reinstein, Bargaining Committee

Pia Peterson Haggarty

Sarah Schweppe

Krystie Yandoli

Salvador Hernandez

Venessa Wong

Cody Corrall

Alexa Lee

Zahra Hirji

Loren Cecil

Sarah Mimms

Rosalind Adams

Kadia Goba

Joseph Bernstein

Kavitha Surana

Steffi Cao

Scaachi Koul

Katie Camero

Hamed Aleaziz

Richard Nieva

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Emily Baker-White

Ayanna Miller

Sydnee Thompson

Adolfo Flores

Derek Gardner

Michael Blackmon

Brandon Hardin

Sierra Tall

Alessa Dominguez

Zia Thompson

Rosie Gray

Shannon Keating

Stephanie McNeal Henry

Sarah Emerson

Lissandra Villa Huerta

Caroline O’Donovan

Peter Aldhous

Zoe Tillman

Otillia Steadman

Melissa Segura

Kelsey Weekman

Ellie Hall

David Mack

Scott Pham

Jason Leopold

Brianna Sacks

Katherine Miller

Dan Vergano

Nidhi Prakash

Paul McLeod

Stephanie Lee

Stephanie K. Baer

Emerson Malone

Christopher Miller

Inching Closer To the Finish Line (We Hope)

At our last two bargaining sessions, we continued to make progress in important areas, like hours and overtime, and came to a tentative agreement (TA) on reductions in force and severance.

But we’re still far apart on some key proposals.

Here are the highlights:

REDUCTIONS IN FORCE & SEVERANCE: TOOT TOOOOT! Time to blow the victory horn — we had a major win on this proposal. And that means this issue is officially KO'd. I mean, TA'd. 

Here's where we landed: The union will get 30 days to discuss alternatives to layoffs and employees will receive a two-week notice regarding any such layoffs. (Yes, that means the company can notify affected employees after 15 days of discussion with the News Guild, though the talks would continue for another 15 days after those notifications.)

If layoffs do happen, employees will get a minimum of eight weeks of severance, plus an additional week for every six months of service up to a maximum of 24 (!) weeks. Laid-off employees will also be placed on a recall list for a year afterward, which means they could be re-hired in the event the same (or a comparable) job becomes available, and guaranteed at least an interview with a hiring manager for any other position they qualify for. 

Needless to say, this is huge!

OUTSIDE WORK: We accepted all of management’s changes from their last counter with the exception of one word: News. Where they referred to needing approval for work that is “competitive with BuzzFeed,” we edited their language to “competitive with BuzzFeed News.” Of course, this word makes a huge difference. We don’t want to have to get approval to do work that may conflict with the rest of the company but not our specific jobs. We believe we should be able to post sourdough recipes or makeup tutorials on Instagram without our managers’ OK because they don’t own us like that!

Management seemed to appreciate that we are trying to get this across the finish line, but they continued to resist agreeing to a policy that would only apply to work competitive with news. 🙃

HOURS & OVERTIME: Management finally backed away from their proposal that employees should only get comp time for work done on a scheduled day off and acknowledged that this is not the way it works now! The company again proposed continuing the current policy of awarding comp time only in four-hour increments. We agreed to this in our latest counter but also proposed a flexible solution for situations where an employee works more than eight hours, but less than four additional hours. We’ve suggested that it should be up to the employee and their manager to work out a reduced schedule another day to compensate for <4 hour increments. We also proposed that if overtime-eligible employees are called into work during previously scheduled time off, they would receive double time pay and have their PTO restored.

EXPENSES & EQUIPMENT: Last month, BuzzFeed rolled out its return to office plan, extending the remote/flexible work option into the future and reducing the pandemic-era WFH stipend from $125/month to $75/month. We accepted management’s offer of a $75 stipend for all employees in cities with BuzzFeed offices. But for workers who work and live in cities where there is no longer — or never was — an office, we proposed that the company provide them with an additional $50/month. We also accepted management’s offer of a $300 WFH set-up bonus for new employees.

BENEFITS & LEAVES: We are largely in agreement with the company on most pieces of this proposal — in theory. But we’re still a ways apart on some concrete benefits, including paid leaves and healthcare costs. In our latest counter, we proposed 7% and 6% yearly caps on healthcare premium and deductible costs, respectively. We also held our 401(k) proposal, which is a huge priority for our members: 100% matching up to 6% of the employee’s contribution. The company’s outside counsel said this was “problematic” — despite admitting that the company’s 401(k) matching is far lower than that of almost any other newsroom in the country — because it isn’t where BuzzFeed wants to invest. If it’s problematic, it’s our problematic fave.

On continuing education, which is now part of our larger benefits package, we accepted management’s theoretical offer of tuition reimbursement if they offer it to everyone else. We have also proposed that the company should pay for professional development courses.

WAGES: We held on our proposed salary floor of $70,000 but made a movement in management’s direction on the minimum salaries for higher level jobs. We also held on our previous floor of a 5% guaranteed wage increase for employees who make less than $80K and made some movement on the annual raises for those with higher salaries.

We had previously proposed either an increase to the new minimums or a 1% salary increase for all employees upon ratification of our contract, but in our latest counter we instead offered a one-time ratification bonus equal to 3% of our post-ratification salary up to $3,000.

SUCCESSORSHIP: We have proposed that in the event BuzzFeed News is sold our contract would remain in place. But management has so far refused to give us this reasonable — and very important (!) — assurance and instead insist that they will only do what the law requires, which is basically nothing except telling the new owner that the CBA exists.

There isn’t much middle ground between our two perspectives here. And while we have no idea what the future holds on this issue, ensuring that a theoretical new owner honors the employee protections and benefits we have spent so long fighting for is absolutely critical.

Why We're Walking Out

Today, BuzzFeed shareholders are voting to take the company public in a deal that will make our rich executives even richer. Management believes that BuzzFeed is the future of digital media. We agree. But we believe the future can only be as strong as our working conditions. 

We have been bargaining our contract for almost two years. There is no BuzzFeed News without us, and we’re walking out today to remind management of that fact. Below are some of the most critical issues BuzzFeed management is refusing to listen to us on:

PAY AND BENEFITS: Management has only offered 1% guaranteed raises per year, and they have not budged on their proposed $50,000 salary floor. That’s not enough to live in the major cities like New York and San Francisco where BuzzFeed has newsrooms, and not enough to attract truly diverse talent. Management also proposed salary floors cleverly designed to ensure no one in our union would have their pay raised a cent. All the while, they continue to refuse to even cement our current benefits on paper. 

CREATIVE CONTROL: BuzzFeed management has dug in on a proposal regulating the creative work many of us do outside of our jobs, and it’s even more restrictive than the current policy. It would require that union members get approval to do any outside “content” work — including pitching a freelance article that falls outside your newsroom beat, writing a personal Medium post about your mental health, posting outfits on Instagram, or even doing a makeup tutorial on TikTok. We live a large part of our lives online, especially in the ongoing pandemic, and BuzzFeed management is trying to stake out ownership over those lives, our free time, and hobbies.

CLICKS AND DISCIPLINE: Management has repeatedly resisted our proposal that union members not be disciplined over traffic or revenue metrics, and they have repeatedly pushed for squishy language and carve-outs for some writers. Pageviews and clicks are not something an individual employee can control and are often influenced by social media algorithms and readers’ biases. We believe when you come to BuzzFeed News, you should be able to trust that we are motivated not by clicks, but by honest reporting.

Here’s what our members had to say about why they support the union’s fight on these issues and what a strong contract means to them:

“I support our BuzzFeed News Union and a strong first contract because while this company goes public and makes its top executives (even more) wealthy, the workers who have helped build the company and its strong reputation deserve basic protections for their jobs, their work, their salaries, and their benefits. Because as this company grows, so have its workers and their families. We love our work, but we deserve to know that our health care costs won't spike, that we will be able to spend time with our kids with parental leave, and that we'll be able to have a 401(k) that will provide some sort of future for us, just as our work has provided a future for the company. Its workers have weathered layoffs and uncertainty, and good intentions don't mean much if management can't put them down on paper.”

—Salvador Hernandez, reporter


“Job security in this industry is waning, but newsrooms that respect their employees enough to support strong contracts seem to attract the brightest stars. That’s a culture I want to be a part of.”

—Kadia Goba, reporter


“This union contract is an opportunity to build an enduring newsroom that is able to hire, and retain, talent capable of out-reporting the most powerful media institutions in the US. A strong contract means people of all economic backgrounds will feel confident applying to work for BuzzFeed News, knowing they won't need to worry about making rent, paying for medical care, or getting much-earned time off. A powerful, agile, diverse newsroom starts with fair compensation.”

—Brandon Hardin, news curation editor


“I stand with my union 100% because I want BuzzFeed News to be a place where I, and my talented coworkers, can build a long career. That’d be a newsroom that pays everyone fairly and outlines clear paths for advancement, regardless of which department we happen to be in. That’d be a company that commits to affordable health care costs and to severance packages that adequately reflect our years of service. And that’d be a workplace that encourages us to be our whole, creative selves, not one that grants our bosses first claim to every idea we have off the clock. In an industry marked by constant upheaval, a strong contract that upholds these protections — and many others — is crucial to making BuzzFeed News a place I’d stay for the long haul.”

—Stephanie M. Lee, reporter


“I support the BuzzFeed News Union because we need a strong contract — one that keeps copy editors from feeling overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by the company. We all deserve job security, damn it.”

—Emerson Malone, copy editor


STAND WITH US

Show your support for our fight by tweeting that we deserve a fair contract with adequate pay raises, affordable health care, a sensible outside work policy, and reasonable discipline standards. Please tag @bfnewsunion and use the #BFNWalksOut hashtag to tell our executives why you stand with us. BuzzFeed must do better.