Unionized staffers at CBS News 24/7, the news organization’s free streaming channel, have pledged to strike if management does not reach an agreement on a new labor contract soon.
“We, the undersigned Writers Guild of America East members at CBS News 24/7, sign this strike pledge calling on the company to meet us where we are at on our most important issues: guaranteed wage increases, meaningful overtime rules, protected union jurisdiction, and flexible work from home protections,” the statement read.
Tuesday marks the last scheduled day for negotiations between the union’s bargaining committee and CBS News management. If a deal is not reached and the bargaining committee decides to strike, it must get approval from the WGA East Council and the bargaining unit’s members via a vote. With 95% of the 60 unionized staffers signing the pledge, the committee is showing CBS News how the vote will go.
“Our colleagues on the bargaining committee have put in significant time and effort to negotiate our new contract. We pledge to support them and will participate at minimum in a 24-hour walkout and strike if necessary to win a contract that protects the things that matter to us the most,” the statement read.
TheWrap has reached out to CBS News for comment and will update with any response.
CBS News 24/7 staffers unionized in 2019 as part of a campaign on the part of WGA East to unionize digital news media workers throughout New York and the wider East Coast. This is the third contract cycle for the union, which began negotiations on Feb. 10.
While the talks only affect CBS News’ round-the-clock streaming service, which also airs the company’s flagship shows like “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours,” they are happening amidst the background of sweeping changes occurring at the network under the new leadership of editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who took charge in October after the completion of parent company Paramount Global’s acquisition by David Ellison’s Skydance last summer.
Last month, it was reported that CBS News was planning sweeping layoffs with an undetermined timetable and potentially as much as 15% of the network’s workforce affected. It comes after at least 11 staffers at “CBS Evening News” took the offer of a voluntary buyout, including producer Alicia Hastey, who criticized the network’s pivot away from “underrepresented perspectives, interviews that challenged conventional wisdom and efforts to make our journalism more responsive to a skeptical public.”
