LABOR FIGHT

G/O Media Reporters Locked Out as Staff Union Goes on Strike

Multiple staffers confirmed to The Daily Beast they were locked out of their office, email, and Slack accounts by late Tuesday morning.

Multiple reporters at G/O Media on Tuesday reported being unable to access either their physical office or virtual platforms as the union that represents them, GMG Union, went on strike over contract negotiations. The union representing more than 100 employees at Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, and Kotaku, among other G/O publications, went on strike after union leaders and management were unable to agree to new contract terms, The New York Times reported. Some of the contract terms sought by the union include minimum wage increases and a cap on health costs. “The whole reason we’re going on strike is many of us are underpaid, and a strike doesn’t really help with that but we’re fighting to get the things we deserve,” Lisa Marie Segarra, a Kotaku editor and member of the GMG Union bargaining committee, told the Times. The union urged readers not to visit their sites, and some staffers walked out along Sixth Avenue in New York. Multiple G/O staffers in the union and the union’s communications director confirmed to The Daily Beast they were eventually locked out of their office, email, and Slack accounts around 11 a.m., only after they received a memo from G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller blasting their efforts. Spanfeller has asserted that the GMG Union refused to agree to the same terms its sister union, The Onion Union, accepted last year. He then wrote, according to Variety: “Unfortunately, that puts G/O Media in an untenable position with regard to these current negotiations.”

—Justin Baragona contributed to this report.