More than 40 unionized staff at Reviewed, Gannett’s product reviews site, walked off the job Tuesday morning after they failed to get bargaining dates from the company.
The one-day strike, timed to coincide with Amazon’s Prime Big Deals Day, comes more than half a year after workers at Reviewed won their union elections. Staff initially organized as one union but were split into two units after Gannett objected; one for editorial workers and one for the publication’s lab and operations workers. The two unions have roughly 50 members combined.
Gannett has been slow to provide the unions with requested information and dates during which they can start negotiating a new contract, said Garrett Steele, an SEO updates editor at Reviewed. The unions are demanding that Gannett provide bargaining dates twice a month and restore overtime opportunities to hourly employees, which the company eliminated after the unions went public.
“The silence is sort of deafening at this point,” said Steele, who also serves as a shop steward in the editorial unit. “Lacking any other recourse in terms of making our various reasonable requests heard for Gannett to act and provide us bargaining dates in accordance with their legal obligations, we decided to band together and make our resolute stance in the matter now.”
In a statement to Poynter, Gannett labor relations counsel Amy Garrard said, “We are prepared for Prime Day and there will be no disruption to our content. We have been working diligently with the unit leadership and will bargain in good faith at the negotiating table.”
The striking workers are asking readers not to click on any Reviewed links while the walkout is ongoing. Shopping holidays, like Amazon’s Prime Days and Black Friday, are the site’s biggest revenue drivers, Steele said. When Gannett laid off staff last fall, Reviewed staff were largely spared, and they were told by leadership that it was because they were such a high priority to the company, according to Steele.
“Then our layoffs actually took place early in the year. They let us deliver them a Black Friday and a Christmas shopping season and then enacted the layoffs,” Steele said. “So we know it was important enough for that kind of maneuvering.”
The number of newsroom work stoppages has increased dramatically over the past two years, in part because journalists have been organizing at record rates during the pandemic. Those newly formed unions are now working to get contracts, and in the face of delays, they have turned to strikes to accelerate negotiations.
Reviewed staff walked off the job earlier this year in June when several Gannett unions staged the largest labor protest in the company’s history. Hundreds of journalists participated to protest delays in contract negotiations.
The June walkout proved to be successful for the Reviewed units, Steele said. After the Reviewed workers unionized, Gannett eliminated transit reimbursement for local employees. The company resumed reimbursements after the June strike.
One reason why the Reviewed units are eager to start bargaining is to address wages. Steele said some Reviewed staffers have multiple jobs or live with four or more roommates to make ends meet. Similar stories exist at other Gannett shops, and Steele said that is why Reviewed workers have participated in collective actions like the walkouts.
“It’s a hell of a thing to be thrown into the middle of a pressing social issue like wage depression and realize that you actually can do something about it on a small scale that will ripple out and have consequences for your immediate coworkers, but also for people in the company at large.”
Managing editor Ren LaForme contributed reporting.
This article was updated to clarify that Reviewed employees are demanding a restoration of overtime opportunities, not overtime pay.
