The Insider Union has reached a preliminary agreement with the management of news site Insider, ending the longest strike in digital media history, the union’s negotiating unit announced on Wednesday.
“Our strike is over – we go back to work tomorrow!” read a tweet from the account of the unit, which consists of some 250 people.
Employees of Insider, organized through NewsGuild, have been on strike for 13 days. Negotiations with the site’s management had failed after more than two years of negotiating higher health care costs, minimum wages and various other working conditions.
The three-year deal they reached on Wednesday includes a $65,000 salary floor, immediate raises for most unit members, a layoff moratorium until the end of 2023, a “justifiable” requirement for disciplining employees, and a commitment from management to raise more than $400,000 reimbursable healthcare costs during the term of the agreement. The preliminary contract will now go to the full unit for a ratification vote.
“The deal we won today demonstrates the power of solidarity,” said Dorian Barranco, a member of Insider Union’s negotiating committee. rack. “We came together refusing to settle for anything less than what we were worth, and our collective strength won a contract that will resonate in newsrooms across the country. It’s never an easy decision to strike, but today’s win proves it was worth it. We are excited to get back to work with our new victories in hand.”
Higher healthcare costs were a major point of tension during the negotiations. Last November, the NewsGuild filed an unfair labor practice suit against Insider with the National Labor Relations Board, which in May upheld the complaint. The complaint alleged that management had unlawfully changed health care coverage for employees, resulting in increased costs for unit members.
So far, striking staffers have encouraged readers not to cross the digital picket line by visiting Insider or clicking on one of the stories on the site. The non-union employees who continued to work, meanwhile, reused old stories and published unfinished contents.
At one point, Insider’s editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson was, too captured on film cycling through Brooklyn, New York and rips pro-union fliers calling out to him with the headline “Have you seen this millionaire?”