NYGUILD TO ZIFF DAVIS: TICK, TOCK

NEW YORK –  Unionized journalists at Lifehacker, Mashable, and PCMag are prepared to walk out for the duration of Amazon’s July Prime Day Event, July 16 and 17, unless parent company Ziff Davis agrees to a fair contract.

Prime Day is a tentpole event for the Lifehacker, Mashable, and PCMag brands, with members of the Ziff Davis Creators’ Guild producing over a hundred Prime Day articles for readers. Most of this content contains shoppable affiliate links, which makes Prime Day a critical fiscal event for Ziff Davis.  

“We are ready to walk out over both days to show how serious we are about a fair contract, and to underscore to Ziff Davis just how crucial the work of our members is to the company’s bottom line,” said unit chair and associate editor at Mashable, Anna Iovine.

Iovine is among the 92 percent of the Ziff Davis Creators’ Guild membership that signed a strike authorization pledge to secure a fair contract. The 62-member Ziff Davis Creators Guild, which is a bargaining unit of the NewsGuild of New York, has been working under an expired contract since April 1. 

Over the last two weeks, union members have been preparing for the potential work stoppage by distributing informational fliers to the public outside company headquarters in Manhattan and holding packed strategy sessions in the event management refuses to reach a fair deal by the deadline.  

“Ziff Davis management still has time to bargain with us for a contract that honors the work of our journalists,” said Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York. “We want to reach a fair deal but time is running out and our members are prepared to withhold their labor when it will impact the company the most. We’re ready to walk.”