The Atlantic Union to bosses: ‘See you at The Atlantic Festival’

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The unionized workers of The Atlantic, represented by the NewsGuild of New York, will bring their fight for a fair contract to the two-day Atlantic Festival.

Members of the Editorial and Business and Technology units will pass out informational flyers outside the event, which will be held Sept. 19 and 20 at The Wharf, 760 Maine Ave. SW, Washington, D.C. 20024. On Sept. 20, at 12:30 p.m., union members will hold a rally to elevate their contract fight and will be joined by TNG-CWA leaders such as President Jon Schleuss and NewsGuild of New York President Susan DeCarava.

Among the contract issues facing the union:

• Just cause, an essential protection for this union, especially as management continues to arbitrarily use performance-improvement plans
• Layoff protections and safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence
• Reasonable remote-work policies

“The bottom line for us is that management is still not listening to us when we say we want a fair contract that includes key protections on AI and job security, such as just cause,”  said Chris Barna, the chair of the Business and Technology unit and a systems architect in The Atlantic’s engineering department. “So we’re coming to The Atlantic Festival, the company’s most important annual event, to make sure they hear us. We want to spotlight the gap between the values The Atlantic celebrates onstage and what it’s actually willing to do for the people who make it.”

The two-day festival will bring Atlantic writers and moderators together in discussion with elected officials, best-selling authors, actors, climate scientists, health-care professionals, tech leaders, and CEOs.

“Atlantic management told our bargaining committee that they were too busy planning the festival to bargain with us,” DeCarava said. “Since they aren’t at the bargaining table, we’re bringing our contract fight to Tthe Atlantic Festival, and we won’t stop until we get a fair contract.”