Forbes’ unionized journalists stage first walk-out in magazine’s history

LONDON: Unionized journalists at Forbes said they were staging a three-day walk-out from Thursday to protest alleged denial of rights and slow contract negotiations that have stretched for more than two years.

The planned walk-out, which started at 9 a.m. ET and will continue through Jan. 29 till 11:59 p.m. ET, marks the first known work stoppage in the magazine’s 106-year history, the NewsGuild of New York said.

“Management’s only interest is to delay, stall and obstruct, as well as try to block our members from protected union action,” said Andrea Murphy, unit chair and statistics editor for Forbes.

“We are taking this unprecedented step to show that we will not allow such disrespectful behavior towards our negotiations to continue,” Murphy added.

The NewsGuild of New York, which represents nearly 6,000 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, said management’s “union-busting behavior has been prevalent since Forbes Union certified”. Forbes said it was “working diligently with the guild to reach a collective bargaining agreement”.