UNIONIZED STAFF CRASH NEW YORKER DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE

NEW YORK - As The New Yorker celebrates its hundredth year in print with a new Netflix documentary, dozens of its staff members — represented by the NewsGuild of New York — lined the sidewalk distributing flyers, which educated fans of the magazine about union-busting happening behind the scenes. 

The magazine’s unionized workers, many of whom star in the film, wore red clothing and braved freezing temperatures to gather at 6:30 P.M. on Thursday, December 4, outside the Paris Theater, where “The New Yorker at 100” was making a splashy public debut. The film went live on Netflix on Dec. 5.

The film’s Executive Producer is Judd Apatow; Jon Hamm and Sarah Jessica Parker appear in it; and The New Yorker’s editor-in-chief, David Remnick, plays a central role. The union’s flyers called on the magazine’s leaders to condemn illegal retaliation against union leaders. The Newhouse family, which owns Condé Nast, was in attendance, as were C.E.O. Roger Lynch, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, and celebrities such as Martha Stewart and Molly Ringwald. Tina Brown, the former Editor-in-Chief of The New Yorker, accepted a union flyer with a smile.

On November 5, Condé Nast management terminated four union leaders and suspended five others after the union members engaged in federally protected activity: gathering in their workplace to call for answers about abrupt layoffs at multiple brands, including WIRED and Teen Vogue. Among those fired was a respected New Yorker fact-checker, Jasper Lo, who himself makes a brief appearance in the film. More than a hundred staff members spoke out in the days after the firings, calling upon Condé Nast leadership to make things right. More than 4,600 people have signed a public petition calling for the Fired Four to be reinstated. 

Amid an industry upended by economic precarity, The New Yorker has maintained a reputation for fearless and principled journalism. “People want fairness and fact-checking,” David Remnick, The the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, says in the film, “and they also want some media outlets that aren’t knuckling under.” 

The union challenged The New Yorker and its parent company to act on the values that are touted in the film. “The magazine must live up to its reputation for tenacity—not only in its journalism but also in protecting the rights of its workers,” says Lauren Harris, a co-chair of the New Yorker Union. “We’re immensely proud of the magazine we make, and of the work we do. We won’t let Condé Nast tarnish the integrity of our institution, and we won’t stand for their ongoing disrespect for unionized labor.”

“Condé Nast’s ham-handed union busting is an embarrassment to the celebrated magazines that it owns,” says Daniel Gross, a union co-chair who appears in the film in his role as a New Yorker story editor. “By retaliating against journalists for peaceful and protected activity, the company is trampling on our rights, our union contract, and the independence and integrity of The New Yorker. We will not be intimidated, and we will win.”