Nearly a month after the union was voluntarily recognized by management, the IGN Creators Guild has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company, alleging bad-faith bargaining.
The charge, filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday, alleges IGN “has bargained in bad faith regarding layoffs and failed to provide requested information necessary for bargaining.” According to Pacific Media Workers Guild executive officer Michael Applegate, whose union represents creative and editorial workers at the gaming and entertainment publication, the company “made it clear they had no intention to work with us” when the union sought to negotiate three layoffs that took place on March 7, and for which it had no prior notice. “What the union was looking for here was a good-faith effort to resolve this,” Applegate says, but allegedly management nixed all of the union’s proposals on the layoffs, such as transferring individuals to open roles. “The company essentially said, here’s our proposal on severance, take it or leave it.”
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The union has taken the position that since the two parties are about to begin the process of negotiating a contract, they must bargain over the layoffs. Meanwhile, Applegate claims the company has expressed that the cuts were decided on prior to the union being voluntarily recognized, and it is under no such obligation. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to IGN and its owner Ziff Davis for a comment.
The company expressed that, with the layoffs, it sought to reallocate resources at the publication, per the union, which has emphasized that the company has not told them it is in financial distress. The positions that IGN eliminated are all on the publication’s features team. “Journalism as a whole is in flux right now. We are in emergency mode across everything, but also we know what value we bring to the table as things morph and change to whatever they will be five years from now,” says IGN features editor Amelia Emberwing. “It’s never easy when a layoff happens, but what makes this one so impossible for us to understand is that it did not have to occur.”
The union announced that management had recognized the group on February 22, just a few weeks after workers first went public with their organizing drive. One of the key reasons that workers sought to organize in the first place was the current wave of cost cuts roiling the media business, as well as the threat of AI. “At a time when our industry faces so much uncertainty amid mass layoffs and the rise of generative AI, it’s more important than ever for us to ensure IGN remains a great place to work not just today, but for the future IGN that doesn’t exist yet,” senior reporter Rebekah Valentine said in a statement at the time.
Workers are seeking layoff protections, as well as augmented wages, more “affordable” health insurance and contractual language governing AI and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Notes Applegate, “Right now, our unit is really concerned about future layoffs and they’re seeing how the company handled this and they’re saying, ‘This could absolutely be me next.’ “
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