Sports Illustrated owner Authentic Brands Group’s decision to pull the license to publish the magazine and its associated digital assets from The Arena Group earlier this month has led to a lot of fallout. Arena cited that when handing out layoff notices to almost all SI employees, with some let go immediately and others told their jobs would be eliminated in 90 days. And the mass layoffs there, and potential for continued SI publishing either by Arena or another outlet, have also sparked some commentary on the union implications of this. And they’ve now sparked a National Labor Relations Board filing:
🚨 We have taken legal action against The Arena Group in the wake of the company’s union-busting and layoffs. Read our full release with @nyguild here: https://t.co/rI40Rb41a3 pic.twitter.com/zluOLtVNxJ
— Sports Illustrated Union (@si_union) January 29, 2024
That filing comes from the NewsGuild of New York, which represents the around 80 unionized SI staff (and those at many other publications, including The New York Times, Reuters, NBC News, and more). Here are some key highlights from it:
The NewsGuild of New York and Sports Illustrated Union took legal action against The Arena Group on Thursday, accusing the company of targeting employees for immediate termination because of their union activity.
On Jan. 19, every member of the SI union was told they would be laid off as a result of Authentic Brands Group (ABG) revoking Arena’s license to publish SI. Supervisors and managers at the publication, though, have not been laid off.
While most of the union employees were given 90 days’ notice under the New York State WARN Act, a handful were immediately let go, including one SI union officer and one who had recently filed a grievance against the company.
On Thursday, The NewsGuild of New York filed an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of the Sports Illustrated Union against The Arena Group, accusing the company of discharging employees because of their support of the union, engagement in union activities and engagement in other protected activities.
“It’s clear that The Arena Group ownership is using an engineered dispute over the SI license as a cover to union-bust and unlawfully target our members,” said Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York. “Filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board is just the first step, as we continue to explore all options for our membership.”
This is not the first time these moves have been linked to anti-union actions. Ross Levinsohn, who was initially the head of the SI media line for Arena (then TheMaven) when they signed their deal with Authentic in 2019 and then became the CEO of the whole company in 2020, described Arena “union busting tactics” in a letter of resignation from their board earlier this month, which also accused the company of “illegal” and “abhorrent” activities. (Levinsohn had previously exited the CEO role in December following 5 Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava taking control of the company.) He said “Today’s obliteration of Sports Illustrated’s storied newsroom and the union busting tactics is the last straw.” And former SI staffer Jessica Smetana, now part of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, argued last week that reducing union power was a key part of the strategy here.
“Management is very threatened by the Sports Illustrated union, and threatened by what happens when a lot of employees can come together and say, ‘We are not being treated with respect, we are not being paid the wages that we deserve, we are being told to do work that we’re not comfortable with that has corporate influence. And I think that getting rid of the union is actually a pretty calculated move.”
SI senior writer Michael Rosenberg has also spoken out on this. He told Ben Strauss of The Washington Post that Authentic CEO Jamie Salter needs to find a publisher who will maintain the quality of SI:
“Authentic is the absolute best at monetizing a brand, but the brand still has to have value. If whoever is running the editorial operation has no contractual obligation to uphold the quality of the brand, they will say, ‘To hell with Jamie Salter,’ and cheapen it by cutting salaries or resorting to clickbait if they can make a buck.”
And he sent out quite the quote-tweet of Strauss’ story:
Sports Illustrated is only as good as the people who produce it. Busting our union is illegal and would destroy the brand. We are fighting back. #WeAreSIhttps://t.co/siAXNCp6Ae
— Michael Rosenberg (@Rosenberg_Mike) January 29, 2024
The idea that the Arena-Authentic dispute (which stems from Arena’s Bhargava missing a $3.75 million payment earlier this month and trying to renegotiate their deal, and Salter saying “I told him to **** off“) was “engineered” merely for union-destruction purposes is debatable. There have long been tensions between the sides, including around past rounds of SI layoffs. And the financial fight here over the amount Arena pays Authentic to publish SI looks to be at the heart of this, and goes beyond just whether the SI staffers are unionized or not.
But many publishers very much do want non-union environments, which give them more control over staffing decisions. And going from a union environment to a non-union one has been cited as an approach in many recent media moves, including The New York Times‘ controversial decision to replace their unionized sports department with coverage from non-union staffers at The Athletic. Again, that wasn’t the only factor in that move, but many have argued convincingly that it was a notable factor. (And that union, which is also part of the NewsGuild of New York, filed its own NLRB grievance last summer. That grievance was eventually denied, leading to a move to arbitration.)
It’s certainly possible that the outcome of the Authentic talks on who will publish SI could lead to a non-union environment there. That’s perhaps especially true if a new publisher is picked, but it could happen even if a deal is struck with Arena. So the discussions about the union element are a notable part of the conversation here, as are the conversations about which employees were immediately let go. And it’s significant to see those now produce a NLRB filing.
As per the next steps, the NLRB will now investigate this. If they find the charge has merit, then they have options to take this further, including awarding compensation to the union or encouraging the sides to reach a settlement. That whole process can take time, and it seems unlikely this alone will lead to a return of the status quo antebellum at SI (especially as, again, the battle between Authentic and Arena looks to be a larger one). But it’s notable to see the union-busting talk escalate to a grievance filing, and that could lead to some tangible results.
