Employees at unionized Sports Illustrated, who were laid off in a recent round of layoffs, seek support for the athletes they cover as they fight for their jobs and the integrity of their once-venerated magazine. It has gained.
The AFL-CIO released a joint statement Monday with unions representing seven U.S. sports leagues supporting members of the Sports Illustrated Union.
“On behalf of our thousands of athlete members, we stand in solidarity with the Sports Illustrated union,” the statement reads. “These journalists, who have worked tirelessly to uphold the integrity and standards of Sports Illustrated, are the ones responsible for the licensing dispute between Arena Group, which publishes SI, and its owner, Authentic Brands Group. We were shocked to see that he had been fired.” ”
Sports Illustrated wouldn't exist without our editorial staff.
Fully supported by the AFL-CIO Sports Council, which represents eight professional player unions. @si_union In the fight against Arena Group, Arena Group sent termination notices to all union members, but never to management. pic.twitter.com/GXzSDkzYuH— AFL-CIO ✊ (@AFLCIO) March 4, 2024
This statement was supported by unions representing players in the NFL, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NWSL, MLS and USL. Each union is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 national and international labor unions that claims to represent 12.5 million workers. The National Basketball Players Association, which represents NBA players, is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO and was not involved in this statement.
What happened to the SI staff?
Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, announced on January 19 that it would be cutting a large number of its SI editorial staff, a day after announcing plans for “significant” layoffs in a “strategic move to transform its business model.” Announced dismissal. The statement cited “significant debt and recent non-payments” as the reason for the job cuts.
At the time of the layoffs, Front Office Sports reported that Arena failed to pay $3.75 million to break its contract with Authentic Brands Group, which licenses SI. The failure to pay prompted Authentic to revoke its publishing license, according to the report.
According to an email sent by Arena to SI employees and obtained by FOS, Arena cited the expiration of the license agreement and notified the employees of their termination.
According to FOS, the email read: “Authentic Brands Group (ABG) has notified us that Arena Group's license to operate the Sports Illustrated (SI) brand and SI-related properties has been officially revoked. It is written as “Received.” “As a result of this license revocation, we will be making redundant staff working on the SI brand.”
Subsequently, the SI union, along with New York's News Guild, filed a lawsuit against Arena Group for alleged union busting. According to the complaint, all members of the SI union were told they would be fired while SI management staff would keep their jobs.
“It is clear that Arena Group's ownership is using this orchestrated dispute over the SI license as a cover to crush the union and illegally target its members,” New York News Guild President Susan DeCarava said in a statement. said in a statement to the media.
Former CEO slams 'abhorrent behavior' and 'union busting'
Former Arena Group CEO Ross Levinson resigned from the company's board in a scathing letter, citing “abhorrent board conduct” following job cuts.
“Today's obliteration of Sports Illustrated's storied newsroom and union-busting tactics is the last straw,” Levinson wrote. “These actions and the board's inaction are illegal, self-serving, and will almost certainly result in shareholder litigation.” I've never seen such a mistake before.” ”
Arena issued a statement disputing Levinson's letter and calling him a “disgruntled former executive.” She cited her responsibility to shareholders as the reason for the layoffs.
“The members of the board of directors take their fiduciary duties and responsibilities seriously,” Arena's statement said. “Our decisions regarding operating expenses, strategic transactions and others were made after a thoughtful process and consideration and were determined to be in the best interests of our company and our stockholders.”
Changing trends at Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated was once the standard-bearer for sports journalism. In the age of digital media, its relevance, like that of other traditional publications, has declined, and in recent years it has become even worse. Arena acquired SI in 2019 when he was branded as Maven.
In November, Futurism reported that SI was publishing AI-generated e-commerce articles signed by non-existent authors. The article was deleted after it was published, but Arena disputed that it was generated by artificial intelligence.
“The article in question was a product review and was licensed content from an external third-party company, AdVon Commerce,” Arena's statement said. … “AdVon assured us that all articles in question were written and edited by humans.”
The statement acknowledged that “AdVon caused writers to use pen names and pseudonyms.”
Levinson was CEO at the time, but was fired in December following the scandal. Arena has temporarily replaced him with Manoj Bhargava, an entrepreneur with no notable journalism background, best known as the founder of 5-hour Energy. Bhargava stepped down from his interim role in January to avoid conflicts of interest.
Jason Frankl of FTI Consulting was subsequently named Arena's chief business transformation officer. FOS said he worked with Arena's executives and board of directors to carry out the job cuts at SI.
A joint statement Monday by sports unions and the AFL-CIO called on SI leadership to “treat SI workers fairly and abide by the union contract.”
“We will be monitoring this closely and expect Authentic and The Arena Group to treat SI workers fairly and abide by their union contracts. If we replaced our unionized employees, Sports Illustrated would no longer be Sports Illustrated.'' Our union will fight any attempt by management to treat workers unfairly. We continue to condemn and demand an immediate end to union-busting tactics at one of America's most important news organizations. ”
Disclaimer: Ross Levinsohn is a former interim CEO and executive at Yahoo.
