Posted on 02/25/2025 4:16:02 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Writers Guild of America East additionally alleges that staffers identified for cuts have been told they can reapply for their jobs.
As MSNBC continues to make major structural changes to its lineup, members of the union representing the cable network’s writers and producers say that 99 of their number are slated for cuts.
The Writers Guild of America East’s bargaining unit at MSNBC decried the “mass layoffs” on “at least nine different shows” in a statement on Tuesday. According to the guild, those shows include The ReidOut, Alex Wagner Tonight, The Weekend, Andrea Mitchell Reports, Ayman Mohyeldin Reports, Weekends with Jonathan Capehart, The Katie Phang Show, José Díaz-Balart Reports and Inside with Jen Psaki.
“This devastating news comes after the slow, painful trickle of announcements regarding a near-total overhaul of the network’s broadcast line-up,” the group wrote.
The bargaining unit additionally alleged that the company has told employees who have been targeted for layoffs that they can reapply for their jobs, given that many roles are open or are set to open at MSNBC amid the shakeup. Open roles will be posted internally before they are circulated on NBCUniversal’s external career site. The bargaining unit called for an immediate cessation of the cuts. “The MSNBC Union demands the Company not lay off any of the employees it has slated to be laid off but rather reassign them as needed,” the group wrote. “In the event that any employees are not retained, we demand the Company follow the layoff provisions of the collective bargaining agreement that it entered into with the Union.”
MSNBC declined comment.
MSNBC staffers learned the official details of the transformation coming to the cable network on Monday. A memo from MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler announced some elevations — like Jen Psaki’s show moving to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and The Weekend hosts Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez moving to a 7 p.m. show on weekdays — along with other notable changes, including the return of Rachel Maddow’s show on Mondays and the end of The ReidOut, José Díaz-Balart Reports, The Katie Phang Show, Alex Wagner Tonight, Ayman Mohyeldin Reports and Weekends with Jonathan Capehart. Capehart, Mohyeldin, Díaz-Balart and Phang are all staying with the network in various capacities.
If 99 workers are indeed laid off as part of these changes, that would make a sizable dent in the union. As of December 2023, when the MSNBC Union’s first contract was ratified, the bargaining unit numbered nearly 300 workers. Workers first voted to unionize with the Writers Guild of America East in a National Labor Relations Board vote in 2021.
Read the full statement from the bargaining unit below.
Over the past two days, we learned that MSNBC is starting mass layoffs of 99 of our union colleagues from at least nine different shows. This devastating news comes after the slow, painful trickle of announcements regarding a near-total overhaul of the network’s broadcast line-up.
Although the Company has acknowledged that there are plenty of job openings at MSNBC, it has cruelly insisted that the workers slated for layoff must reapply for their jobs to remain employed. The MSNBC Union demands the Company not lay off any of the employees it has slated to be laid off but rather reassign them as needed. In the event that any employees are not retained, we demand the Company follow the layoff provisions of the collective bargaining agreement that it entered into with the Union.
The news of layoffs comes against the backdrop of the President of the United States making direct threats against MSNBC, among other news outlets, and at a time when it has never been more crucial to have a fully staffed newsroom to cover a democracy under attack.
Just like the 99 red balloons.
More good news for the day.
Not tired of winning.
Why not make it 999, or even better 9999.
Who owns MS’PMS’NBC? (Rush coined that ages ago!)
OMG! Just cut your losses and get on with your life! No one watches your shows.
No. One. MAGA!
99 Union Staffers on the wall.......
Are these MSM layoffs and firings because ...
They were being improperly subsidized by the USAID laundered monies ?
Advertisers would not and will not fund these reporting outfits.
They forgot to drop Scarborough
“””They forgot to drop Scarborough””
He probably pays them to stay on the air so he can scream ORANGE MAN BAD every day.
“Why not make it 999, or even better 9999.”
Because the only employ 100 people?
Really, I doubt MSNBC has more than 2000 employees in a direct sense.
no longer getting their kickbacks from USAID.
this is the result
bingo
Funny how the bosses there can fire people and there are no Rent a mob rioters but when Trump fires people the left idiots scream and cry.
Off topic, but someone told me Morning Joe is conservative, because Joe was a Republican congressman......
PMSNBC will run stories of poor oppressed bureaucrats who lost their jobs at USAID, and they will run them all day long. Will they also show stories about their own poor staffers who just got the sack?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
Yup, he is a conservative just like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Davids Jolly etc.
That thought has been in the back of my mind as well recently. For them to pay the salaries they were paying for multiple programs with such low viewership, plus all the support staff necessary for each show, etc. To me, doesn’t match up with the revenue you would expect to get from advertising at market rates for that viewership.
Somehow, other groups were subsidizing the MSMSNBC operation
Madcow was whining that only minorities were let go. MSDNC should fire Madcow and other whites to make up for it.
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