On this special bonus episode, Daniel Spielberger chats with Lauren Harris, an editor at The New Yorker and a co-chair of The New Yorker Union. The New Yorker Union and Condé United are both part of the NewsGuild of New York. Harris discusses recent events at Condé Nast. On Wednesday, in response to Condé management’s decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue and lay off employees at Teen Vogue, a group of unionized Condé employees confronted Condé’s head of HR, Stan Duncan, to question him about these decisions. Subsequently, Condé management fired four of these employees, one of whom worked at The New Yorker. Though Condé management argues that these four employees were engaging in “extreme misconduct,” the Guild disputes this claim. In this conversation, Harris discusses why the unions are alleging that these terminations were illegal and retaliatory. Additionally, she contextualizes these terminations with a broader hostility towards organized labor during the second Trump era.

Here’s the petition to reinstate The Fired Four: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-conde-bosses-to-reinstate-the-fired-four-reverse-the-suspensions-and-end-the-union-busting

A GoFundMe to support The Fired Four: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-fired-four-alma-ben-jake-jasper

More info about Study Hall: studyhall.xyz

Music by KT The Terrible