Among their demands, the members of the union were hoping for Buzzfeed to decrease the pay gap that is rampant among employees of color as well as women. With these hopes, leaders of the union have implied that nearly 90% of Buzzfeed employees support their unionization efforts and are helping lead the grassroots campaign.
The organizing committee released a statement on Wednesday where they said, “It’s not all fun and memes. Our staff has been organizing for several months, and we have legitimate grievances about unfair pay disparities, mismanaged pivots and layoffs, weak benefits, skyrocketing health insurance costs, diversity, and more.”
This long list of demands is indicative that corporate culture at Buzzfeed may slowly be developing into a toxic pool of unhappy workers and misguided management. Layoffs seemed to further distance the workforce from the corporate decision-makers, and former workers have expressed their distrust towards to leaders of Buzzfeed.
Ben Smith, the editor in chief for BuzzFeed News, indicated that they would soon meet with the union to attempt to rectify the issues that were at the core of their conflict. Later after the union mobilized, Perretti, Buzzfeed’s founder, also noted that he would soon talk with the group to help make sweeping changes across the board in Buzzfeed.
