• by Ray Schultz , July 16, 2024

Union journalists at Ziff Davis have reached a deal that has prevented a walkout during the Amazon’s Prime Day event on July 16 and 17, according to the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, a bargaining unit of the NewsGuild of New York. 

The tentative three-year contract raises guaranteed wages by up to 3% and provides AI protections. 

The 62 union staffers work on Lifehacker, Mashable and PCMag.

The union describes the deal as follows:

• First year: 3% guaranteed increase, 1% merit  
• Second year: 3% guarantee, 0.5% merit  
• Third year 3: 2.5% guarantee, 1% merit 
• $65K salary floor  

In addition, paid raises will be retroactive to April 1, when the prior contract expired. And the contract states that no union members will be laid off due to implementation of GenAI or see a reduction in their base salary. 

Both sides apparently strove to beat the Prime Day deadline.

“We braved the heat wave, distributed informational fliers to the public outside company headquarters in Manhattan and held packed strategy sessions in the event we could not reach a fair deal by Prime Day,” says Jordan Minor, senior apps and games analyst with PCMag.