CBS News 24/7 Staffers Begin Bicoastal Walkouts, With Full Support From WGAE

The 60-person unionized staff behind CBS News 24/7 began their 24-hour walkout on Tuesday morning a week after the unit delivered a strike pledge to management.

“CBS News 24/7 journalists are walking off the job on both coasts today because management refuses to agree to a new contract with essential work protections and fair wages,” the union bargaining committee and contract action team said in a Tuesday statement. “Despite multiple days of good faith negotiations and a strike pledge signed by 95% of our members to emphasize the seriousness of our demands, management continues to offer us worse terms than in our last contracts.”

“We chose this field to cover the news, but we believe this work stoppage is necessary to achieve a fair contract,” they continued. “We eagerly await an acceptable contract offer from Paramount — which just shelled out tens of billions of dollars to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.”

Their current contract expired on March 9 after negotiations began in February. The walkouts and subsequent rallies at CBS News Broadcast Center in Manhattan and KPIX-TV CBS News Bay Area in San Francisco kicked off at 6 a.m. ET.

“Paramount has billions to spend acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, but still hasn’t guaranteed fair wages and basic job protections for the workers who make their streaming news operation run,” Beth Godvik, WGAE Vice President of Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News, added. “Our members are walking out today to show management they stand united in their demand for a fair contract — and the WGAE is with them every step of the way.” 

The strike pledge was signed by 95% of the CBS News 24/7 Union, with more than 2,900 Writers’ Guild of America East members sending letters to management urging them to agree to a fair and just contract. The discussions broke down last week after the two sides couldn’t agree on raises, schedules and severance.

“We agree that streaming news is definitely the future,” Jordan Lilly, a CBS News 24/7 producer and member of its bargaining committee, told TheWrap on Monday. “We’ve been doing it here for 12 years. Glad that the rest of the world is catching up. But if that’s going to be where they stake their claim as the future of the company, they need to invest accordingly.” 

A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment.

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