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The Writers Guild of America East has denounced a series of “mass layoffs” at MSNBC, where it says 99 of its members are set to be cut amid an ongoing shakeup at the network.
The union says staffers from “at least nine different shows” will be affected by what it calls “the slow, painful trickle of announcements regarding a near-total overhaul of the network’s broadcast line-up.”
Earlier this week, MSNBC confirmed plans to completely change its daytime, primetime and weekend lineup. Per the guild, the affected staffers worked on The ReidOut, Alex Wagner Tonight, The Weekend, Andrea Mitchell Reports, Ayman Mohyeldin Reports, Weekends with Jonathan Capehart, The Katie Phang Show, Jose Diaz-Balart Reports and Inside with Jen Psaki.
“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 union wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
MSNBC did previously say there is a nearly 1-to-1 ratio of jobs impacted to new ones being posted, which laid off staff are welcome to apply for — a move has been criticized by many, including the network’s own staff, like Rachel Maddow.
“They’re being invited to reapply for new jobs. That has never happened at this scale in this way before when it comes to programming changes, presumably because it is not the right way to treat people, and it’s inefficient and it’s unnecessary,” she said on air Monday.
In its Tuesday statement, the MSNBC union demanded that the laid off employees be reassigned, rather than laid off and asked to reapply.
The WGA East also one again took aim at the Trump administration, expressing that the MSNBC layoffs are happening “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.”
Read the full statement 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.
