Jewish Currents Union Ratify New Contact

NEW YORK, NY (March 21, 2025)—Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members at Jewish Currents unanimously ratified their second collective bargaining agreement.

The eight-member bargaining unit agreed to a new three-year contract that raises current workers’ yearly salaries to a minimum rate of $75,000. Current employees will receive annual raises of $4,000 in each subsequent year of the agreement through 2028. Further, new hires will start at a minimum salary of $70,000 with annual raises of $3,000 in each subsequent year of the contract through 2027. The agreement also adds Fellows to the bargaining unit at a minimum salary of $60,000 and up to $64,000 in 2027.

The agreement also includes significant improvements to benefits, including 16 weeks of paid parental leave, eight weeks of fully paid sabbatical after five years of service, 15–25 days of paid vacation depending on years of service with expanded year-to-year rollover, and a yearly $1500 stipend for tech and professional development expenses.

In addition, the contract includes:

• Increased severance minimums to four weeks’ notice with eight weeks of a minimum payout for all bargaining unit members, or two weeks’ notice with two weeks per year of service, whichever is greater;
• Ten paid wellness days;
• Ten paid bereavement days;
• Requirements that the company pay 100% of health insurance premiums for at least four plans—including one that offers out-of-network health coverage and one that offers;
• Comp time earned for additional work required beyond regular work hours;
• Successorship language;
• Allowing a bargaining unit member to attend Board of Directors meetings;
• An obligation to post new jobs to at least three websites catering to groups under-represented at Jewish Currents;
• Requirements for the Company to protect employees from online harassment to the best of its ability, including paying for a service that protects against doxxing;
• Robust artificial intelligence protections that prohibit the Company from using bargaining unit work to train generative artificial intelligence (GAI) systems or replace bargaining unit work with GAI.

The Jewish Currents Union said, “We are thrilled to have secured a contract that makes work more sustainable and fair for our members, and which actualizes our values as a magazine working in the strong pro-labor tradition of the Jewish left. We hope that the gains in our contract—including substantial raises, sabbatical opportunities, significant paid time off, and protections against overwork—can serve as a model across the media industry. “

Founded in 1946 and relaunched in 2018, Jewish Currents is a daily digital and quarterly print publication dedicated to covering the Jewish left, and the left more broadly. The editorial staff organized with the WGAE in July 2020 and received immediate voluntary recognition.

In addition to Jewish Currents, the WGAE’s Online Media and Podcast Sector includes BDG, Civic News Group, Committee to Protect Journalists, COURIER, Crooked Media, Fast Company/Inc., FT Specialist, Future PLC, Gizmodo USA, G/O Media, Hearst Magazines, HuffPost, iHeart Podcasts, Jalopnik, Lemonada Media, NowThis, Onion Inc., Pineapple Street Media, Pushkin Industries, Salon, Slate, Spotify Studios, Talking Points Memo, The Dodo, The Intercept, The Ringer and Vox Media. The Guild represents over 7,000 workers in film, television, news, podcasts and online media.

ABOUT THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA EAST
The Writers Guild of America East, AFL-CIO, is a labor union of more than 7,000 members working in film, television, news, podcasts and online media. The Guild negotiates and administers contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of its members; conducts programs, seminars and events on issues of interest to writers; and presents writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America East, visit wgaeast.org.

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