New Yorker Fest Strike Averted As Condé Nast Reaches Deal With Union

It seems The New Yorker Festival will be picket-free this year.

The magazine’s union and management at Condé Nast reached a new tentative three-year agreement, the company’s human resources department told staffers on Monday. “This renewal embodies the many policies and practices that make Condé Nast and The New Yorker a great workplace and underpin our award-winning journalism,” Condé Nast chief people officer Stan Duncan said in the message.

The New Yorker Union confirmed the deal a day later, with union unit chair (and the magazine’s deputy poetry editor) Hannah Aizenman stating that the contract “continues to raise standards for workers at The New Yorker, at Condé Nast and throughout the media industry.”

The new deal raises the previous salary floor from $60,000 to $63,000 if the contract is ratified, with $2,000 bonuses awarded to staffers making less than $65,000 a year, the union stated. The salary floor will then increase by $1,500 to $64,500 on April 1, 2026. (This figure represents a compromise from the union’s $67,000 salary floor ask.) Meanwhile, all staffers will see a six percent wage increase within the six months after the contract is ratified and an additional six percent over the rest of term of the deal. Staffers will also receive a $1,000 bonus if the contract is ratified.

The union added that, with the negotiations, it “defended a flexible comp time policy for overtime work,” preserved comp time and vacation time guidelines that pay workers for unused time if they are laid off and kept some version of an outside work policy that allows workers to take gigs outside the company. The new contract lengthens notification timelines for layoffs and “improved” vacation accrual, creative leave and paid family leave policies.

The union says it will schedule a ratification vote within the next few weeks.

The deal arrives a little over a week since The New Yorker Union threatened a strike in advance of the publication’s annual festival, which is scheduled to take place between Oct. 25 and 27. At that time, the union was advocating for a flexible policy on work that New Yorker staffers can perform outside the magazine, claiming that management had demanded “overly broad — and highly invasive — restrictions.” After more than six months of negotiations, the sides were at that point also stuck on general wage increases, salary floors and layoff protections.

“We remember from our first negotiation that the thing that really got us the strong terms that we’re looking for this time around was direct concerted activity,” Aizenman told THR at that time.

Despite the brief threat to its marquee event, the company struck a conciliatory tone in its Monday statement about the talks. “I want to thank the bargaining team for their hard work and efforts during the last few months as we reached agreements on these terms,” Duncan said. “We look forward to the ratification of the contract.”

The New Yorker‘s approximately 100-person union consists of fact-checkers, story editors and photo editors, among other roles, but does not include staff writers.

Oct. 15, 10:32 a.m. Updated to include the union’s confirmation of the deal and agreement details.