Sports Illustrated Union Files NLRB Complaint, Alleges Union-Busting

The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated, is the target of a National Labor Relations Board complaint filed by the union representing SI employees that alleges Arena’s mass layoffs two weeks ago amounted to union-busting. 

Arena laid off a batch of employees earlier this month and gave notice that about 80 workers faced the same fate if the company couldn’t come to a new agreement with Authentic, the outfit that owns and essentially rents SI out to Arena. (Authentic has since been communicating with potential new operators, and a source close to the situation told FOS earlier this month that “Authentic will see Sports Illustrated through a necessary evolution.”) Arena missed a payment to Authentic late last month, leading Authentic to terminate the agreement, a move first reported by Front Office Sports on Jan. 19. 

“It’s clear that The Arena Group ownership is using an engineered dispute over the SI license as a cover to union-bust and unlawfully target our members,” Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York, said in a statement on Monday. Filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board is just the first step, as we continue to explore all options for our membership.” (The NLRB complaint, which FOS obtained, was filed on Thursday.)

“Within the last six months, the Employer has discharged employees because of their support of the Union and/or engagement in Union activities and/or engagement in other protected activities,” the NLRB charge stated.

While most of the employees covered by the union contract were given 90-day notices of potential layoffs as laid out by the Sports Illustrated Union’s collective bargaining agreement with Arena, “a handful were immediately let go,” the NewsGuild said. Among those let go without notice was a union officer. 

Even Ross Levinsohn, the former CEO of Arena, seemed to take issue with the way layoffs unfolded. Levinsohn resigned from Arena’s board the same day as the firings and wrote in his resignation letter that the “abhorrent actions” of Arena’s board had left him with “no choice but to resign.”

“Today’s obliteration of Sports Illustrated’s storied newsroom and the union-busting tactics is the last straw,” Levinsohn continued. “These actions and the inaction of this board are illegal, riddled with self-dealing, and will almost certainly lead to shareholder lawsuits. In my more than 30 years inside of public and private companies, I’ve never witnessed more negligence in my career.”