Condé Nast, union employees battle after "illegal firings"

On Wednesday, a group of employees confronted Condé Nast's head of HR over recent layoffs at the company.

By Mary Kate Carr | November 6, 2025 | 4:26pm

Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

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Condé Nast, union employees battle after

Following layoffs at Condé Nast and the news that Teen Vogue would be folded into Vogue, the company has kicked up a fight with unionized staff. Four employees, including journalists at The New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit were fired after approaching management on Wednesday about the recent changes at the company. As you might imagine, the company and the union have very different perspectives on the situation.

In a statement, Condé United and the NewsGuild of New York characterized the move as “illegal firings,” saying that the company immediately terminated the four employees “for engaging in the protected concerted activity of gathering in their 1 World Trade Center office to demand answers on this week’s abrupt layoffs at multiple brands including Wired and the consolidation at Teen Vogue.” (The company has denied that there were layoffs at Wired this week, per Variety.) According to reporting from Semafor, more than a dozen employees gathered outside the office of the company’s head of human resources, but the four who were fired appear to have interacted with the HR head most directly.

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The union statement calls this a “flagrant breach of the Just Cause terms of our contract” and an attempt “to intimidate and and silence our members’ advocacy for the courageous cultural and political journalism of Teen Vogue.” Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York, added, “Management’s attempt at union-busting, using intimidation and grossly illegal tactics to try to suppress protected union activity, will not stand.”

Condé Nast, meanwhile, has filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the NewsGuild of New York “for their repeated and egregious disregard of our collective bargaining agreement,” per the company’s own statement. The media org claims the four firings were “due to conduct that violated company policies, following an internal review.” Condé Nast described these employees’ behavior as “extreme misconduct,” which includes “aggressive, disruptive, and threatening behavior of any kind.”

Bon Appétit’s Alma Avalle, one of the four fired employees who helped organize the union there, posted about the situation on Bluesky. “I am, to my knowledge, the only trans woman in our union and the only trans woman on editorial who doesn’t work at Them. I was acting as a union member and concerned employee when I questioned Stan Duncan, well within my legal rights. I don’t love pointing to my identity, but the company saying that I was behaving ‘aggressively’ when I was calmly asking questions feels like a clear transphobic dog whistle,” she wrote. Noting that she loved her job, coworkers, and union, she went on to say, “More important to me than my identity, I am also the Vice President of the NewsGuild of New York, and targeting me with a blatantly retaliatory termination like this feels like an egregious shot against our union and against media workers as a whole.”

“We have a responsibility to provide a workplace where every employee feels respected and able to do their job without harassment or intimidation. We also cannot ignore behavior that crosses the line into targeted harassment and disruption of business operations,” Condé Nast said in its statement. “We remain committed to working constructively with the union and all of our employees.”