DANIEL SLIM/AFP by means of Getty Photography

A union representing team of workers writers on the A.V. Membership called the owner of the entertainment web site’s father or mother firm “merciless” after employees were reportedly requested to move to Los Angeles from Chicago without a cost-of-residing increase.

G/O Media, which owns the A.V. Membership, the Onion, Jezebel, and plenty of different blogs asked workers for the web page to relocate to Los Angeles so they may be able to be nearer to the trade they duvet.

In keeping with the Onion Union, G/O media requested long-serving staffers to uproot with little notice, and to do so without being compensated for the additional value of dwelling in Tinseltown.

UPDATE: The seven A.V. Membership workers in Chicago have made up our minds to take their union-contract-protected severances somewhat than move to L.A. and not using a value-of-dwelling adjustment. A statement from the union (1/X): %twitter.com/IOUwuR0TWn

— Onion Inc Union (@OnionIncUnion) January 18, 2022

In a viral Twitter observation on Tuesday, the union went off:

Early final month, the seven Chicago-primarily based workers of The A.V. Club had been knowledgeable by means of G/O Media they had been being “invited” to both relocate to Los Angeles or lose their jobs. The staff have been offered no raise of their salaries to atone for the higher cost of dwelling in L.A. They got except January 15 (for these expected to move by using March) and March 2 (for these anticipated to move through May just) to decide. G/O Media refused to negotiate over the terms of the relocation or severance, except for to allow departing workers to buy their company laptops at a depreciated value. G/O also posted three of the staff’ jobs sooner than the January 15 cut-off date.

The Onion Union, which represents staff at G/O Media’s other in style brands, reported the Midwest staffers won’t being shifting to L.A., and as an alternative will take “union-contract-protected severances.”

The union said some staffers had been willing and excited to maneuver, but known as out the company for expecting them to maneuver with out pay raises, which it called “not cheap.”

The union concluded in its statement that the relocation invitation used to be empty:

It’s clear G/O’s “invitation” was by no means meant to be regularly occurring. In a time when employers have turn into increasingly versatile about the place their workers are living and work, G/O Media forcing staff to relocate to probably the most dear cities in the world without right kind compensation—and throughout one of the vital pandemic’s worst surges—is mind-boggling at best possible; at worst, it is shortsighted and merciless.

The Los Angeles Occasions reported prior this week that probably the most Chicago staff who was invited to move was once actually writing an editorial for the A.V. Membership when she found out her personal job used to be posted on-line — in California.

“In the beginning I was like, ‘Is that this a mistake?’” said A.V. Club senior author Katie Rife. “That’s something that I have never skilled in my professional career … and I gotta say it used to be beautiful disheartening.”

G/O Media spokesman Mark Neschis stated in a statement, “This relocation will convey the A.V. Club closer to the business it covers, permitting the site to develop its entertainment relationships while providing more get admission to to important occasions and skill.”

The put up A.V. Membership Staffers Cease After Management Calls for They Move from Chicago to L.A. Without Cost-of-Living Lift first appeared on Mediaite.