Payday Helps Laid-off Real News Staffer Win Better Severance on Christmas Eve

Payday is George Bailey-style crowdfunded publication and rely on your support.

Folks, 

Good news, Payday was able to help Real News Network staffers who were laid off to secure a much better severance package. 

Initially, Real News Network proposed giving the 10 laid off union staffers only one to two weeks severance pay with six months health care. However, after Payday Report started writing critically about the severance package, the deal has dramatically improved. 

Now, laid off staffers will get seven weeks of severance pay as well as the six months extension of health care. 

Members of the RNN Union cited Payday’s reporting as crucial to letting management know that concerned viewers of the network were watching and expected the company to live up to its progressive values in its severance package. 

While other left media outlets hesitated to cover labor problems at another left media outlet, Payday wasn’t scared to tell the truth. 

Our work paid off and is allowing 10 laid off Real News staffers to enjoy a happy holiday with a little less financial anxiety hanging over them. 

In addition to severance packages, Payday helped the union raise more than $1,500 (with over a $1,000 in donations coming from our subscriber list) and that crowdfunded severance fund money will go to four non-union staffers, who are getting laid off and not getting nearly as good as a severance package. 

After Payday returns from the holiday break, we plan to do a full story on the demise of the Real News Network and what it says about the state of the left media. 

Donations are still being taken for their severance fund. 

Also, the best time to sign up to be a recurring donor so we can deep this kind of reporting is on Christmas Eve. 

Love & Solidarity, 

Melk 

About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter who covered everything from Lula & the Brazilian labor movement to major league baseball. He spent years covering union organizing in the South for The Guardian and was labeled by the New York Times as an "abrasive gadfly" for exposing within the labor movement. Raised in a UE union family in Pittsburgh, Elk was illegally for union organizing at Politico in 2015 and used his NLRB settlement to start the crowd-funded Payday Report. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and is fluent in both Pittsburghese and Portuguese, which he learned when attending journalism school at PUC-Rio de Janerio. Email: [email protected]

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