Today, I have filed a class action lawsuit against Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post and AOL on behalf of thousands of writer-bloggers. Here’s why.
We live in a time of unrelenting class warfare. We are the richest nation on earth—yet that wealth is flowing into the hands of the few. The greatest stage for that class warfare is in the workplace: CEOs and their top executives believe that they are the most important part of the company and that they should reap an obscene portion of the value created by WORKERS.
The Huffington Post was, is and will never be, anything without the thousands of people who create the content. Ms. Huffington is acting like every Robber Baron CEO—from Lloyd Blankfein to the Waltons—who believes that they, and only they, should pocket huge riches, while the rest of the peons struggle to survive. Ms. Huffington stance has been clear: only she deserves the fruits of the labor of the people who work for her.
Actually, Arianna Huffington is worse than the CEOs of the banks, the Walton family of Wal-mart. At least, they pay their workers something—even if those wages aren’t enough to make ends meet.
Huffington pays zero. Nothing. Nada.
Arianna Huffington is a hypocrite. While reaping money and building her "brand" based on books and speeches decrying the growing divide between rich and poor (I am not linking to those books in order to avoid giving her even more cash to pocket), Ms. Huffington is precisely acting to impoverish bloggers and create a blogger-plantation--where her slaves work to build her fortune.
But, a lawsuit is only one tool to organize. And that’s really what I want people to remember.
We spend a lot of time criticizing leaders. There isn’t a harm taking them to task, when appropriate. But, we should spend a lot more time now to build our own movements because we don’t have enough leaders who will stand up for the people.
In 2001, I won a case against The New York Times in the U.S. Supreme Court. But, truthfully, the legal case was only one part of what we did--it was a long effort to reach out to writers and build a movement for justice, to have a strong union. Nothing we win in Congress or in the courts will stick if we don't have a movement.
Besides this lawsuit, the National Writers Union and the Newspaper Guild are working to build a movement for justice at the Huffington Post—and we are all working together to meld all the tactics (boycotting the site, legal efforts, organizing writers) so we win.
So, here is what you need to do:
No one should be writing for the Huffington Post until justice is done. Writing for the Huffington Post is crossing a picket line--both the Newspaper Guild and the National Writers Union have called for a strike and boycott of Huffington Post People writing for Huffington Post are scabs. Tomorrow, I will be publishing an open letter to a long list of (named) progressive leaders who blog for Huffington Post, asking them to respect the picket line. We will praise those who do so—and “out” those who are breaking the union.
Unlink the Huffington Post if you have a link to the site.
If you see Ms. Huffington featured as a speaker at a progressive forum, please ask the sponsors of the event to disinvite her until justice is done.
Come to the following sites to support the efforts:
Our lawsuit Facebook page.
The lawsuit information page. Sign up if you want to join the class or you just want to keep in touch.
We will prevail.
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Our press release for your information:
Major Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Huffington Post and AOL
April 12, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK, NY: A class action lawsuit was filed today against The Huffington Post.com, Inc., Huffington Post owner Arianna Huffington, her co-owner, and AOL.com, Inc. alleging that thousands of writers and other content providers have been wrongly denied any compensation for the substantial value they created for the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post was recently sold to AOL for $315 million.
“Arianna Huffington is pursuing the Wal-Martization of creative content and a Third World class of creative people,” said Jonathan Tasini, the lead plaintiff in the suit. “Actually, that is unfair to Wal-Mart because at least Wal-Mart pays its workers something for the value those workers create. In Arianna Huffington’s business model, economic gain is only reserved for her. Everyone else, apparently, is expected to work for free regardless of the value they create. Greed and selfishness is the order of the day.”
The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of a putative class of over 9,000 writers and other content providers to The Huffington Post.com states deceptive trade practices and unjust enrichment as causes of action. The complaint requests at least $105 million in damages on behalf of The Huffington Post’s uncompensated writers and other content providers.
THE FULL COMPLAINT CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE: http://www.huffingtonpostlawsuit.com/...
The suit will pursue novel issues in the digital age. “We intend to prove at trial that the content and services provided by the over 9,000 members of the class created substantial value for the Huffington Post and we hope to establish a strong precedent that in the digital age content producers must be compensated for the value they create,” said Plaintiff’s counsel Jesse Strauss.
Tasini was the lead plaintiff in a previous landmark case won on behalf of freelance creators, Tasini v. The New York Times, which reaffirmed creators’ rights in the digital age. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the creator-plaintiffs in June 2001.
Kurzon Strauss LLP is a premier New York-based commercial litigation and corporate transactional law firm. For more information, please visit www.kurzonstrauss.com.
Updated by Tasini at Tue Apr 12, 2011 at 01:43 PM EDT
Hey...gotta for a bit...work calls!