Employees walk off jobs at CBS News streamer

Select employees of the CBS News 24/7 FAST are staging a 24-hour walkout amid stalled contract talks.

The employees, which are represented by Writers Guild of America East, work out of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and KPIX’s facility in the San Francisco area, have been working without a contract since their previous deal expired March 9, 2026.

“CBS News 24/7 journalists are walking off the job on both coasts today because management refuses to agree to a new contract with essential work protections and fair wages, WGA East’s bargaining committee said in a statement. “Despite multiple days of good faith negotiations and a strike pledge signed by 95% of our members to emphasize the seriousness of our demands, management continues to offer us worse terms than in our last contracts. We chose this field to cover the news, but we believe this work stoppage is necessary to achieve a fair contract. We eagerly await an acceptable contract offer from Paramount — which just shelled out tens of billions of dollars to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.”

WGA East has said that 95% of the 60-member unit have signed a strike pledge as well.

CBS News issued a short statement simply confirming the company is continuing to negotiate in good faith and expressing hopes for a quick resolution.

Both CBS News 24/7 and CBS News as a whole have been operating in the shadow of significant layoffs since the Paramount-Skydance merger completed in 2025. More layoffs are expected as the new owners look to reduce costs further to, in part, offset costs of the acquisition and hedge against more debt from the upcoming WBD buy.

It was not immediately clear how many employees participated in the walkout or how that may affect operations at the streamer, which does share some resources with CBS News. 

The walkout is slated to end at 6 p.m. Eastern time on March 18, 2026. A strike could follow if a deal is not reached. 

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