This week, Roger Lynch, the Condé Nast C.E.O., and Anna Wintour, the chief content officer, artistic director, and company grande dame, were forced to momentarily set aside the customary duties of running a global mass media company and once again contend with that incessant, tick-in-the-ass distraction that is the Condé Nast Union. For years, of course, the union—which represents Vanity Fair, Vogue, Bon Appétit, etcetera—has been trying to negotiate a contract with management, to no avail. And in recent months, amid the specter of inevitable layoffs, the union has become increasingly confrontational: marching up to Lynch’s oft-vacant office in protest and staging an Oscars-themed walkout, among other tactics. None of this has brought the two sides any closer to détente, of course: The union’s demands are ambitious—or “ridiculous,” as not one but two Condé Nast journalists put it to me. Meanwhile, it goes without saying that the leadership has demonstrably struggled to finesse the issue.