Unionized reporters and editors at NBC News staged a walkout yesterday in protest of recent layoffs and the network’s handling of ongoing contract bargaining. Via the Daily Beast:

The staffers gathered out front of the network’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters, in a gated-off section of the sidewalk, holding signs and accompanied by an inflatable rat—a common prop for union protests—and a giant check railing against “stolen wages.”

Union leaders first promised the walkout earlier this week, specifically citing NBC’s decision to lay off seven unit members last month without notifying the union. The NBC Guild has since filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, though it has grown impatient in waiting for a resolution.

“Today, I’m joining over 200 NBC News, MSNBC and TODAY Show journalists walking off the job to protest management’s decision to illegally lay off seven unit members and strip several others of their union protections without bargaining,” read one unit member’s out-of-office email reply when reached by The Daily Beast on Thursday morning. “NBC must stop breaking the law, reinstate our colleagues and let us all get back to work.”