Slate Employees Vote to Unionize with Writers Guild of America, East
Slate Employees Vote to Unionize with Writers Guild of America, East
NEW YORK, NY (January 23, 2018) — A majority of employees at Slate, a news website which has been a fixture in the digital media industry for over twenty years, voted today in favor of the Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO (WGAE) as their representative in collective bargaining.
Slate’s management agreed to recognize the union after a vote confirmed that the majority of eligible employees voted in favor of unionizing via a third-party election.
The organizing win at Slate comes two weeks after Vox Media recognized the WGAE as the union representative for their editorial and video staff. Over 1,000 digital news staff members have joined the WGAE in the last two and a half years.
In addition to Slate and Vox Media (Curbed, Eater, Polygon, Racked, Recode, SBNation, The Verge and Vox.com), the Guild represents staffs at VICE, HuffPost, The Intercept, Gizmodo Media Group (Splinter, Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, The Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku, io9, Jalopnik, Earther), ThinkProgress, MTV News, Thrillist and Salon.
Lowell Peterson, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East, said “Employees at Slate, one of the first and finest digital-native news organizations in the country, have made themselves heard, resounding in their decision to join the movement for collective bargaining across the industry. We look forward to working together to craft a contract that addresses their concerns and ensures that they participate in the decisions that affect their professional lives.”
“We’re thrilled by the result of today’s vote, and grateful that Slate management agreed to let us conduct it in an independent and fair fashion,” said the Slate Union Organizing Committee in a statement. “This vote confirms that an overwhelming majority of Slate employees want to organize with the Writers Guild of America, East—and that they want the benefits and protections that come from union membership. As we wrote in our “Why We’re Organizing” letter more than 10 months ago, we’re all proud to work for Slate, and we believe that unionizing will help us ensure that it is the best possible place to work. We’re excited we’ll now have the chance to do just that.”
ABOUT WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, EAST
The Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO (WGAE) is a labor union representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media and broadcast news. The Guild negotiates and administers contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of its members; conducts programs, seminars and events on issues of interest to writers; and presents writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit wgaeast.org.
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