5 YEARS OF ORGANIZING IN DIGITAL MEDIA

Five years later, it is clear that the Guild’s first organizing victory at Gawker Media was the spark that lit a fire of media workers joining unions across the industry. The Guild has won representation at 21 shops, including Vice, Vox, Salon, Gimlet Media, Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo, covering more than 2,000 digital writers, editors and producers. At a time when union density is falling in most industries, the Guild has defied the odds and organized a new industry.

For the fifth anniversary of the Gawker victory, Stephanie Luce, Professor of Labor Studies and Haley Shaffer, a graduate student in labor studies, both at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, spoke with union members and Guild staff about the gains the union has won in these five years, and how they continue to fight instability in an ever-changing industry.

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WINNING BETTER PAY & BETTER WORKPLACES

Unionizing has lifted the pay and improved the benefits of employees at the nearly 2 dozen shops who have successfully organized with the Writers guild of America, East.

IMPACT ON THE INDUSTRY

Given the constantly changing nature of the digital media industry, the Guild has to win recognition and bargain strong contracts, and they have to work to shape the overall industry. The gains won over the last 5 years have had a very meaningful impact on the working lives and sustainability of the careers for those who have unionized.

Protecting Workers Against Industry Restructuring

Building Solidarity Across the Industry

Protections for Freelancers

IMPACT ON THE INDUSTRY

Given the constantly changing nature of the digital media industry, the Guild has to win recognition and bargain strong contracts, and they have to work to shape the overall industry. The gains won over the last 5 years have had a very meaningful impact on the working lives and sustainability of the careers for those who have unionized.

Protecting Workers Against Industry Restructuring

Building Solidarity Across the Industry

Protections for Freelancers

ORGANIZING MODEL

TRADITIONAL & NON-TRADITIONAL STRATEGIES

Since Gawker first organized in 2015, Guild campaigns have blended traditional organizing strategies like internal escalations, walkouts, and strike votes with digital organizing tools like Slack and Twitter, as well as leveraging their own platforms and connections within the digital media realm for increased coverage. Throughout the many campaigns, a form of more transparent and digitally present organizing has emerged, always grounded in a strong ownership by the members.

Hybrid of Traditional Tactics and New Tools

From coast to coast today, we’re demanding a #ContractNow.

It’s time, @voxmediainc. pic.twitter.com/4sa1dcwxs8

— Vox Media Union (@vox_union) June 6, 2019

Strong Empowered Organizing Committees

Today marks 2 WEEKS since we went public as the Future Union. An overwhelming majority of our 11 publications and 4 desks have democratically decided to come together as a unit. We call on the management @futureplc to recognize our union, and to do so without delay or division! pic.twitter.com/ZIKFKR1pvf

— Future Union (@futureusunion) March 7, 2019

Industrywide Movement and Community Building

Unions make for a better workplace. Just ask all these folks from @thrillistunion and @thedodounion enjoying some pizza together on #MayDay. pic.twitter.com/l1VvUHH39y

— Thrillist Union (@thrillistunion) May 1, 2019

BUILDING AN EMPOWERED COMMUNITY

Organizing has helped to create a stronger, more resilient community of colleagues in the shops that have gone through the unionization process. Forming a union has led to not only collective bargaining agreements and collective power, but also created a more inclusive and supportive community of colleagues.

“For me, the difference between a non-union workplace community and a unionized one was night and day when I worked at Thrillist. It was and remains a lifestyle journalism brand obsessed with the idea of “having fun,” but when I started, morale was often low and management rarely made real commitments to build relationships across teams, beyond corporate events. Unionizing flipped that dynamic on its head. Almost immediately after we started organizing, members on separate teams within our bargaining unit quickly forged deeper connections that became generative, with editorial goals that felt mutually beneficial. All the corporate team-building exercises in the world couldn’t match the solidarity our union found together and spun into award-winning work.”

Eric Vilas-Boas

DIGITAL MEDIA RISING

HOW THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, EAST ORGANIZED DIGITAL MEDIA WORKERS AND WON INDUSTRYWIDE POWER AND STRONG CONTRACTS

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WGAE DIGITAL MEDIA ORGANIZING TIMELINE

Over the last 5 years we have won 21 union union recognition campaigns and many amazing victories and contracts. All of the victories are part of one big industry wide campaign.