A recent string of successful organizing drives at several prominent digital news media outlets calls into question all those confident predictions about the inevitable demise of unionism in the information-age economy.
The Storyline:
The so-called “traditional” (or “legacy”) news media – print outlets like newspapers and magazines, network television and radio news – have been suffering significant declines ever since the advent of the digital age. Also suffering a great decline, though over a much longer period, is the organized labor movement in this country. For many critics of organized labor, the bleeding of many established news media companies became a tidy symbol for the inevitable death of the labor movement in the U.S.
Organized labor had long been a mainstay of the traditional news media, with union-represented employees operating the printing presses, driving the delivery trucks, selling the ads, reporting stories, editing the copy, providing the video feed, and anchoring the broadcast. For decades, virtually every aspect of the production and distribution of the news in print, video, or audio form was handled by a union-represented employee. And as the hum of the computer server increasingly replaced the rumble of the printing press, many believed that the decline of the legacy media also signaled the end of the unionized newsroom. Online journalism is produced by a new generation of mobile workers with strong individual identities; according to the conventional wisdom, the shop-floor model of trade unionism, with rigid work rules, seniority lists, and collectively-bargained compensation packages, would hold no appeal for employees who came of age in the social media era.
A Re-Write In Progress?
Well, it appears that the conventional wisdom was off the mark. Within the span of less than a year, one labor union – the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) – succeeded in organizing a number of high-profile digital newsrooms:
In a very short amount of time, a single labor union has made tremendous inroads into supposedly unwelcome territory.
But those successes were not limited to merely organizing the employees. In March and then April of 2016, respectively, the new WGAE bargaining units at Gawker and at Vice announced that they reached first collective bargaining agreements with their employers. According to news accounts, those contracts provided for substantial wage and benefit increases for employees, as well as provisions addressing treatment of freelancers and granting employees a greater voice in the workplace. While the impact of those contracts on operations and on the bottom line remains to be seen, the fact that these newly-formed unions were able to deliver first contracts in such short order after the workers opted for representation can only strengthen the hands of WGAE and its peers as they continue their organizing efforts at other digital media companies.
The Takeaway:
The significance of these developments for employers in the digital news sector is obvious, but this is not just news media story. Employers in a broad array of industries should take note of what is transpiring in digital news media, because it calls into question many assumptions about the prospects – or the supposed lack thereof – of organized labor in the digital economy. Few observers expected these employees – white collar, college educated, Generation X/Y/Z/Millennials/Echo Boomers/whatever else one may call them – to be drawn in by traditional workplace unionism. Drawn in they were, however, and they voted for union representation by reportedly overwhelming margins.
These results also suggest that WGAE was able to adapt its organizing models and bargaining strategies to the changed workplaces and workers they have been targeting. The adaption of 20th century organizing to the 21st workplace is a wake-up call for all employers, but especially those in the new service - and information - based economy, who would be well advised to discard their assumptions about being impervious to unionization. It remains critically important for employers who wish to remain union-free to keep their fingers on the pulse of their workforce; to maintain open lines of communication with employees; and to stay alert for early signs of organizing activity.
Opinions and conclusions in this post are solely those of the author unless otherwise indicated. The information contained in this blog is general in nature and is not offered and cannot be considered as legal advice for any particular situation. Any federal tax advice provided in this communication is not intended or written by the author to be used, and cannot be used by the recipient, for the purpose of avoiding penalties which may be imposed on the recipient by the IRS. Please contact the author if you would like to receive written advice in a format which complies with IRS rules and may be relied upon to avoid penalties.
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