This morning I was coming into work after attending my son’s school play and got an email from our editorial staff in DC and NY telling me they’d unanimously agreed to form a union and asking if I would voluntarily recognize their decision. The email was signed “Sincerely, TPM union.” I confess it was novel experience hearing from someone else identifying themselves as ‘TPM’. But I replied that I was happy to do so. I had our lawyer reach out to the WGA, East to formalize that agreement. And that was that.
This afternoon the new TPM Union put out a statement announcing the formation of their union and our agreement to recognize the union. They also asked me for a statement from TPM which they could include in their press release, which I was of course happy to do.
I publish their press release here in its entirety below.
The Talking Points Memo editorial staff has unanimously decided to form a union under the Writers Guild of America, East. TPM’s editor and publisher Josh Marshall has already voluntarily agreed to recognize our union, and we are thrilled that management agreed so quickly to work with us.
We all love TPM and appreciate the freedom that comes from working at a small, independent media company. We also really appreciate the huge strides TPM has made in recent years to make our office a great place to work.
That said, we believe unionizing is important both for us as employees and for TPM as an organization. As TPM continues to grow as a publication, we want a seat at the table to help determine the company’s future.
Our effort to unionize is driven by the desire to make TPM even better. We see ourselves as part of the broader unionization movement across digital news media—an industry wracked by the constant disruption that Josh Marshall has written about extensively and many of our employees have experienced firsthand. Unions are becoming standard across online publications, particularly progressive ones, and it’s important to us to stand in solidarity with that movement. We’ve also seen the benefits and protections that come with unionizing, and we’re hopeful that forming a union will make TPM an even stronger digital media company.
We’re excited to work with management on the next steps in this process. Josh Marshall’s statement is below:
“This morning TPM editorial staffers in New York and Washington DC contacted me to let me know that they’d agreed unanimously to form a union and asked me to voluntarily recognize their decision. I replied that I was happy to do so. Our representative has already reached out to the WGA to make that agreement a reality.
“TPM is an independent, ambitious, outsider news organization. We have always strived to espouse and embody a belief in creating a society that is more equitable, just, humane and free. I believe this morning’s decision is consistent with those values and that history. I look forward to working together with the TPM Union to build on what we’ve already created together.”
I think all this basically speaks for itself. If you believe in who we are and what we do, please consider subscribing to TPM. Thank you to our team, our subscribers and all our readers.
