Salon Staff To Unionize In Another Win For Organized Labor In Digital Media

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The staff of the liberal news site Salon.com announced on Thursday that it plans to unionize with the Writers Guild Of America (East), a month after Gawker Media staffers voted to organize in a win for organized labor in digital media.

“We’re especially proud to work for a media organization that has championed progressive values for nearly twenty years,” Salon staff wrote in a press release. “We believe this organizing campaign is a positive and public way for us to put those values into practice, right here at home.”

The release cited the Gawker union drive as an encouraging precedent. The staffers said that a system of collective bargaining would “solidify Salon’s position as a progressive leader, generate tremendous employee goodwill, and transform the workplace environment in positive ways.”

For the moment, Salon’s chief executive Cindy Jeffers was approaching the drive with a light touch.

“Salon has, from its very inception, proudly embraced progressive values and a commitment to our workers and to labor,” Jeffers said in an email to TPM.

“We look forward to discussing this initiative with the editorial staff and learning more about their objectives and goals,” she added.

To recognize the occasion, the splash on the Huffington Post’s media page read simply, “BLOGGERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

In June, Gawker’s editorial staff voted to unionize by a margin of 80-27.

The staff is now in the process of drawing up a contract with the guild to negotiate with management before voting on it as a union.

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