Guardian US announced a move to unionize in an independent ballot conducted by the American Arbitration Association, on Wednesday. The company would be unionizing under the News Media Guild – an operation that represents over 2,000 digital workers at news publications.
“This is a big day not only for the writers and staff members at The Guardian US but for the news industry as a whole. Digital media is growing up, and it’s time our digital reporters received the same benefits and protections as their print media colleagues,” said Bernard Lunzer, president of The NewsGuild-CWA.
Guardian US is the latest addition to the list of digital only publications including Gawker and Salon that decided to unionize last month.
While Guardian US will be unionizing under the News Media Guild, Gawker and Salon unionized with Writers Guild of America, East.
45 staffers participated in the election in favor of collective representation and brought the digital US edition of the international publication in line with the company’s tradition of union representation in their UK and Australia operations.
“We look forward to constructive dialogue moving forward,” said a spokesperson for the Guardian US chapter of the News Media Guild.
Here is the full statement from the The Guardian US chapter of the News Media Guild:
We are proud to announce that the editorial staff of Guardian US have voted unanimously in favor of collective representation under the auspices of the News Media Guild, following a ballot which was conducted independently by the American Arbitration Association. The union has been voluntarily recognized by Guardian News & Media LLC following the result of that ballot.
We would like to thank the News Media Guild and the Communications Workers of America for their invaluable help, advice and support. Furthermore, we greatly appreciate the support shown by our unionized editorial colleagues in the UK and Australia, where the Guardian has a strong history of working in partnership with its unions.
We are also grateful to the leadership shown by the Guardian US editor, Lee Glendinning, who immediately welcomed our initiative to seek collective representation. Our discussions with Guardian management have been conducted in a constructive manner and we’re confident we can all achieve our stated goal – a long-term, sustainable future for the Guardian and its quality journalism.
Guardian US is in the process of rapid growth, which has been reflected by increasing audience figures and groundbreaking journalism, from our Pulitzer prize-winning Edward Snowden disclosures to our current work highlighting police-related deaths through The Counted project. Together we look forward to continuing to enhance the Guardian’s reputation as one of the most read, most respected and most trusted news organisations in the US.
