Sept. 8, 2018 – Employees of Rewire.News won voluntary recognition of their union from the publication’s management on Sept. 7, just one week after workers filed notice of their intent to organize.
“Today we asked @jljacobson to live up to the organization’s progressive values and voluntarily recognize the will of a supermajority of @Rewire_News workers,” organizers wrote in a tweet on Aug. 31.
In a joint statement posted on Twitter seven days later, the union and management said they recognize that if they are to “speak truth to power” on matters of health, rights, and justice, “then we must first speak truth to each other with respect and dignity.” The process can often take much longer than a week, they noted.
“We hope our agreement inspires others to organize their own workplaces!” Rewire.News Union said.
The day before workers filed for a union election, four employees were laid off, sparking a fundraising drive that yielded more than $4,000 for the workers who were let go.
Rewire.News Union will form a unit of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which is a local of The NewsGuild-CWA.