May 22, 2019 – In ballots counted Tuesday, the digital staff at Fortune magazine voted 20-3 to join the NewsGuild-CWA, joining their print colleagues in the union’s New York local. The group became the fourth digital unit to join the NewsGuild of New York on May 21, following workers at Ars Technica, Pitchfork and Quartz.
“We look forward to joining the 41 percent of staff already represented by the existing union agreement and working with management to agree on a contract that covers all editorial workers equally,” members of the Fortune digital unit wrote.
Following the vote, employees were exuberant. “WE DID IT! I’ve been working to unionize our digital workers at Fortune for six months and it finally happened!!! Now, we negotiate a contract,” McKenna Moore tweeted.
“I am so proud of our staff for holding strong and voting, overwhelmingly, to unionize in a secret ballot election overseen by the NLRB following management’s refusal to voluntarily recognize us,” tweeted Sy Mukherjee. “@Fortune_Union will give ALL our incredible editorial staff a voice in our workplace.”
Fortune magazine was sold by the Meredith Corporation, which also owned Time and several other publications, to Fortune Media Group Holdings in December 2018.
“This vote is great news for the journalists Fortune and their readers,” said NewsGuild President Bernie Lunzer. “We’re excited to have them join our union.”
Photo: A contingent of Fortune’s digital and print workers proudly wear their union colors.