Yesterday a majority of eligible MLex and FTCWatch workers voted 13-0 to form the MLex Guild, a unit of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and part of the Communications Workers of America. MLex Guild is comprised of workers in Washington, San Francisco and New York.
After about six months of organizing, the MLex Guild in April formally announced its intention to form a union, with 100 percent support from eligible members.
The MLex Guild organized as LexisNexis, and its parent company, RELX, informed employees that the company is reshaping its legal news brand. We decided as a union we could have a greater impact on our working conditions and the publication we’ve helped build.
Though LexisNexis management denied our request for voluntary recognition, we prevailed.
We worked alongside the union at Law360, our sister publication within LexisNexis, to help our members keep faith as management put obstacles in our way. We sat through multiple meetings with management, knowing we were stronger together as a union.
We reached an agreement with management to move ahead with a vote while retaining the largest bargaining group possible. We now await the National Labor Relation Board’s decision on three of our members.
“The MLex Guild is committed to working in good faith to advance fair working conditions for our members, to best position ourselves to serve our valued readers,” the workers wrote in a statement. “We look forward to negotiating with management on next steps in this process.”