It started with some whispers of solidarity among the editorial staff, the rapid-succession hiring of a few fresh faces to several junior positions — one of whom (me, Summer) had gone through a vicious round of layoffs at her old newsroom shortly after the 2016 presidential election — and a spreadsheet started by a few on the editorial team who were on board with turning TPM into a union shop.
As a former longtime Guild member and a 20 year TPM-aholic, the day TPM became a union shop was one of the proudest days for me. It showed me that the people in whom I had put my faith as a reader for so long shared my values as well.
as if we needed another reason to love TPM, this story demonstrates that Josh not only talks the talk, but truly walks the walk. Congrats TPM staff and management. i recall when this was announced and was pretty chuffed to hear it and to read Josh’s post saying that he happily voluntarily recognized the unionization. i’ve been a multi-visit per day reader since the 2008 election season, and can’t see that changing. stories like this cement my loyalty and membership for years to come. if anyone’s not a Prime or Prime AF member, it’s totally worth it (especially AF). so what are you waiting for? go on, off you go and sign up!
Not only do I love this story and love that Josh recognized the union happily and with promptness, sparing everyone a ton of stress and making the partnership between labor and management even stronger, I love that this story is considered a major turning point in TPM’s history to warrant the article, AND that the organizer was able to tell it, not the manager. Shows that TPM values its workers and the stories they have to tell that they consider this “inside baseball” story a major part of the history of the org and not just a lil quirk in how contracts are negotiated etc.
An excellent and inspiring story. It strengthens my loyalty to TPM. The country needs more such stories of building institutions that work, talking the talk, and walking the walk!
As a former union member in the construction trades and later at a major American university I am a strong believer in and supporter of organized labor. Congratulations to the TPM staff.
What has the union done since it was created? Was it a good choice? Seems kind of dumb to me to pay 1% or so of your salary in dues just to have a “seat at the table” when I’m sure Josh would have listened to your input without paying money to the union. Has it helped with implementing DEI policies? Just, really curious what the union has done since it was recognized. It doesn’t sound like TPM was withholding a fairy salary/benefits from you.
Union membership is more than “a seat at the table”, whatever exactly that means, it also means on a practical level not being fired without cause. This happens in a lot of non unorganized workplaces, with the fast food industry being one of the worst, and it’s just acted with New York’s blessing to shut that down.
And as is mentioned by Ms Concepcion, being fired without cause and subsequently blindsided by it was in fact an issue.
I was a neophyte to the labor movement upon joining Fusion’s union organizing team under the direction of WGAE (the Writer’s Guild of America, East), which I felt compelled to do after management gave me and the rest of my colleagues (who were also hired to cover the 2016 election) two months’ notice that we were due to get the axe the week after what would become Trump’s stunning election victory. I didn’t want the rest of Fusion’s staffers at the time to go through what I had — getting blindsided with an NDA that included severance pay that we had no say in.
There’s also a value in industry-wide career development, networking, solidarity and community-building from a union, at least from the more functional ones, even if the employer is otherwise too good to really justify a union on its own. From what’s been presented here it looks to me that that’s what they’re thinking.
Our pay did in fact increase across the board, but that was just one of a few toplines: Codified parental leave, more days off, a clear comp time policy, etc. The contract is public and can be found here:
I’d read TPM pretty much from its inception, more frequently at certain points that others. I’ve always found it a useful news source and enjoyed Josh’s analysis (even when I disagree, coming from further on the left that he does). Once Prime started up I thought about joining at some point but pretty much didn’t get around to it. When Josh announced he was immediately recognizing the newly-formed union, I joined Prime about ten minutes later. Far too often, ostensibly progressive institutions don’t actually operate based on progressive principles, so when a site like TPM walks-the-walk we should all celebrate and support it. Kudos to Josh for doing the right thing right away, and it’s the single-biggest reason why I continue to support TPM.
This is definitely one more good reason for me to stay a member. Congratulations to everyone at TPM for seeing the wisdom of a union during such a stressful period in US journalism!
