Welcome to your union! A group of Law360 reporters, editors and news assistants set up this site to be a go-to resource for all things related to our organizing drive, and to keep editorial staffers informed as the unionization process plays out.
While many of us have had issues with our jobs for years, some of us in editorial got to talking a number of months ago about how our working lives at Law360 could use some improvements. Law360 had just torpedoed a former colleague's career with a noncompete agreement, threatening all of our career prospects, and the mood was grim.
But it wasn’t just the noncompete we were unhappy about. We soon realized that most of our coworkers had other shared grievances – like a grueling quota-based workload, poor compensation in comparison with our competitors, unfair overtime policies, unpredictable benefits and problematic editorial practices.
So we took action. We connected with The NewsGuild of New York, which represents numerous news organizations like Reuters, The New York Times and The Nation, and got to work reaching out to everyone in the newsroom to make this union a reality. Once our union is certified, we'll be able to collectively bargain for a legally binding contract that protects things like compensation, benefits and editorial independence.
We’ve seen how management has dealt with us in the past on an individual basis, and unfortunately that’s been marked by a lack of transparency about things like promotions and pay raises, indifference to staffers’ concerns about a healthy work-life balance and editorial policies that even our readers have called less than stellar. But if we band together, our position is strong, and we can make a real difference in our jobs.
Don’t believe us? Take a look at some of the other Guild-negotiated contracts, and the favorable terms for journalists that union-represented newsrooms have been able to achieve.
Although we've signed cards and petitioned the higher-ups for recognition, management has decided to bring in highly paid anti-union consultants to scare us way from voting "yes" in our election. We anticipate the next few weeks are going to get tense, as the company tries desperately to reverse the months of discussions and conversations we've had with one another about union representation. It might seem daunting, but when we know what to expect, there's no reason to be afraid. This is one of the reasons why we created this site, to guide you through what lies ahead, and to serve as a resource through our election, and eventually the collective bargaining process.
If you haven't signed a union card yet, you can do so by clicking the "sign card" button at the top right of this page.
In the meantime, check out the site and stay tuned for updates in the News section. If you have any questions, ideas, or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to any of your colleagues listed on contact page. There you'll also find contact info for our Guild organizer – Nastaran Mohit. We really want to hear from you and welcome your involvement. The more people who take an active role in this union, the stronger our position will be at the bargaining table.
We're all in this together. Let’s make this union a reality and change Law360 and our lives for the better.