After a majority of the votes cast are in favor of our union, the NLRB will certify our union as the bargaining representative for editorial staff at all our brands. After NLRB certification, Hearst will be legally obligated to engage in good faith bargaining with our union. Then we will proceed to contract negotiations by filling [...]
The basic premise of collective bargaining is that we are in a stronger negotiating position together as a group, rather than as individuals. We are organizing this union and voting in our NLRB election to secure a seat at the bargaining table, where we will make proposals for a contract that can address our top issues [...]
A workplace is “officially” union upon winning union recognition. Union recognition means that the company has a legal obligation to bargain a contract. Most media companies have respected their employees’ democratic right to organize and recognized the union after a neutral third party verifies that a majority of employees signed union authorization cards. In a few [...]
Management can hold more “informational” or “educational” meetings leading up to the election and can advocate for us to vote “No.” However, they can’t make any threats or offer any inducements to change our minds. They can’t interrogate any of us about our support. If you have any questionable interactions with management (or their representatives), please [...]
We all have federally protected rights to advocate for a “Yes” vote leading up to our election and to do so in an environment free from intimidation or interrogation. For more on our rights, please check out this page from the NLRB.
The NLRB conducts secret ballot elections. Hearst has agreed with our proposal for a mail ballot election so we can all vote safely. Once ballots are mailed to us, we will have a window of 10-14 days to ensure everyone receives a ballot and has time to mail it back to the NLRB. It is a [...]
In a creative workplace, particularly newsrooms, it’s not always clear who is/isn’t a supervisor. We rely on knowledge of our workplace and conversations with colleagues to learn more about people’s job duties. Beyond that, we examine organizational structures to determine the scope of the union. Management has contested that many people at Hearst are supervisors, and [...]
In our case, we went through a lengthy hearing at the NLRB to determine the makeup of our union. Hearst argued that we should be split into six unions, that certain employees are part of an existing “union” called the Hearst International Employees Association, that Best Products should not be eligible for our union, and that [...]
The NLRB will mail ballots to all of us on June 12th. We encourage you to send yours back as soon as you receive it! You must return your ballot so that it is received by the NLRB by July 13th (this should allow plenty of time for us to ask for replacement ballots from the NLRB if [...]
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing labor laws and administering union elections when employers insist on a formal election process.