FAQs

The rough estimate for our election date is late February or early March 2020.

After a strong majority of Hearst Magazines employees signed union cards, the Hearst Union Organizing Committee and the WGAE asked for voluntary union recognition from the company. Voluntary recognition has been standard in the media industry for the last several years, with employers like Condé Nast and CBS agreeing to respect the will of the majority [...]

The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing labor laws and administering union elections when employers insist on a formal election process.

Organizing a union is the best way to protect the benefits you currently have, which are at the full discretion of management in a non-union environment. Once your union is recognized, the company must maintain the status quo and can no longer make unilateral changes to employee benefits; any changes must be negotiated through the collective [...]

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Bargaining a contract is about identifying core issues that need to be clarified, which requires compromise and collaboration. The process isn’t perfect or magic. There can be conflict at various stages of the process, whether it is co-workers who disagree with each other or managers who push back on proposals or union involvement. Contract negotiations are [...]

Guild staff work with the elected Council and interested members to implement a range of initiatives. In just the last year, Guild members have applied for grants to start a writing fellowship programs, hosted film screenings, social events, and professional development courses, and collaborated on initiatives like the Diversity Coalition and lobbying for diversity tax credits [...]

Dues ensure that Guild members have the resources to negotiate and enforce strong contracts, seek legal support, and implement member-driven events and programs. No one pays dues until a first contract is negotiated and voted upon. It’s up to you and your colleagues to work together to advocate for a strong contract and then decide, through [...]

In a creative workplace, particularly newsrooms, it’s not always clear who is/isn’t a supervisor. We rely on you, the people who work in the shop, to explain how your workplace operates. Beyond that, we examine organizational structures and job duties to determine the scope of the union. Management has contested that many people at Hearst are [...]

Once the union and management bargaining committee reach a tentative agreement on the contract, it is voted into place by the membership. Once the contract is in effect, members nominate a representative union committee. The union committee works with Guild staff to enforce the contract and communicate with management about additional issues in the workplace.  The [...]