Writers at Vice Media have voted to unionize, said people familiar with the matter, giving organized labor its biggest foothold yet in digital media newsrooms.

The writers will be joining the Writers Guild of America, East, and Vice’s management has been informed, the people said. Vice's attorney has already responded to the union saying the company is prepared to recognize it, one of the people said.

The number of employees who have voted to unionize was not immediately clear. Writers account for less than 10% of Vice's 700 U.S. employees.

Until recently, unionization was almost unheard of at digital media companies, which had typically operated more like tech companies, where collective bargaining is rare. But in recent months, organized labor has made steady gains signing up workers at digital media sites.

In June, 118 writers at Gawker Media joined the Writers Guild of America, East. They were followed in July by 26 editorial staffers at Salon.com. And last week, the Guardian US’s 45 newsroom employees voted to become part of the NewsGuild-CWA. In all these cases, management has agreed to negotiate with the union.

But Vice is by far the largest digital media company where employees have made such a move.

Employing more than 1,500 people worldwide, Vice has been criticized in the past for paying low wages. In a 2013 application to New York’s Empire State Development Corporation for a $6.5 million tax credit related to the building of its new headquarters in Williamsburg, the company stated that it paid editorial writers an average wage of $45,000 in 2012. Video production and post-production employees received an average wage of $60,000. Creative and design employees were paid $70,000 on average.

A person familiar with the matter said that salaries have since gone up to an average of just under $70,000 for non-management employees. The person also said the company offers a full slate of benefits including equity stakes, full health coverage, paid leave, retirement programs, parental leave and will soon institute a tuition reimbursement program.

Management at other sites have said they are keeping a close eye on the move to unionize. Many traditional news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, have had unionized newsrooms for years.

Vice started in 1994 as a punk-rock magazine in Montreal before expanding into music and online content that has had great success attracting younger viewers coveted by advertisers. The company has since grown into a sprawling powerhouse in digital media, with 12 different verticals producing mostly video content that runs the gamut from war reporting to music reviews to documentaries about the global drug and sex trades.

The company was valued at $2.5 billion last year, when it received simultaneous $250 million investments from both A+E Networks and venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures. In 2013, 21st Century Fox took a 5% stake in Vice. Fox and Wall Street Journal-owner News Corp were part of the same company until mid-2013.