02/20/2018

Mic Editorial Employees Join the NewsGuild of New York

Overwhelming majority of employees at digital news site seek representation with the Guild

New York -- Editorial employees at the digital news site Mic have announced that an overwhelming majority of its staff have joined the NewsGuild of New York, the union that represents nearly 3,000 media professionals in the Greater New York City area.

With an overwhelming majority of the newsroom signed on, Mic employees are requesting voluntary recognition of their union from management. Citing Mic’s core mission of “giving voice to the unrepresented,” employees are hopeful management will do the right thing and recognize their union. Mic will be joining the rapidly growing unionized ranks of both digital and print publications organizing for a voice on the job.

“I am so proud that the overwhelming majority of Mic reporters, editors, correspondents, social media editors, producers and copy editors have come together as a collective voice to improve Mic’s workplace,” said Kelsey Sutton, Mic political reporter.

Founded in 2011, Mic is an online media company geared towards young people who are passionate about social and economic justice. Mic employees are unionizing to have a voice in their newsroom to address issues like job security, improved pay and benefits, a lack of regularly scheduled pay raises, and a clear path for professional development.

“I’ve always been proud to work at a company that puts social justice at the center of its mission. That’s why I’m excited to get to the bargaining table with management to ensure all Mic employees feel equally valued and heard as the company continues to grow,” said Zach Howe, Mic copy editor.

“We’re pleased to welcome Mic’s editorial employees as our newest members” said Grant Glickson, President of the NewsGuild of New York. “Mic employees deserve representation and protection in the workplace, and we’re proud to welcome them into the NewsGuild family.”

Full text of mission statement below:

We are Mic’s editorial staff: We are reporters and editors; we are video producers, social media editors, and copy editors. We work on-camera and behind the scenes. We are committed to Mic’s mission of elevating underrepresented voices and proving high-quality journalism can thrive in the age of digital media.

And we’re proud to announce that we are unionizing with the NewsGuild of New York.

We want to ensure that Mic’s employees feel empowered to do meaningful work. By uniting the editorial workers across the company, we’re confident we’ll be better able to achieve Mic’s vision of championing social and economic justice.

For decades, unions have embodied the values of fairness, empowerment and justice — the same values that guide Mic’s editorial principles. As our company continues to grow, we believe it is our responsibility to fight for these values.

Here are some of the most important issues we plan to address:

Honoring Mic’s core values

We are proud to work at a company committed to diversity and integrity. For Mic to honor these commitments, it must be a welcoming and equitable workplace for women, people of color, and transgender and gender-nonconforming people. This means transparency regarding salaries and raises to ensure those at risk of being undercompensated are paid equally for equal work. We also expect Mic to make personnel decisions that reflect this commitment to diversity — in particular, hiring women of color reporters and promoting everyone at the same rate as men.

A strong separation between branded and editorial content will also further Mic’s mission to produce news with integrity. We recognize that branded content is crucial to the company, but it must be clearly differentiated from editorial, and employees on the editorial team must not be expected to produce branded content.

Making Mic an attractive destination for current and future employees

To ensure Mic can continue to attract and retain the most promising and talented employees, it must institute policies that have become industry standard. These include a company match for employees’ 401Ks, regularly scheduled pay raises, standardized comp time, and prompt reimbursement of employee expenses.

Guaranteeing fairness for all Mic employees

To strengthen Mic’s commitment to employees’ success, the editorial staff seeks to codify clear managerial structures and workflow practices.

Roles should be clearly defined, with job expectations that ensure work-life balance. Mic should offer all employees benefits, regardless if their contribution is full-time or part-time. Additionally, we deserve open and fair relationships with management. All editorial staff should have timely, meaningful access to decisions that affect editorial workflow and staffing. We should each have an equal shot at achieving career goals, transparency about how to reach those goals, and a channel to upper management to discuss professional development.

Ensuring industry changes happen with workers, not to workers

We want to make sure that employees are given opportunities to train on new skills as demand for those skills emerges. We also want Mic’s management to look within its newsroom for talented people who can fill new positions before searching outside the company and to avoid excessive reliance on freelance labor.

Above all, Mic employees want a seat at the table as decisions are made that affect the future of the company. We believe that together — and only together — we can ensure that Mic remains an important voice in the future of digital journalism.