The Writers Guild of America East announced Thursday that the staffers of ThinkProgress, the liberal blog of the nonprofit Center for American Progress Action Fund, had joined the union. The guild said management had agreed to voluntarily recognize the union and forego holding a workplace election.
“The men and women who write, edit and produce stories at ThinkProgress join hundreds of others in digital media who recognize the power of collective bargaining. They are committed to working together to build sustainable careers crafting stories that are honest and insightful. We welcome ThinkProgress to the Writers Guild of America, East,” said Lowell Peterson, executive director of the guild.
The guild’s announcement included an undated letter from the staff to Neera Tanden, president of the nonprofit, announcing their intention to join the union and pointing out that the center had long touted the benefits of collerctive bargaining to the economy.
“Just this month CAP released groundbreaking research on what unions can do to pronmotoe social mobility. Here at ThinkProgress we believe that having a union will help us protect and elevate the good conditions we currently enjoy in our workplace, both for ourselves and those who come after us,” the letter said.
The guild’s statement quoted Judd Legum, editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress, stating that it supports and recognizes the union. “Our shared goal is to make ThinkProgress’ exceptional team of writers and editors even stronger and continue our cutting-edge work covering the issues that matter most,” Legum said.
There is no statement on the union on either the Center for American Progress Action Fund website or the site of its sister organization, the Center for American Progress. A spokesperson for the groups had not responded to a request for comment.
The organizating of ThinkProgress’s staff follows the unionization of workers at other left-leaning outlets such as Salon.com. Gawker, Vice, the Guardian and Media Matters for America. In the latter case, management initially resisted, rejecting the workers’ letter requesting voluntary recognition. After the workers went public and issued a statement that they felt “betrayed” by the lack of support, Media Matters for America relented and agreed to a union.
