Vox Media union reaches accord with publisher a day after walkout

[LOS ANGELES] Vox Media staffers reached a tentative labour agreement with the online publisher Friday after a marathon 29 hours of negotiation and a one-day walkout.

"We are thrilled to announce we have reached a tentative agreement with Vox Media for our first-ever collective bargaining agreement," the bargaining committee said on Twitter. "Our unit still needs to ratify our contract, but we are proud of what we have won in this agreement and can't wait to share the details."

The accord culminates an effort that began almost two years ago, when employees at Vox's websites went public in November 2017 with an organising campaign. The company agreed two months later to recognise the union, but the parties failed to reach a collective-bargaining agreement over 14 months of negotiations.

That led to Thursday's walkout, in which hundreds of employees took part, according to the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), which represents the workers.

Lowell Peterson, the WGAE's executive director, called the tentative deal "an industry-standard collective bargaining agreement, which includes important gains in every area people care about - diversity and job security and pay rates and transparency and so many more."

In a staffwide email Friday, Vox Media chief executive officer Jim Bankoff said he was "thrilled" to announce news of the deal. "Since we began this journey a decade ago, our company has always focused on doing the right thing by investing in our people, so we can passionately serve our audiences and customers," he said.

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