Thread by @vox_union

Fantastic news: @vox_union has overwhelmingly voted to ratify our first CBA with @voxmediainc! 🎉

We’re thrilled, and strongly believe this contract is a big step toward creating an even better workplace — here are some of the highlights! ⬇️

@voxmediainc @WGAEast Under our contract, the minimum starting salary for a salaried @vox_union member is $56K! We also secured solid, guaranteed annual raises for our unit members, including increases that will be retroactive to last July. 💰💰

@voxmediainc @WGAEast Beyond our $56K floor, there will be minimum wage scales by job category to increase transparency around pay and promotions.

We secured company-provided health benefits for part-time employees who work 20 or more hours a week — a major win for our numerous PT employees, who contribute so much to the company.

We won 16 weeks of PAID parental leave for full-timers — regardless of gender — as well as 4 weeks of paid time off to care for an ill immediate family member. These are major quality-of-life issues, and will go a long way toward improving the lives of our unit members.

Our contract strengthens @voxmediainc’s commitment to diversity in hiring, with mandates to diversify candidate pools from entry-level roles to the most senior positions.

More specifically, the company commits that 40% of the applicant pool who pass the phone interview stage will be from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in journalism. That rises to 50% for the most senior roles in the union.

We’ve also created avenues for accountability, including a diversity leadership committee to ensure the company meets these diversity and inclusion goals. The company will budget $50K annually to this committee.

Digital media is a scary, turbulent industry — which is why we fought to secure 11 weeks *minimum* of severance for laid-off employees, plus paid COBRA for the term of the severance and recall rights if an identical job opens up within six months of a layoff.

We pushed @voxmediainc to eliminate its forced arbitration clause for *all* employees, not just those within the @vox_union, and they agreed.

The company will also eliminate non-competes for current unit members.

@voxmediainc If the company sells editorial content or repurposes and produces it for a third party, unit members who were substantially involved in the creation of the work will see a share of that revenue, whether a percentage of the purchase price or producer fee.

@voxmediainc We will now have access to recuperation time when we work unusually long hours, for unusually long stretches, or when we travel on our regular days off for work.

We now have the right to decline work on projects that could compromise our editorial standards, such as sponsored content or native advertising.

And those are just some of the highlights! We’re excited about this contract, and we’re thrilled to join other media shops that have unionized with @WGAEast.

We’re stronger when we stand together. ✊

@WGAEast 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

Proof that unions make workplaces better:

We just received an email from our CEO Jim Bankoff sent to the entire company that he will be applying many of the same benefits we won as a union to non-union employees. 👏👏👏

@voxmediainc @WGAEast here’s our soundcloud:

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