Fortune’s Digital Staff Forms Union, Management Rejects It

Fortune’s digital edit staff is the latest to get organized. The almost 90-year-old financial magazine, founded as part of Time Inc. and sold last year to Meredith Corp. only to be sold again within a year to Chatchaval Jiaravanon, heir to a Thai business empire, is now among the many digital newsrooms to look to unionization in the last year as they continue to face professional uncertainty. Staffers are pushing for voluntary recognition with representation from NewsGuild in an effort to “safeguard our rights as workers and sustain the magazine’s reputation going forward,” according to a joint statement from union leaders. But Fortune management has already refused to recognize the bargaining unit. “This is surprising to us, since an overwhelming majority of Fortune’s online editorial staff signed cards in support of unionizing, in addition to support petitions signed by NewsGuild members of both Fortune and Time magazines,” staffers wrote. Fortune still has something of an editorial divide between print and digital staffs and output, but those on the print side are already unionized and have been so going back decades, with a contract negotiated while still a part of Time Inc. Moreover, digital staffers are asking to be recognized under the same union agreement

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