Politico union advocate not appeased by snack bar

[Omaha Steve]

Source: W Post

By Erik Wemple

Politico bosses these days are doing a great deal to rally their staffers. They just completed a move into new offices, which they christened with a champagne toast. There’s a snack bar to boot. Chief Executive Jim VandeHei recently sent out a big memo celebrating and reinforcing the company’s culture. And there’s something called the Politico “Summer Fitness Challenge” afoot.

That’s not enough to satisfy Politico labor reporter Mike Elk, who today seized upon the news of unionization plans among Salon editorial staffers to push his colleagues in the same direction. “Sure the snack bar is great, but a union contract would be even sweeter!” writes Elk in a very lightly copy-edited appeal to Politico staffers (he sent a similar note after Gawker’s union news broke). A union at Politico, pitches Elk, would give employees a means of channeling gripes and a mechanism for securing pay raises, not to mention a “clear scheduling system that gives people certainty in balancing the needs of our personal lives with the needs of our professional lives.”

As reported earlier in this space, Elk’s union drive at Politico has faced internal skepticism.

Elk’s memo in full:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Following the lead of our brothers and sisters at Gawker, our brothers and sisters at Salon have unanimously chosen to unionize with Writers Guild of America East. Since the successful drive at Gawker, unions that represent media workers have initiated campaigns at half dozen outlets and Now, its our time to help make history. In doing so not only would we help ourselves, but help make POLITICO the type of publication where workers want to stay for their entire careers because the working conditions are so good. These our chances to take POLITICO to the next level!

FULL story at link.



Politico Editor Susan Glasser (Handout/Politico)


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/07/02/politico-union-advocate-not-appeased-by-snack-bar/

[MADem]

1. Maybe if they unionize, the quality of their work would improve.

It has no where to go but up.

[merrily]

2. Writers and editors are a tough category, including

because so many aspire to those fields.

Except for a very few lights, political writing has become formulaic. Great talent is not a must. When there are so many more people chasing good jobs than there are employers chasing people, it sucks.

Remember the screenwriters' strike? It lasted a long time; they got next to nothing and producers replaced scripted shows with reality TV, so the jobs decreased dramatically and, so far, permanently. (Yes, reality TV shows are scripted, but, again, it doesn't take a emmy award winning screenwriter, just like working for politico doesn't require Pulitizer level writing.)

Newspapers are dying and making money via publications online is not easy. So, I'm not sure how many raises and benefits a union is going to be able to negotiate.

Also, there is an idea that young writers and editors keep publications fresher and more current, so Politico may not want writers or editors looking forward to staying with politico for their entire careers. On the other hands, in politics, a longer memory can be useful. Chris Matthews certainly could keep his references fresher, but his long memory and many experiences have a value in his field. And unions are succeeding elsewhere.

With all my heart, I wish the union organizing effort well. However, I understand if the writers and editors of politico are timid about unionizing. Most probably feel lucky to have the jobs they have.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. That's an absurd reduction of the WGA strike situation and clearly you are not WGA nor in any

of the associated Unions in the industry. The gains by WGA keep writers housed and insured, the strike won reuse fees from digital outlets that are wildly important going forward. Hugely.
The strike you refer to was 14 weeks long at the end of 2007 and into 2008. Reality programming was already established and all over TV, Survivor was 7 years old having first aired in 2000.

WGA was courageous and correct to strike and I support them today as I did then when I visited their picket lines in solidarity.

[merrily]

5. One close relative is a union writer, though not a screenwriter, and her son is a union camera

Last edited Fri Jul 3, 2015, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)

operator in California. He works on films, TV shows and music videos. He respected the writers' strike, which killed the show he was working on at the time. The strike began during the first season. It had not yet had time to build a following when the strike began. Of course, it might have failed anyway, but we'll never know.

My parents were also both union members, though not connected with writing or showing business. I was union until I became management and then self-employed. I've posted in support of unions any number of times and have never made one post against unions. I support all organizing efforts.

My post did not say that the writers were wrong to strike and I did not fault the union in any way. I cited some unfortunate results of that strike. What I did post about the stike can be checked for accuracy here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike That strike had nothing to do with housing writers.

As far as being reductionist, I was writing a post, not a treatise about the strike.

I'm not sure why you seem unable to reply to me without seeming so angry and reading words into my posts that are not there. I am not your enemy.

[Enrique]

4. what's so great about a snack bar?