As we have been reporting, the Writers Guild of America East has been actively pursuing writers in the new media arena.   On Friday August 7th, the Guild announced that Vice had agreed to recognize the Guild as the bargaining representative of its editorial staff without an election. It is reported that there are approximately 80 employees in the unit.

While VICE’s management’ statement this past Friday concerning the Guild’s campaign and demand for recognition left some room for doubt as to whether VICE would recognize the union without an election,  they announced today that they would grant recognition without a vote.

These developments reinforce the fact that unions like the Guild are actively organizing in the tech and new media fields where they are finding a receptive audience. It is clear that as expected, the NLRB’s adoption of more union friendly rules for representation elections has expanded union organizing and employee interest in a number of industries and presented employers with new challenges in responding to petitions filed under the new expedited election rules.