Voice Media Guild wins union vote

Phoenix — Journalists and other employees of Phoenix New Times won a hard-earned victory Monday, garnering the overwhelming majority of votes to establish the Voice Media Guild. The group will become part of Media Guild of the West, Local 39213 of The NewsGuild-CWA.

The Voice Media Guild represents non-manager newsroom employees including two editors, all staff writers, the creative director of print, and editorial fellows.

The vote is the latest victory in a surge of NewsGuild organizing, following last month’s landslide elections at the Bradenton Herald in Florida and the Orlando Sentinel, as well as a successful campaign for voluntary recognition at the online publication Insider Higher Ed. 

The election caps a 100-plus day process to formalize the newsroom’s union. The Voice Media Guild organizing committee first announced its intention to form a union on January 21. Voice Media Group, New Times’ parent company, refused to voluntarily recognize the union and contested the inclusion of the majority of the staff in the union, resulting in multi-day hearings (and further delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic). The union certification election was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board and the vote was conducted via a mail ballot.

Phoenix New Times was founded in 1970 as a countercultural response to the Kent State Massacre. Voice Media Guild was established 50 years later in an effort to preserve the voice of independent and alternative media in the Phoenix area. For more information, follow Voice Media Guild on Twitter @VMGGuild or contact voicemediaguild@gmail.com.