Law360 editorial staff votes to unionize

The editorial staff of legal news website Law360 on Tuesday petitioned for union representation with The NewsGuild of New York.

An overwhelming majority of the roughly 130 reporters, editors, and news assistants and apprentices at Law360 across the United States signed on to the drive for Guild representation. They called on management to voluntarily recognize their union.

Law360 is owned by LexisNexis Group, a subsidiary of RELX Group.

“We are excited to welcome this talented group of legal journalists to our union, and we call on Law360 to recognize the will of the majority of its editorial employees to have union representation,” said Peter Szekely, president of The NewsGuild of New York, in a statement. “Their dedication to improving their workplace advances the Guild’s longstanding mission to advocate for journalists, improve their working conditions and fight for industry-wide standards.”

Law360 is a fast-growing publisher of legal news and analysis. Despite the company’s growth, employee compensation lags behind competitors, and editorial staffers have questioned Law360’s overtime practices, strict story quotas and a general lack of transparency in the workplace.

Law360’s editorial staff began organizing soon after management enforced a non-compete agreement against a recently departed employee.

As part of a recent settlement with New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, which stemmed from an investigation initiated by The NewsGuild, the company has discontinued its practice of requiring employees to sign non-compete agreements, which had restricted their ability to find other jobs.

– See more at: http://www.nyguild.org/newsreader/items/law360-editorial-staff-organizes-with-the-newsguild-of-new-york.html#sthash.YiOP2haC.dpuf