Law360 fighting newsroom attempts to organize

Dave Jamieson of The Huffington Post writes about how the legal news site Law360.c0m is fighting attempts by its news staff to unionize.

Jamieson writes, “But the case of Law360, which is owned by the research firm LexisNexis, differs in a key way: Management strongly opposes the union effort and appears to be putting serious resources into stopping it. Many employees have already been urged to attend what are commonly called captive audience meetings, HuffPost has learned. These are meetings in which consultants deliver an anti-union message to employees in the hopes of eroding enough union support among the workforce that the union loses an election.

“‘It was inevitable,’ said Nastaran Mohit, an organizer with the NewsGuild, noting that captive audience meetings are common in other fields. ‘We knew at some point we would see the opposition that falls in line with other industries.’

“Most digital outlets so far have agreed to voluntarily recognize their staffers’ union after a majority of employees submitted union cards. Al Jazeera America declined to go that route, instead requesting that employees vote in a secret-ballot election. (Any employer has the right to demand a vote.) But Al Jazeera America did not go so far as to pay for outside consultants to deliver an anti-union message. Employees there voted in favor of the union but were soon laid off when the network folded.

“Law360 employees in New York, Washington and Los Angeles, along with remote employees, will vote in their election later this month, with roughly 130 employees eligible to cast ballots, according to the NewsGuild. Workers in all those offices have been told to attend anti-union meetings, and remote workers were told to call in, Mohit said.”

Read more here.