• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 2, 2016

In recent years, it has been one of the many rich ironies of the media industry that digital media companies. They often pay lip service to “progressive” ideals and wring their hands about economic injustice, yet somehow managed to avoid allowing their employees to form unions or engage in collective bargaining. Funny, that.

Well, that may finally be changing.

This week the editorial staff at Gawker – a pioneering gossip site which has, over the years, dished out any amount of criticism of other media company’s labor practices – finally got a union of its own. The 99 members of the bargaining unit approved a contract to form a union under the aegis of the Writers Guild of America, East.

According to the negotiating committee, the employees’ main priorities were to preserve certain a range of health and other benefits; to establish clear rules governing pay and benefits, including guaranteed pay increases and severance pay; to establish the right to meet with management over issues, including editorial policy and diversity; and to guarantee editorial independence.

They also won privileges regarding book rights based on work the company and protections for contractors.

Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East, stated: “The union was able to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement founded on the principles of consistency and transparency. This agreement demonstrates that unionization gives digital media employees a real and effective voice in decisions that affect their careers.”

The WGAE already has contracts representing writers and producers at some other digital media companies, including The Huffington Post, Vice, Salon and ThinkProgress.

Membership in unions of all kinds has declined precipitously in recent decades. In 2015, 11.5% of all U.S. workers belonged to a union, down from 20.1% in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2015 figure includes 35.2% of public sector employees and 6.7% of private sector employees.