TIME magazine’s digital staff demands to join print union

TIME magazine’s digital staffers are seeking to unionise, breaking down a barrier at the organisation between print and digital wings of the publication. The magazine’s print employees have been unionised for 80 years through the NewsGuild, which also represents a number of major news outlets including The Daily Beast. But the union’s contract has not covered staffers designated by the company as primarily digital focused. In a statement, TIME magazine digital staff said only employees who prove they spend 30 percent of their time working on print are currently allowed to join the union.

But like many newsrooms that still have a print magazine or newspaper, employees often work on both print and digital. Staff told the magazine’s management that they were seeking to joins the company’s print union, noting that digital staff often works on major packages like the TIME 100.