Vox Union Deal Offers Minimum Salary of $56,000, Parental Leave

(Bloomberg) -- Employees at Vox Media, owner of the Verge, Eater and SB Nation, will get minimum salary guarantees and four months of paid parental leave as part of their first union contract.

The online publisher’s 350-member editorial staff ratified its first collective bargaining agreement a week after the employees held a one-day walkout to pressure management.

The three-year deal includes $56,000 minimum salaries for exempt employees -- workers who aren’t paid overtime -- as well as a 3.5% retroactive raise and a commitment to consider a diverse pool of applicants for jobs. It also ensures that if Vox creates programming for Netflix Inc. or Hulu LLC based on employees’ work, those employees will share in the revenue.

The pact caps an effort that went public almost two years ago, when employees at Vox’s websites announced an organizing campaign. The company agreed two months later to recognize the union, but it took 14 months of negotiations and a walkout to reach an agreement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerry Smith in New York at gsmith233@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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