Tronc Agrees To Let Its Virginia Newsrooms Unionize

The traditionally anti-union Tronc newspaper company on Friday agreed to allow journalists at its two Virginia newspapers to organize, averting the need for a federally overseen vote, organizers tell NPR.

The move to unionize the combined newsrooms at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and the Daily Press in Newport News followed successful organizing efforts earlier this year at Tronc's larger properties, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. The company subsequently sold the LA Times to a billionaire Tronc investor.

More than 83 percent of eligible newsroom employees at the Virginia papers backed the unionization effort, according to organizers.

Tronc's agreement to voluntarily recognize the union came just 10 days after the Tidewater Media Guild formally asked the company to do so. Tronc initially declined, and on Sept. 6 the guild requested that the National Labor Relations Board oversee a unionization vote.

Read more: http://www.kasu.org/post/tronc-agrees-let-its-virginia-newsrooms-unionize