Most of the time, when we’ve seen media or tech workers unionize, it’s been with an organization like the Newsguild, maybe the Communication Workers. The Steelworkers though? Times must be hard for the USW. This week, eighty Google contract workers voted to join the United Steelworkers Union. They will organize under the name Pittsburgh Association of Tech Professionals. First thing on the new union’s agenda? Probably pushing for employee status for its members, which is what just happened at New Yorker magazine. Subcontracted fact-checkers and editors, a common practice in the industry, just earned employee status at the 94-year-old magazine.
