Over the past six years, the Writers Guild of America East has driven a wave of new unions for digital news organizations in a time of constant media layoffs. Now the question of whether to continue that organizing lies at the heart of the WGAE’s council elections, which end on Tuesday and could change the future of both the guild and digital media organizing.
Michael Winship, who is running unopposed for president as is incoming vice president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, are backing a pause on any new media organizing efforts and a reconsideration of guild membership structure — with spinning off digital news writers into a separate union altogether as one of the possible options.