Vice Media is the latest digital upstart to unionize

Writers at Vice Media have voted to unionize, said people familiar with the matter, giving organized labor its biggest foothold yet in digital media newsrooms.

Chalk up another win for the WGA East’s campaign to organize digital media. The decision to unionize follows a recent trend in digital media companies to join unions, following decades of the same practice at legacy print publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

In a letter to founder and CEO Shane Smith, the employees said they were proud of the work they do and expressed their love for Vice. As of 2014, less than 7 percent of private-sector employees were union members.

Over the summer, Gawker Media, Salon and Guardian U.S. editorial staffers joined the same union. Other digital media companies are believed to be contemplating similar efforts.

The Writers Guild of America, East will be representing Vice Media’s staff, the guild said in a statement released Friday.

A Vice spokesman had no immediate comment. Vice has been plagued with reports of ill-treatment and low wages for employees. At Gawker, 118 employees were eligible for the union.

Vice, which started out as a punk magazine in the mid-’90s, has grown into a media juggernaut with a 30,000-square-foot headquarters in Brooklyn and dozens of offices worldwide. Salaries have since gone up to an average of $70,000 for nonmanagement employees, the Journal said.