Vice Media editorial workers represented by the Writers Guild of America East unanimously approved a three-year labor pact, the first-ever collective bargaining agreement with Shane Smith’s company.
The contract sets a new editorial minimum salary of $45,000 and includes a 14 percent pay hike retroactive to Jan. 1.
The minimum increase was also set at $8,000. Additional pay hikes of 5 percent each are set to kick in on Jan. 1, 2017, and Jan. 1, 2018.
In addition, Vice Media agreed to make its first-ever 401(k) match on the first 3 percent of an employee’s salary.
The agreement includes severance pay on terminations and provisions for monthly union management meetings, according to Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGAE.
Seventy-three of the 80 employees in the unit cast “yes” votes, he said.
“This is great news,” said Alyssa Mastromonaco, COO of Vice. “Both sides have come together and struck a deal that continues to propel VICE forward as media’s most innovative and entrepreneurial workplace.”



