The dangers of high status, low wage jobs
&quot;If you’re curious why unionization has taken the journalism world by storm the last few years, you don’t have to look to politics or in-group signaling for an explanation, basic economics will get you all the way there.... You reduce quantity of labor supplied and end up with higher equilibrium wages for those who manage to get their foot in the door. Of course, this will only heighten the favoring of those who can get their foot in the $3200&#x2F;mo Brooklyn rent door while dressing fashionably and using “semiotics” correctly in a sentence, but that’s neither here nor there.&quot;<p>This is a cute theory, and tickles some people&#x27;s ideological fancy. But if the author had done more research, they would know where the CWA-NewsGuild is actually doing most of its new organizing (hint: not New York), what sorts of contract articles they bargain around hiring, and what the status quo in non-union newsrooms is.<p>In brief, the Guild has been organizing tons of local newspapers in small cities and rural areas, particularly those bought up by private equity firms who want to cut the newsroom to the bone. They bargain contract articles that curb the nepotistic in-group hiring practices common at non-union papers.<p>Source: I&#x27;m a former NewsGuild member, but at a software company, not a newspaper.<p>Take a gander at the NewsGuild president&#x27;s twitter account and you&#x27;ll see many examples of these campaigns: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;gaufre" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;gaufre</a>