Tag: Eileen O’Connor

MassINC’s board votes to recognize CommonWealth Beacon’s new union

Just a day after CommonWealth Beacon employees announced they were forming a union, the board of MassINC — the nonprofit that publishes CommonWealth — has voted in favor of recognition.

“We respect the rights of members of the newsroom to unionize and we look forward to working with the CommonWealth Beacon Guild and the entire CommonWealth Beacon team to build an impactful and sustainable public service news organization,” according to a statement by Joe Kriesberg, MassINC’s CEO, who serves as CommonWealth’s publisher.

CommonWealth Beacon is a nonprofit digital news outlet that was launched in 1996 as a quarterly print magazine and that now publishes news about state politics and public policy on a daily basis.

“This is the exact outcome for which we were hoping,” according to Chris Lisinski, a senior reporter at CommonWealth Beacon, who was quoted in a release issued by the union. “We’re honored that MassINC recognizes the hard work of our newsroom and our desire to collectively bargain to make it an even better place, both for ourselves and for all future employees.”

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MassINC’s board chair issues response to CommonWealth Beacon union drive

Eileen O’Connor, who is chair of the MassINC board, has passed along a statement about the union organizing drive that employees of CommonWealth Beacon have announced. MassINC, the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, is the nonprofit group that publishes CommonWealth Beacon. (Note: This is not the board that I’m on; rather, I’m on the CommonWealth Beacon editorial advisory board.)

We believe CommonWealth Beacon, the nonprofit journalism arm of MassINC, is a core part of our organization and we appreciate the outstanding work done by a small team of reporters. Their work covers complex policy issues facing Massachusetts and is central to the broader nonprofit mission. MassINC management was informed on Wednesday of their intention to unionize and needs time to engage the full Board of Directors before responding. Both MassINC management and the Board take this process seriously and look forward to working together with the staff to advance CommonWealth Beacon’s mission of public service journalism.