Staff at The Onion to unionize

CHICAGO — Employees of Chicago-based humor website The Onion and its sister publications Thursday announced plans to unionize in a bid to preserve a unique workplace culture and their jobs.

The “overwhelming majority” of editorial and video staff agreed to be represented by the Writers Guild of America East in collective bargaining negotiations with ownership, controlled by Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.

Part of a trend toward unionization at digital publications, the collective bargaining unit will represent about 100 employees at The Onion, pop culture site A.V. Club, satire site ClickHole and Onion Labs, an in-house advertising agency.

“Digital media is such a precarious industry,” said Caitlin PenzeyMoog, deputy managing editor at A.V. Club. “We’ve seen our peers suffer in this new industry, and we’ve also seen our peers thrive with union protection.”

PenzeyMoog said staffers at the Onion Inc. sites began exploring union representation about six months ago.

— From wire reports