After a majority of the votes cast are in favor of our union, the NLRB will certify our union as the bargaining representative for editorial staff at all our brands. After NLRB certification, Hearst will be legally obligated to engage in good faith bargaining with our union. Then we will proceed to contract negotiations by filling out bargaining surveys to identify important issues to address in our first contract and we will nominate representatives from every brand to serve on the Hearst Union bargaining committee to compile the survey results and represent all of us in negotiations.

Once our union is certified, the company will be obligated to maintain the status quo when it comes to our terms and conditions of employment, unless we, the union, agree to change them. The company will no longer be able to unilaterally change our benefits without negotiation. 

For an overview of the process, the NLRB has a fact sheet that goes into more detail here.