NPR
workers just proved that collective action works, and—in today’s
media landscape—staff unions are more important than ever.
The
Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
and National Public Radio (NPR) reached a tentative, three-year
agreement shortly after midnight on July 15, preventing more than 400
NPR employees from going on strike.
On
July 14, almost 300 of these employees voted to request strike
authorization from the SAG-AFTRA national
board. Despite soaring public radio ratings in
the wake of Trump’s election, the union said that NPR was
instituting a two-tier salary system, in which one group of workers
would receive lower pay than the other. Historically, the
establishment of two-tier union contracts have dealt major blows to
worker solidarity. “My greatest concern is for the new hires who
come in behind me,” tweeted NPR
reporter Sarah McCammon on July 14.
An
email sent from the union negotiating committee to members of the
bargaining unit on July 11 explained,
“Absent an 11th-hour change, the company is planning to offer us an
odious contract. The company is setting up a bitter choice for us."
According
to employees,
management even floated the idea of gutting overtime pay and taking
away healthcare coverage for temporary workers. “They are trying to
lower salary minimums, and they are really trying to weaken the power
of the union,” NPR producer Becky Sullivan said during a July
interview.
“They want to write in more flexibility for outside people to do
union work and take away the union’s ability to file a grievance.”
During
negotiations, some of NPR’s most popular staff members, including
“All Things Considered” host Robert Siegel, sent CEO Jarl Mohn
a letter detailing
the importance of the union contract. “NPR’s stature and audience
have grown, while most of us were serving under the SAG-AFTRA
contract,” it reads. “Members of your management team seem to
believe that NPR has become the revered media company it is—a
company that they boast about serving—despite that contract. They
misunderstand NPR’s history and culture: NPR has become great
partly because of our labor-management contract. The contract has
ensured proper working conditions, collaboration and collegiality,
and an atmosphere of mutual respect.”
Although
details of the new deal have not been disclosed, a SAG-AFTRA
representative said that it includes salary increases and
“effectively repelled efforts to erode union protections and
institute a two-tiered salary system.”
“Despite
the often-referenced decline of organized labor, news unions have
been a major story over the last two years as media outlets
like Salon, Vice, MTV
News, The
Guardian US, Jacobin, Thrillist, Slate,
and others have obtained union representation. “News unions are
back,” wrote Gary
Weiss at the Columbia
Journalism Review last
month, “They never really went away, of course, but for the first
time in memory they are proactive rather than on the defensive.”
In
addition to television and radio journalists, SAG-AFTRA also
represents recording artists and film and theater performers.
According to Writers Guild of America organizer Megan McRobert, the
union’s bargaining on behalf of NPR employees demonstrates how the
very threat of a strike wields considerable power in the media world.
“In
many industries today, including in media, workers feel replaceable
and as if their jobs could disappear at any day,” McRobert told In
These Times.
“But companies depend on labor to generate revenue, which is why
withholding of labor—or threatening to—remains such a powerful
tool.”
“When
faced with a strike threat or work stoppage, image-conscious media
companies, in particular, have to contend with a duel threat to their
brand and source of revenue,” McRobert continued. “Taking
collective action in the workplace is a proven way to challenge and
change the power dynamics of an increasingly corporatized media
industry.”
In
reality, NPR is much more corporate than
many of its progressive admirers believe, and it is much less
liberal than many of its conservative critics assume.
Regardless, public broadcasting is now in the Trump
administration’s crosshairs.
Meanwhile, NPR’s right-wing detractors are complaining about strong
bias most comical of
places, throwing a tantrum when NPR tweeted the Declaration of
Independence. NPR has strengthened its brand by presenting itself as
the sober, reasonable alternative to an unhinged political climate,
and the company would have found itself in a challenging situation if
the strike had played out.
With
more than 37 million weekly listeners, 980 member stations and an
ever-growing number of podcasts, the media organization would have
had to scramble to fill spots on popular shows like “All Things
Considered” and “Morning Edition,” whose hosts are union
members. A walkout presumably would have seen fans upset at
management denying them a valuable public service and Trump
supporters basking in liberal hypocrisy.
NPR
workers were able to use their leverage effectively and show why
journalism unions are still so important.
>> The article above was written by Michael Arria, and is reprinted from In These Times.
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