Stand With Peacock Producers (“I support Peacock producers unionizing. #MSNBC hosts should, too!)

[Omaha Steve]

https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/5588-stand-with-peacock-producers

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Peacock Productions makes nonfiction content for NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, as well as for sale to other networks--shows like Caught on Camera, Disappeared, Skywire Live with Nik Wallenda and Politics of Power with Chris Hayes.

Producers and associate producers at Peacock started working with the Writers Guild of America, East back in July 2012 to figure out how they could organize a union and bargain with Peacock over their compensation and working conditions. They were concerned about access to affordable health insurance, declining pay rates, and an overall feeling of job insecurity among even the most talented and qualified among them.

More important, however, was that these producers and APs at Peacock believed that there needed to be a union not only at Peacock, but throughout the nonfiction industry. Many of the problems they faced as freelancers were endemic to almost every nonfiction production house - the fault of unchecked competition over labor costs that had created a race to the bottom.

Peacock held several mandatory meetings to badmouth the WGAE as well as one-on-one meetings with current and former employees to tell them that if the union vote passed, it would irreparably harm the company.

Producers and APs filed for a union election on October 25th of last year. The vote didn’t even take place until June 14th of this year. We have no idea what the result of this vote was, however, because NBC has filed appeals to an earlier decision in one of their legal maneuvers to prevent producers from voting. They argued that producers are supervisors who aren’t entitled to any NLRA protections and don’t have the right to form a union.

After a nearly four month deliberation, the regional NLRB ruled against NBC and ordered that the election proceed. NBC’s appeal of that decision has led to the impounding of the ballots pending a ruling from the NLRB. This process is currently at a standstill because of the government shutdown. But even if and when the GOP decides to stop holding the federal government hostage, the process could take months or years. We are confident that NBC is using their appeal as a stalling tactic, and that they will continue to use legal challenges to hold up the process even after the appeal is settled.

These producers and associate producers can’t wait that long. Their livelihoods are at stake. They have risked a lot personally and professionally to get this far, and it is a travesty that they are now being denied their victory and their legal right to collectively bargain. They’ve done all that the law has asked of them, and now each of them is being forced to find other work, one by one, while we wait on a legal decision they’ve already fought over for months.

Many of the hosts of MSNBC programs, themselves employees of NBC and members of various unions, are in a position to help these nonfiction producers and APs at Peacock. They can lend their voices to the several dozen WGAE members at NBC, writers for NBC's hit scripted programs, who have already asked NBC to drop the appeal and count the votes. But all we are asking them to do is to meet with Peacock producers and APs to hear their stories of trying to organize a union at NBC. Help us appeal to them to sit down with these workers and hear about how the employer they share, NBC, is union busting.

Permission to post entire article was granted by writer.

[gopiscrap]

1. k n r

[mountain grammy]

2. Sad. NBC is union busting. K&R