The Young Turks Union Fight Gets Nastier With Charges of Retaliatory Firing, Withholding Raises

[George II]

THURSDAY, MAR 5, 2020

A contentious union campaign by the staff of the progressive news network The Young Turks (TYT) is growing even more combative. Today, the union filed two separate unfair labor practice charges alleging that the company and its CEO, the popular liberal media figure Cenk Uygur, withheld wage increases and bonuses from employees as a result of the union drive, and that they fired an employee as retaliation for union activity—charges that Uygur denies.

On February 12, about 15 TYT employees announced their intention to unionize with IATSE. They expected to gain voluntary recognition from their famously liberal employer through a simple check of union cards, but were spurned. The company insisted on holding a secret ballot election at work in order to recognize the union, a tactic typically considered to be anti-union. (Uygur disputed this, telling In These Times that “Voluntary recognition means any recognition process outside of an NLRB election.” But card check is generally understood to be what unions mean by “voluntary recognition.”)

In a tense staff meeting held the same day, Uygur urged staffers not to unionize, saying a union would be unsustainable given TYT’s perilous financial position. Uygur’s position on the union has been widely criticized as hypocritical, coming from a man who made his name as a champion of progressive causes. TYT bills itself as the largest online news show in the world, with more than 200 million views per month.

Uygur, who at the time was running for Congress in California’s 25th district, also suggested that the union fight was politically motivated, since IATSE was endorsing one of his opponents in the race. On Tuesday, Uygur lost the race, coming in fourth with about 5% of the vote.

https://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/22350/the-young-turks-union-cenk-uygur-labor-organizing

[Omaha Steve]

1. Thanks for the heads up

Pisses me off!

OS

[hlthe2b]

2. K&R.... This is the supposed progressive spreading doctored videos of Biden to promote

the orchestrated senility attacks.

[bluedigger]

3. Congrats on finding a way to bridge the GD-Primary forum divide.

Using attacks on surrogates to impugn Sanders and his supporters is a brilliant move. Looking forward to many more Cenk posts in GD.

[Turin_C3PO]

4. What does this post have to do with Sanders?

I don’t see his name mentioned anywhere.

[LakeArenal]

8. Check out the crazy video

Where Cenk goes batshit telling us how feeble Joe is.

So you are saying that Cenk IS a surrogate? Don't want to falsely accuse this nut and maniac of being one. Thanks for the info.

What’s the difference from a surrogate and a supporter? All surrogates must be supporters tho most supporters are not spokesmen.

[tishaLA]

5. If I didn't know better, I'd say a repub posing as a progressive

is heading TYT. Because no real progressive would do that.

[spicysista]

6. K&R

The tenor of their network is getting worse. How can a progressive be against unions?

[amcgrath]

7. There does seem to have been a succession of bad moves,

Their total pandering to paying customers only is questionable. The union thing is very troubling - and so is the reported six-figure cash donation to TYT from google.

I fail to see a difference between a politician having money poured into their hotels or golf courses and having money poured into their media outlet ?

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. What a hypocrite.