SAG-AFTRA and National Public Radio announced a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract, the two sides announced early Sunday.
The agreement was reached in Washington, D.C., just after midnight ET on Sunday near the end of a 24-hour contract extension on top of a two-week extension.
The new contract “provides salary increases and effectively repelled efforts to erode union protections and institute a two-tiered salary system,” SAG-AFTRA said in statement.
Many NPR staffers have been represented by SAG-AFTRA since 1979.
The previous two-year contract expired on June 30, but it was extended through Friday. On Friday, about 300 NPR staffers voted to ask SAG-AFTRA’s national board of directors to approve a strike-authorization referendum.
On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA posted a statement about the state of negotiations on a new website with the title, “The future of NPR is at stake.” In the statement, the union wrote, “the management of NPR and their latest contract proposal seeks to tear apart fundamental workplace rights and benefits SAG-AFTRA members fought hard to establish. It threatens the core of NPR’s mission by devaluing the work of the people who have helped bring record audiences across NPR’s platforms, as is frequently touted by the same executives.”