The Writers Guild of America East has filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against Crooked Media, the company behind the popular Democratic podcast, “Pod Save America.”
The charge comes more than a year into labor negotiations with Crooked Media, which was founded by former Obama Administration staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor in 2017 in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. Other shows produced by the podcast company include “Lovett or Leave It” and “Pod Save the World.”
“It’s a shame when a progressive company like Crooked Media fails to live up to its own values and attempts to union-bust,” guild president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen said in a statement. “The Guild fully expects Crooked Media to stop playing politics with its workers’ livelihoods and settle this first contract without delay.”
In the charge, WGA East claims that Crooked Media violated the National Labor Relations Act by “unilaterally changing the status quo of the previously negotiated Recognition Agreement and by insisting on a permissive subject of bargaining.”
“Specifically, Crooked Media has systematically excluded multiple staff members from the bargaining unit in an effort to undermine the union and deprive those workers of their collective bargaining rights,” the guild said in a memo announcing the charge. “This stands in violation of the union’s rights to organize and collectively bargain and constitutes a form of union-busting.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Crooked Media said that the company voluntarily recognized the union immediately when it voted to join WGA East last year, and that two-thirds of the company’s workforce are in the bargaining unit.
“We have always and will always respect the right to organize and bargain collectively,” the spokesperson said. “The discussion we’ve been having with the union is about 5 roles (out of over 60) that were not included in the initial recognition agreement. We have been engaged in good faith discussions about these roles and expect to continue that discussion in three days of bargaining this week.”
The media company and the bargaining unit are set to resume negotiations on Tuesday.
