POWER 99 FM
SAG-AFTRA members at Philadelphia’s hip-hop and R&B station Power 99 FM began bargaining their first contract with the station’s management team on March 27.
This occurred after the National Labor Relations Board counted two previously challenged ballots and authorized the Power 99 FM staff to be represented by SAG-AFTRA.
This vote marked a commercial radio union victory in a major market with a major employer, iHeart Media. SAG-AFTRA currently represents radio workers at other stations in the Philadelphia region, including Q102 (WIOQ), Total Traffic & Weather Network, 93.3 WMMR, 92.5 XTU, SportsRadio 94WIP, KYW NewsRadio, WHYY, Audacy Traffic and WPHT-FM
producers.
WJET
On-air employees at WJET-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania — including anchors, reporters, meteorologists and others — voted overwhelmingly on March 14 to form a union with SAG-AFTRA.
“We believe our union will strengthen WJET-TV as a station and make it a better source of news and information for viewers in the Erie community. Some of the most pressing issues we wanted to address by forming this union were staffing, wages, and the fair and uniform enforcement of company policies,” the unit said. “We’ve worked for months to get to this point, but we wouldn’t have gotten here without every staff member who supported the union. We look forward to forming a representative bargaining committee and moving forward to ratifying our first contract.” WJET is an ABC-affiliated television station serving Erie and the surrounding area.
OPB/KMHD
Content creators at Oregon Public Broadcasting and KMHD Jazz Radio announced on March 14 that they officially formed a union with SAG-AFTRA. Over 80% of the OPB and KMHD content creators, including on-air staff, hosts, reporters and digital, audio and video producers, signed the petition to unionize.
In their petition, delivered to OPB management that same day, the employees wrote, “We request a systemic change that we strongly believe will provide the structure to ensure we are not just consulted but are represented in vital decisions, including but not limited to wages, salaries, working conditions and major systems changes. We declare our intention to unionize with SAG-AFTRA, a union with a strong history representing content creators in public media organizations.”
Both OPB and KMHD have seen immense growth over the past few years. OPB has expanded its newsroom and coverage of critical topics that affect everyone in the Pacific Northwest. KMHD has solidified its place as one of the region’s most respected jazz stations.
As of March 22, the employer agreed to voluntarily recognize SAG-AFTRA as the bargaining agent and next steps are for the bargaining unit to begin preparing for negotiations.
WFYI
Workers at WFYI in Indiana announced their intention to form a union with SAG-AFTRA on March 12. The newly ormed WFYI Public Media Collective is poised to be the first public media station to unionize in the state of Indiana.
“We are excited to come together and help strengthen WFYI, making it a place that empowers its people to fulfill the mission we all believe in: supporting, educating, inspiring and serving our community. Doing so requires us to have a seat at the table, and we look forward to working collaboratively with management toward our goals,” said the WFYI Public Media Collective organizers.
“We truly love WFYI and want to ensure its continued success for employees, present and future. We encourage management to voluntarily recognize our union so that we may begin the collective bargaining process.”
WFYI Public Media is a dual NPR and PBS member station broadcasting radio and television programming from Indianapolis and West Lafayette, Indiana. Members of the bargaining unit bring news, music and entertainment to the audiences of Central Indiana.
Less than two weeks after announcing their unionization, on March 25, WFYI workers won recognition through a card check process conducted by a third-party arbitrator.
This item originally featured in the SAG-AFTRA spring 2024 magazine issue.