Dear Jim,
New Hampshire Public Radio is celebrating its 40th birthday in August, and there’s nothing like a mid-life milestone to prompt some reflection about where we’ve been — and where we’re going.
As the people behind NHPR’s journalism, we’re proud to be part of a station that’s known across the industry to “punch above its weight.” We’re proud to experiment with ambitious narrative storytelling and pursue fearless accountability reporting. More than that, we’re proud to work together to deliver a true public service for the state of New Hampshire.
As we work together to keep up with our ambitious goals and our commitments to our audience, we need to make sure we don’t burn ourselves out in the process. We need to make more meaningful changes to become a more diverse and equitable workplace. This will protect NHPR against continued employee turnover, but it will also make us — and our journalism by extension — even stronger.
We want to work collaboratively with management, and with each other, to carry NHPR into its next 40 years and counting, especially when it comes to our shared goal of making our organization the best place to work and serve — in New Hampshire, and in public media more broadly.
We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we, the undersigned employees of New Hampshire Public Radio, are proud to come together as a union. We intend to approach this process with a spirit of collaboration and professionalism. We therefore request that you voluntarily recognize this petition as demonstration that SAG-AFTRA represents a majority of employees in a unit appropriate for collective bargaining, and that you meet and confer with us, in good faith, to begin the collective bargaining process.
We look forward to securing the best parts of NHPR’s culture for future generations while also working together to fix the parts that still have room for improvement — so that we can continue meeting the moment, and meeting the needs of our audience, for the next 40 years and beyond.