NHPR Content Creators Vote to Unionize with SAG-AFTRA

LOS ANGELES — The content creators at New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) have formed a union, following an agreement with SAG-AFTRA for a card check verification to count the signatures of content creators wishing to organize with SAG-AFTRA. NHPR is an NPR member station based in Concord, New Hampshire and covering nearly the entire state, as well as portions of Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine. The network airs NPR news and talk shows on weekdays and a mix of cultural and music programs on weekends, and produces and broadcasts Spanish-language content. The new 31-member bargaining unit of content creators includes producers, hosts, editors and reporters.

Content creators announced their organizing drive with SAG-AFTRA on June 29, 2021 with more than 70% signing a petition presented to management.

SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris said, "We are thrilled to support NHPR content creators in their mission to seek a fair contract. The organizing successes SAG-AFTRA has had in public radio over the past few years are unprecedented and demonstrate the power that collective action has to enhance workers' lives. We thank the employees of NHPR for working collaboratively with SAG-AFTRA and their employer to ensure that a fair process was taken in recognizing employees’ wishes to be represented.”

The NHPR organizing committee said, “We’re pleased this process has been respectful and collaborative so far. The principles that guide public radio and the principles behind our decision to organize this union are one and the same, and we're thrilled to begin collective bargaining for a contract that will improve the lives of NHPR staffers and improve the work of NHPR itself."

Starting in 1976 when National Public Radio employees first organized, SAG-AFTRA has played a vital role in giving public radio employees a collective voice. NHPR represents the latest in a series of organizing victories for professionals in public media. In recent years, employees at WHYY in Philadelphia, WAMU in Washington DC, Marketplace APM, KPCC in Pasadena; KPBS in San Diego; WBEZ in Chicago; KUOW in Seattle; Minnesota Public Radio, MPR Current and Classical; digital, per diem, temp and Gothamist employees at New York Public Radio; WBUR in Boston; KCRW in Santa Monica and WBGO in Newark have all unionized with SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA also represents public media professionals at NPR and several other public radio and television stations.

About SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.