WFYI Indianapolis Employees Announce Intent to Unionize

Today, workers at WFYI announced their intention to form a union with SAG-AFTRA. The newly formed WFYI Public Media Collective has asked management for voluntary recognition, and it 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.

Public media stations like WFYI are crucial for keeping the community informed, and the professionals who do this important work deserve to have the protections of a union contract. I want to congratulate the hardworking members of the WFYI Public Media Collective, and I am hopeful that owner Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media Inc. will demonstrate its commitment to its employees and to its mission by voluntarily recognizing the unit,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.

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.

“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,” said the organizers.

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.