WPXI-TV Producers Petition to Unionize with SAG-AFTRA

LOS ANGELES (Feb. 04, 2022) – Earlier this week, producers at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh announced their intention to unionize with SAG-AFTRA. Producers first informed management at the station of their organizing drive on Jan. 18, 2022, with the presentation of a petition signed by 80% of their colleagues. The 25-member unit includes news, associate, sports, digital content and investigative/special projects producers. SAG-AFTRA has represented announcers — including hosts, anchors, reporters and meteorologists — at WPXI-TV since the early 1960s. The producers are seeking to be included in the same bargaining unit as the announcers.

The WPXI-TV producers organizing committee said, “We are proud to work at WPXI, and we chose to work here because we believe in bringing the highest-quality news and information to the region. Organizing with SAG-AFTRA will ensure that we can continue to provide the kind of professional journalism that Pittsburghers have come to expect from the station since 1957. All of us are eager to discuss with management the working conditions that will allow us to do that sustainably, and we hope that the company will voluntarily recognize our union so that we can begin that process as soon as possible.”

The KDKA-TV producers bargaining committee, which organized with SAG-AFTRA in 2021, expressed support for their union colleagues at WPXI-TV.

“Our most heartfelt congratulations to the producers of WPXI for their brand-new union! We’re excited to have another group of producers standing up for better workplaces in broadcast journalism here in Pittsburgh. Joining our on-air colleagues in SAG-AFTRA has strengthened our newsroom and given us the opportunity to push for necessary change. We know the same will be true for the producers at WPXI,” they said.

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.