Employees Urge Management to Immediately Begin the Bargaining Process
Today, the content creators at Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation – including reporters, editors, hosts, DJs and others – voted overwhelmingly to form a union with SAG-AFTRA. The final tally was 96% in favor.
Content creators cite wages, career growth and improving transparency as the biggest issues they want to address. They also view forming the union as an opportunity to strengthen PCBC as an organization and to ensure 90.5 WESA, 91.3 WYEP and JazzWorks continue as resources for the community.
WESA and WYEP staff asked management to recognize the union voluntarily in August. With today’s victory, they begin the exciting process of bargaining their first contract. They are hoping to start the process immediately and are looking forward to sitting across the table from the leaders of PCBC to discuss how to create a more equitable organization for workers.
“We’ve worked for months to get to this point, but we wouldn’t have gotten here without every staff member who supported this effort,” announced the employee organizing committee. “Pittsburgh is a union town, and we believe employees should have a say in our working conditions. We look forward to forming a representative bargaining committee and moving forward to ratifying our first contract.”
“We are thrilled to welcome PCBC workers into SAG-AFTRA. Investing in good, sustainable local journalism is an investment in the community, so this is a win not only for members, but for Pittsburgh itself,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “It’s not lost on us that, as we celebrate this win for local content creators, our union brothers and sisters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are on strike. I urge the paper’s management to start negotiating in good faith and get those people back to work.”
“With the backing of a union, PCBC employees can create a career path that allows for growth, advancement and longevity. It allows us to better invest in, not only our work, but the community we serve,” said Rosemary Welsch, WYEP’s most tenured host and music expert.
“There were a lot of hotly contested elections taking place this fall,” said WESA reporter and editor Chris Potter. “This wasn’t one of them. We could have called this race back in August, when it was clear the union had overwhelming support from staff. But now that the mail-in ballots have been counted, I’m happy everyone can see our devotion to this station and to each other. It all came down to turnout, and it’s our turn now to negotiate our first contract. We look forward to beginning WESA’s next chapter with management — even as we work to keep telling the stories that matter to you.”
SAG-AFTRA represents content creators across the country and in Pittsburgh, including KDKA-TV, KDKA-AM, WTAE-TV and WPXI-TV, along with other NPR stations nationwide.
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.