Local National Public Radio affiliate WYPR's programming staff are going union. A press release from
says the staff presented a petition to management on June 3, and today has filed the petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking an election. WYPR management has not yet voluntarily recognized the union, the press release says. Aaron Henkin, producer of "The Signal," says official announcements about the union effort must come from the union itself now, during a "quiet period" mandated by labor law. He stresses that the staff is not trying to be contentious. "We're interested in doing this for the long term strength and solidarity of the radio station," Henkin says. "We want to make it as non-confrontational as possible." Neither the union contact nor the station management immediately returned calls and emails from
City Paper
. We'll update this post when and if we hear from them. A former employee in programming says he was not aware of the organizing effort. "Pay isn't great," the former employee says. "There's not a known policy about raises, or whatever." Here's the official statement:
== UPDATE June 9, 2014, 5 p.m. Here is WYPR's response, in the form of an emailed press release from a PR firm. The statement is attributed to Andy Bienstock, Vice President of Programming: "On Thursday, June 5, 2014, we were presented with a Petition from some of our employees asking WYPR to recognize SAG-AFTRA. It has come to our attention that a significant number of our employees are not interested in joining a union. In respect of their preferences, we want to make sure that we proceed in a manner that takes into account what is best for all employees and the station. The law provides for a secret ballot election, and we believe this is the best way for our employees to exercise their rights."
