EXCLUSIVE: The staff at Futuro Media Group is calling on management to voluntarily recognize their desire to organize with the Writers Guild of America East.
In a letter obtained by Deadline on Tuesday, the 15-member bargaining unit behind the Pulitzer Prize- and Peabody Award-winning podcast, radio, video, and digital media coverage at Futuro wrote that they felt the decision to unionize only expanded their commitment to “telling stories with heart, producing award-winning journalism, and creating stories that inform, entertain, and resonate with our audiences.”
“We believe in Futuro’s mission and see our union as a way to help make the company more collaborative, equitable, and transparent – making it an example for our industry,” the letter continued.
In addition to voluntary recognition, the Futuro union is asking management to concurrently agree to a basic union contract containing industry-standard provisions including just cause and a fair disciplinary process, codified wages and benefits, and other standard protections to preserve an equitable workplace.
Among the more specific demands are clear and fair disciplinary and termination policies, equitable pay across roles and experience levels, standardized job titles that reflect responsibilities with clear processes for promotion, ensuring that any significant expansion of responsibilities or workload is accompanied by appropriate compensation and support, and employee input in company decision-making.
“We’ve seen the journalism industry shaken and directly attacked. The suffering of our peers is palpable. While Futuro hasn’t remained unscathed, it has rebuilt and continued to survive. As a union we see the monumental effort of this, and we don’t want the process of unionizing to take more resources than needed away from our important work,” the letter read. “That is why in good will, we are presenting an initial collective contract that covers only essential labor protections. Our goal is to achieve union recognition and a union contract at the same time, to minimize the costs and time that more extensive bargaining might incur.”
It continues: “Leadership has told us that we’re integral in fulfilling the mission of Futuro: telling stories of our communities from a humane and nuanced perspective. We’re deeply invested in this and through collective bargaining, we hope to honor and enshrine those values in our culture, communities and contracts. As a non-profit and one of the last remaining independent audio companies in the industry, we also believe we have a particular opportunity to demonstrate leadership for our peers and show how this process can make Futuro stronger and more competitive.”
Futuro Media was founded in 2010 by Maria Hinojosa. The group produces the Peabody Award-winning Latino USA radio program. Other recent projects include the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave, and critically acclaimed podcasts La Brega, Anything for Selena and Loud: The History of Reggaeton.
In addition to Futuro, the WGA East represents Online Media members at Bustle Digital Group, Civic News Group, Committee to Protect Journalists, Fast Company & Inc., Financial Times Specialists, Future PLC, Gizmodo Media USA, HuffPost, Jalopnik at Static Media, Hearst Magazines, Inc., Jewish Currents, NowThis, Onion Inc., Salon, Slate, Talking Points Memo, The Intercept, The Root, Vox Media and VICE.
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