The Writers Guild of America, East has been working with nonfiction producers and APs to help them organize for the past five years. Throughout that time we’ve seen many of the companies we’ve come in contact with, whether through an actual organizing drive or their own fear of a potential drive, make the same arguments against unionization over and over again. Mostly they argue that the WGAE is just out for dues and can’t deliver on the things the union “promises.” But the union makes only one promise – that unionizing will lead to collective bargaining, which leads to more power for freelance producers and APs – and with every new union victory that promise is coming true.
Not every company fights their employees’ attempts to unionize. We always ask production companies to remain neutral and agree to ground rules that protect their employees’ right to make a decision free from fear or intimidation. Some companies have agreed to neutrality and to respect the will of their employees’ decision and bargain in good faith. Below are letters from some of the companies that have refused to be neutral and actively campaigned to convince their employees to vote no. In all of these cases, the producers were unconvinced and still voted yes and bargained or are in the process of bargaining contracts to make improvements at those companies. Still, the goal remains the same: an industry-wide union and industry-wide uniform basic standards! Producers and APs can only win the power to accomplish that if they keep winning union elections!