Posts tagged NPR
Sesame Street Workers Say, “U Is for Union”
May 20, 2025 // While many of the puppeteers, actors, and crew members on the show have long been represented by entertainment unions, the new union covers the employees who bring Elmo and friends to life: artists, early-childhood experts, fundraisers, and more. Organizers see their campaign for dignity and respect at work as a natural continuation of Sesame’s mission to teach children to grow “smarter, stronger, and kinder.” “Workers at Sesame are deeply committed to doing things that are kind and fair,”
The Washington Post’s Tech Workers Have Formed a Union
April 8, 2025 // Many employees in the Post‘s newsroom and business operations are eligible to unions, but the tech workers—product managers, system engineers, people who work on the company’s Arc XP content management system—are not, a quirky legacy from the days when the Post located its WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive business in the management-friendly commonwealth of Virginia. The Post began to integrate tech employees with its news operations in 2009, but the divide remains. The group organized with the Washington Baltimore News Guild as the Washington Post Tech Guild. In their announcement, they say their organization comprises more than 300 people, the majority of people who work on tech for the Post.
Sesame Workshop Announces Major Layoffs
March 7, 2025 // Just a few months after Max said it would stop distributing episodes of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop announced a round of major layoffs. In a letter to staff on Wednesday, March 5, president and CEO Sherrie Rollins Westin announced that Sesame Workshop will "downsize significantly," calling the cuts "necessary to ensure that the Workshop is poised to continue to deliver on its mission for years to come."
LNP, WITF journalists to vote on unionizing
February 3, 2025 // Not everyone in the newsrooms is in favor of affiliating with a union. Michael Long, 51, an LNP | LancasterOnline deputy editor, said he will be voting no. “Across the board, unions decrease profitability,” Long said in an email to LNP | LancasterOnline colleagues. “And if you take away money from an organization that is already losing money, it will only hasten more layoffs.” When grievances occur, Long said in a followup interview, “there’s nothing stopping us from making concerted, good-faith efforts to address them ourselves with management.”
Should Influencers Unionize?
May 5, 2023 // Speaker D: Although our reporting has found that union rates are at an all time low since records began, so the trend is not favorable for you. Speaker D: Public perception of unions is pretty high though, so people will be cheering them on if they do form one. Speaker B: I mean, that’s what’s funny is because one in four zoomers want to be influencers, they’re also one of the most progressive generations that have the most positive view of unions.
As Alabama coal miners strike nears end, a look at why it started, and how it failed
March 2, 2023 // After 700 days, hundreds of striking coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama will be returning to work soon — but without the better contract that they’ve been fighting to get. The United Mine Workers of America, the union at the center of the purported longest strike in Alabama’s history, asked Warrior Met Coal to allow the miners to return to work at the company’s four locations starting Thursday. The decision was announced in a Feb. 16 press release. “The status quo is not good for our members and their families,” said UMWA president Cecil Roberts in the statement. “I sincerely hope that Warrior Met leadership will accept this offer, get our members back to work, engage in good faith bargaining and finally sit down face-to-face with us to resolve this dispute for the betterment of all concerned.”
Union effort fails at Mill Valley’s Strawberry Starbucks
June 14, 2022 // The workers sought increased starting wages for baristas, extra pay when the store is short staffed, credit and debit card tips and a voice in whether to allow mobile orders during a rush or short staffing. Ella Clark, Maine Valley News, Giuseppe Ricapito, business, mill valley news, Strawberry, Union workers, Fernando Hernandez, Capitola, Santa Cruz,
Struggling Democrats hope growing union support will provide boost in midterms
April 7, 2022 // But labor unions offer Democrats a chance to change that and appeal to workers normally outside their reach. While union membership sits tied at a record low, union approval has reached its highest point since 1965. According to Gallup, 68% of Americans approve of unions. And nearly half of Republicans say they do.
Hundreds of Howard University hospital workers plan to strike over low wages
April 6, 2022 // Hundreds of workers at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., say they are planning a one-day strike next week over complaints of low wages.
Starbucks union push spreads to 54 stores in 19 states
January 31, 2022 // At Starbucks, the pro-union workers have advocated for better staffing, training and pay, seeking a direct line to company management. Buffalo workers have joined Workers United, affiliated with the massive Service Employees International Union.