The staff at noncommercial WYPR(FM) in Baltimore will vote on whether to join SAG-AFTRA.
A majority of WYPR employees recently delivered a petition to management saying they had formed a union. They asked management to recognize SAG-AFTRA as their representative and begin negotiating a contract, according to an employee statement Radio World received from the union.
A petition was also filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
“The editorial staff at WYPR is deeply committed to the work that we do,” according to the employee statement. “We want to see the station improve and better serve listeners across the state. We believe that a unionized editorial staff, working with station management and its board is the best way to do that.”
WYPR VP Programming Andy Bienstock told the Baltimore City Paper that a significant number of the station employees are not interested in joining a union so out of respect for those preferences, the station will hold a secret ballot election.
In the past few months, staffers at Chicago Public Media and San Diego’s KPBS voted to join SAG-AFTRA, we’ve reported.
