(Bloomberg) -- Workers at Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Communications Inc.’s A+E Factual Studios are trying to unionize, aiming to establish a high-profile foothold in the largely unrepresented nonfiction TV business.
The Writers Guild of America East is seeking to represent a group of around 150 writers and producers, most of whom have signed up with the labor group, the union said. The employees, who create shows such as Dance Moms: The Reunion, Cold Case Files, and Buddy Valastro’s Cake Dynasty, asked the company on Monday to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with their union. If A+E refuses, the guild plans to petition the US National Labor Relations Board to hold a unionization election.
“This industry is changing very quickly and we are major stakeholders,” said Drea DiCarlo, an A+E archival associate producer and member of the union’s organizing committee. “We want to make sure that we’re not left behind in decision-making.”
A+E did not immediately respond to an inquiry. Disney and Hearst both have union contracts at other brands such as theme parks and magazines. Under US law, companies have the option to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with a union when a majority of workers sign up, or to refuse to do so unless the organizers win a government-supervised election.
While the scripted TV business is largely organized, reality and other nonfiction TV is often not. Former reality TV producers and cast members at other companies have brought high-profile lawsuits in recent years alleging workplace mistreatment, heightening scrutiny of the industry.
The parent company, A+E Networks, owns the History, Lifetime and A&E cable channels. Peter Olsen, A+E Networks’ president of ad sales, described the business in a March Hollywood Reporter interview as “a very profitable boutique media company,” capable of producing thousands of hours of content “on a budget that is smaller than a few years ago because of the economics of the industry.”
The Writers Guild said the A+E campaign is its most significant to date in unscripted television, a sector that surged during the 2007 writers strike and has in some ways been designed to elude union representation. The guild, which currently represents eight nonfiction production firms, said the A+E effort reflects momentum it’s experienced following last year’s months-long walkouts by writers and actors. That high-profile work stoppage drew widespread attention and ended with the guild’s biggest wage gains in decades, as well as new protections in areas like artificial intelligence.
“It really showed you, OK everything that you’ve been told is the way it is, that you never really liked but you sort of accepted, you don’t have to accept it,” said Safa Samiezade’-Yazd, a story producer and archival producer for A+E who showed up to support the unionized scripted TV writers on last year’s picket lines. “It really helped galvanize us and give us more confidence that we can ask more, if we come together and do it together just like they did during the strikes.”
A+E workers said they aim to secure improvements to salary, healthcare, paid time off, and minimum time to rest in between shifts. They also aim to set an example for others in the industry.
“Union drives are contagious, and I think when people see that a union is possible in a company that’s exactly like theirs, they understand that they can win that for themselves too,” WGAE’s executive director, Sam Wheeler, said. “Our hope and our expectation is that this is going to pick up momentum very quickly.”
Since the start of the pandemic, US unions have notched first-time organizing wins at a slew of prominent companies, including Starbucks Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Microsoft Corp., Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., and Volkswagen AG, though some of those remain far from reaching collective bargaining agreements with management.
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