In an 11 to 4 vote, anchors, reporters, meteorologists and other on-air employees at Nexstar-owned ABC and Fox affiliates WJET-WFXP in Erie, Pennsylvania voted to unionize with the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO.
“We believe our union will strengthen WJET-TV as a station and make it a better source of news and information for viewers in the Erie community,” said the union. “Some of the most pressing issues we wanted to address by forming this union were staffing, wages, and the fair and uniform enforcement of company policies.”
“WJET employees who provide news and information to the community should be partners in the decision-making process that goes into carrying out that mission,” said SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “Unionizing gives them the tools they need to make that happen, and we are delighted to welcome them into the ever-growing family of media station employees who have chosen to join SAG-AFTRA.”
The on-air staff asked management to recognize the union voluntarily in January. They now begin the process of bargaining for their first contract.
“We’ve worked for months to get to this point, but we wouldn’t have gotten here without every staff member who supported the union,” said the unit. “Erie is a union town, and we believe we should have a say in our working conditions. We look forward to forming a representative bargaining committee and moving forward to ratifying our first contract.”
GoErie said station employees declined a request for interviews.