Shelby Talcott
Politics, Americas
Employees of NBC News’s digital editorial division plan to form a union to represent around 150 workers, they announced Wednesday.
The outlet has come under fire following investigative journalist Ronan Farrow’s book titled “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators” released on Oct. 15. He accused the network of covering up his story about sexual assault allegations against now-disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, alleging that Weinstein knew about sexual assault accusations against former NBC host Matt Lauer and used that against it.
“Forming a union will afford us a collective voice in decisions that will benefit the entire company, providing much-needed transparency and ensuring a safer workplace,” a letter from the digital employees to NBC management reads according to The New York Times.
Unionizing will also allow the employees to publicly criticize NBC News executives without worrying about retaliation and give them the opportunity to fight for better job protection, The NYT reported.
“It’s been painful for a lot of people to see headlines and feel like they don’t have the space to talk about what’s going on in their own workplace,” Nigel Chiwaya, a data journalist helping to organize the campaign, added.
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